Julian Barratt approached Noel Fielding with the idea of adapting their stage show into a series like The Goodies, envisioning it as a complete surreal 'world' rather than a simple sketch show.

The show transitioned from a radio series to television in 2004, when the BBC commissioned an eight-part series directed by Paul King and produced by Baby Cow Productions.

The pilot episode was directed by Steve Bendelack and shot in front of a live audience because producers doubted the stage show could translate to screen; most of the actual TV series, however, had no live audience.

A large portion of the pilot episode was reused directly in the actual series, appearing in the episode 'Tundra'.

The first series was shot on standard definition tape and digitally altered using a film look process, while the second and third series were shot on digital at 25 frames per second.

The role of Bollo the gorilla was played by Peter Elliott in 2004 before being taken over by Dave Brown from 2005 to 2007.

The character Dixon Bainbridge was originally played by Richard Ayoade before later being taken over by Matt Berry.

The term 'crimp', describing the show's signature a cappella nonsense songs, was first coined in the episode 'The Power of the Crimp' in the third series.

In March 2008, controversy arose when a new advertising campaign for the cereal Sugar Puffs was accused of imitating the show's distinctive 'crimping' style.

In June 2020, Netflix removed The Mighty Boosh from its catalogue over alleged blackface in sketches such as 'The Spirit of Jazz' and the episode 'Jungle', a decision comedian Jack Carroll criticized as an arbitrary gesture.

The BBC kept the series available on iPlayer but added a content warning before each episode following the blackface controversy.

The show largely disregards continuity: in series 2 the shaman Saboo is killed by the demon Nanatoo but reappears alive in series 3, and Bollo the gorilla dies at the end of a series 1 episode yet is later shown alive again.