Archive for October, 2007

October 10th, 2007 newstopia, or, i am not the colbert report

i have not being watching tv much lately, distracted by bittorrent and the library’s dvd collection. so i had little inkling that shaun micallef was making a long awaited return to tv. it hasn’t been worth turning on lately, since commercial prime time seems to be one medical show after another, or some other “real life” program about police or airport customs or finding a wife/husband/freak. so perhaps the best place to put your satirical piece on the news is on a non-commercial like sbs, after the talk show attempt that channel nine couldn’t abide by, and axed after 13 episodes. also it means you can make as many jokes as you like about drug use, snorting cocaine and bongs without being reprimanded like a naughty schoolboy.

known as the multicultural broadcaster, sbs is a good source of jokes in itself, from the accents and ennunciation of reporters, to the foreign tv shows it broadcasts, as parodied tonight in a fake commercial:

not a real tv show

micallef comments in a sydney morning herald piece that comedy on australian tv of late “has been neutered a bit by having harmless bogans apparently representing that sense of humour - self-obsessed, know-nothing, harmless, dumb humour seems to have taken over”. newstopia may just be the antidote to middling sketch comedy, because it’s not sketch. it’s also been commented that micallef’s comedy is either a “get” or “don’t get” - a reference to voltaire and an imitation of christopher walken isn’t really that highbrow, but who knows?

micallef is the anchor, much like a colbert or stewart, but he’s neither playing “opposite day” or openly laughing at the events. the satire lies in a turn of phrase, ridiculous contradictions, and with no live audience, the laughs actually require the viewer to at least pay attention. which should be no problem if you’re not a bogan.

in the words of the program itself, “these are strange times people, which require strange measures, which is why we are here”.

you can watch the latest episode at http://programs.sbs.com.au/newstopia/(.)

October 6th, 2007 kids

October 4th, 2007 crackpot youtube favourites this week

hyacca 百蚊, whom i discovered off the call and response label. noise, i love. i would love to play in a band like this, but gee, a million things make me nervous. i got a long way to go before i can throw myself on the stage and show off my underwear.

when i am bored, i look up the tag monomame (imitation) on youtube. this smap parody is pretty uncanny, as i guess is the tv whodunnit host furuhata. actually watching this fuzzier version featuring the same comedians, if it weren’t for the over the top imitation of nakai, i would be convinced it was the real thing!

i know ogi-san of comedian duo ogiyahagi gets to play up his ugly man status by torturing pretty idols with scenarios like these eg. how long can you stay on a mat with an ugly man? but i never thought of him as out and out ugly. weird, yeah. jealous of his marriage to petty of petty booka? that too. anyhow, chinatsu needs some more guts!