Never heard of The Mighty Boosh? Not many Americans have—the TV comedy has the cultiest of followings here thanks to Adult Swim, but its stars are practically royalty in England. The only thing the Boosh shares with Bunny and the Bull is a director, Paul King, whose Bunny is an imaginative, offbeat comedy with a tragic heart that makes Hollywood’s latest comedic output (not to name names, but Dinner for Schmucks and The Other Guys) look like cheap vaudeville jokes. To quote my husband, “Bunny and the Bull is like Monty Python—but funny.” (I pity his inability to appreciate the nuance of lines like “Your mother is a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!”)

Bunny follows a hermit named Stephen (Edward Hogg) who hasn’t left his apartment in a year, is in a permanent state of bathrobe, and suffers from some serious OCD. (I don’t know what’s worse: cataloging your floss or urine daily.) When mice invade his space, he retreats into his imagination, where he relives a (potentially traumatic) European road trip he took back in the day with his Odd Couple buddy, Bunny (Simon Farnaby). King cleverly employs animated backgrounds and sets to inflate the absurdity of this daydream sequence—and the extent of the damage done to Stephen. It’s quirky, to be sure, but so satisfying—a joke-heavy comedy with a bit of darkness inside.

Bunny and the Bull screens at Northwest Film Forum in its Seattle premiere from September 17-23.