Would You Like Satire With That?
Thu, Feb 11, 2010 by Evan Hughes
In case you didn’t realise it, this is an election year. You never would have guessed with both major parties already out there wearing hard-hats, turning sods and kissing babies. In fact it’s almost as if the election has already been called. The battle lines are being drawn on the environment, immigration and the economy (wait, didn’t we do this already?) and everyone is doing their best to discredit the other guys in hope that the general public won’t notice that they’re really all just as bad as each other.
And the media is having a field day. With the likes of Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce gaffing their way around the country and Kevin Rudd managing to deflect questions from everyone he meets I imagine newspaper editors are rubbing their hands together with the possibilities tomorrow’s headlines will bring.
But there seems to be one notable voice missing from the maelstrom of pre-election press coverage – the political satirist. In particular the television political satirist.
What’s happened to our grand tradition of politically charged television comedy? Surely the art is not lost in the new world of 5 second sound-bites and media trained pollies? Surely the Australian television audience still craves an Andrew Denton or Norman Gunston to point out the follies of our chosen leaders?
“What about the Internet?” I hear you say. “You can’t turn a virtual corner without reading something written by someone who claims to be a satirist.” Which is true. You’re right again. But the problem with the Internet is it’s a medium that requires you to search for the content you want to read. Television is just so much more … digestible.
At the moment if you turn on the tube looking for clever quips and edgy political humour you’ll be hard pressed to find anything satisfying. John Clarke and Bryan Dawe still spit out their 5 minutes of genius every Thursday night on the 7:30 Report but really that’s not enough. And the other options are simply dire. Good News Week has gone from intelligent hilarity to a show about Mikey Robbins putting things on his head. The 7PM Project does a very good job of cross-promoting other Channel 10 shows and inflating the cast’s egos but does very little else. Even the ABC, which is the traditional home of satirical shows such as The Glasshouse and The Chaser is looking a little thin on the satirical ground.
I’m sure as the year progresses a few contenders will pop up to take the satirical TV crown (the Chaser boys in particular must have something cooking) but I just feel having nothing substantial on air right now just smacks of lost opportunity.
And where should these satirists come from? Not the current crop of up-and-coming comedians who, while hilarious, don’t seem interested in political humour that goes beyond “did you see Joe Hockey in a pink tutu? What a goose”. Maybe from the Internet (Ben Pobjie from The Drum and David “the spider guy” Thorne spring to mind) but who knows if they’ll be television friendly. Or maybe like Jon Stewart in the states we’ll see the next satirist come completely out of left field either from acting or current affairs (did you know Stewart was in Big Daddy with Adam Sandler?).
Wherever they emerge from let’s hope they emerge soon. There’s only so many more inane Dave Hughes comments I can take in my quest for biting political commentary.
Follow us on twitter:
Tags: ABC, Adam Sandler, Andrew Denton, Barnaby Joyce, Ben Pobjie, Big Daddy, Channel 7, Clarke & Dawe, Dave Hughes, David Thorne, Denton, GNW, Good News Week, Humour, Jon Stewart, Kevin Rudd, Mikey Robbins, Norman Gunston, political commentary, political satire, Politics, satire, The 7pm Project, The Chaser, The Drum, The Glasshouse, The Media, Tony Abbott
Of course I’ll be television-friendly!
Hear that, Mr Scott? I promise to be television-friendly!