Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Snuff Box'

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“Snuff Box”

For fans of twisted British humor of the Monty Python kind, the short-lived, 2006 BBC TV series “Snuff Box” is something of a holy grail. Now this abbreviated but bizarrely beloved series is set to befuddle Americans for the first time on a DVD compilation due out Tuesday.

Created by Brit Matt Berry (“The IT Crowd,” “The Mighty Boosh”) and American Rich Fulcher (“The Sarah Silverman Program,” “Funny or Die Presents”), “Snuff Box” is an odd amalgam of period sitcom, sketch comedy and musical revue that ran for one season on the BBC (seven episodes) and then disappeared. However, its rabid fans kept the loony, R-rated gags alive and the show morphed into a sort of underground cause célèbre for connoisseurs of off-the-wall British foolishness.

The series storyline, such as it is, is set in 19th century England and concerns the King’s High Executioner (Berry) and his doltish, inept assistant (Fulcher). Each episode, the two laze about a posh gentlemen’s club for hangmen and set off on some misguided adventure that inevitably veers off into bizarre skit sequences that involve time travel, chipper musical numbers, lots of whiskey, awkward sexual advances, loads of blue language and one very long white hallway.