It’s an unfortunate fact of life that I don’t have a television set. At my house, we prefer sitting in a circle and discussing our feelings to doing something really enjoyable like watching Australian Idol. This means that any cultural commentary I do for this blog will be about plays, DVDs (which can be watched on a computer), movies and festivals. My next extended post will be about a, yikes, book. Unless someone wants to donate a TV, this sad situation will continue. Anyway, the wonderful Chris Lilley has got a new show on the ABC called Summer Heights High. Alas, I can’t review it because I haven’t seen it. One of Mr. Lilley’s characters is the girl that every girl in Australia wants to be, Ja’mie King. From now on I will be known as Da’rlene. Below is a YouTube of Ms King for your enjoyment. Observing Ja’mie makes one wonder why some blokes never stop having a “thing” for females who’ve attended private schools.  Â
It’s a wonderful show, cringeworthy and hilarious at the same time.
Best line of last night. “I’m an industry standard professional” repeated regularly to great effect. It’s a must watch.
I haven’t watched it because the ads made it look unfunny and painful…
It must have been Mr. G who said that. Yikes, he is quite Brentesque.
Mr. G was the best thing about this horrendous sketch comedy (Australia does sketch comedy so badly) from a few years ago called Big Bite.
Pat Byrne and that awful ‘Critical Literacy’ guy will be far from amused. A North Shore private school boy getting medieval on public schools!
Darlene,
You can download it from the ABC and watch it on your PC if you want to ‘get with the program’.
Maybe I was expecting too much, but it was neither as funny, or as cutting as I expected.
Of course maybe it was just me, ’cause I found The Chaser particularly underwhelming.
The Chaser is always hit and miss with its comedy… but then, after we watched the Chaser and Summer Heights last night I put on one of my Monty Python DVDs… and, well, I can say the same about them as well.
My favourite line from J’amie: “I am the best non-asian student in the school.”
And credit goes to all the kids acting alongside her at Summer Heights. They are playing their parts beautifully.
It was hilarious and very reminiscent of school - it was done so well! Uurrrggghhh - schools!
Does anyone know if he’s going to play the same three characters throughout the series? It’d be good if he kept playing one character (e.g. Ja’mie) and created two new characters for each episode.
Speaking of the Chaser. It seems they’ve been detained by Police over a Fake APEC Motorcade
Yes I don;t think I coould bare too much of “Jonah.” But I adore the fairy drama teacher.
That a talentless hack like Chris Lilley has a job at all speaks volumes about the current state of Australian television. Surely there is somebody funnier out there who doesn’t offend too many sensibilities- it’s his only real talent. Lilley steers clear of anything even slightly controversial which is why he’s perfect for “their” ABC. The lukewarm version of “the big gig” on the weekend is another offender. The times are overripe for a major talent to emerge, poking holes in the conservative shibbeloths that infect our current affairs, but we get a bunch of weak pranksters on the Chaser, the umpteenth revival of a failed variety show on Saturdays and f*cking Lilley in a dress. Where are our Jon Stewarts and Steven Colberts?
We couldn’t tell at first from the accent if Jonah was South African, Maori or Islander.
Sacha
Yes I thought he was South African. And with a name like Jonah, I thought he was going to have a go at every leftist’s bete noir Sth. African Jews. But alas, it was not to be.
David Rubie
Ah, by giving political correctness both barrels, Lilley IS giving conservative shibboleths both barrels.
David, political current-affairs comedy is simply not Lilleys schtick, so I think you’re being a tad unfair.
I’d agree though that Chaser is the best we’ve got in that vein, and it’s far from adequate.
Thank you for that, Arnie. I will do that.
The Chaser is always a bit hit and miss (nature of satire). Two of the blokes from The Chaser have been arrested:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/06/2025817.htm
Not it would seem for crimes against comedy.
Oh Frank you got in before me.
Fair question about where are our Jon Stewarts et al
However, I think Lilley is talented. Given that I just read a piece in one of those appalling gay rags (muscle boys away) complaining about his portrayal of Mr. G I would suggest you are wrong about him not upsetting folks.
The trouble with Jon Stewart: he’s not always on!
Lilley was very good. But I’ll have to watch this episode at least once more: so much going on in muttered asides, indistinct dialogue (in that regard, reminded me of the M*A*S*H movie circa 1972; scripted but realistic dialogue with conversations cutting across each other).
Supporting cast very good I thought: very serious Principal, science teacher sucked in by the prancing Mr G.
Some devastating moments, especially (attempting not to reveal the punchline): a mural painted in the school grounds by students.
Show deserves credit. In some ways more to it than “We Can Be Heroes”, I feel.
cheerio
Jonah’s dad looked Islander - I thought he was supposed to be Islander.
I don’t think it’s intending to be political, but definitely offensive. Touching up the ’special’ kid to explain to the cameras what is appropriate - I almost couldn’t watch.
I read that he’s taking all three characters through the entire series, and he’s cut down to three to flesh them out a bit more.
As for Lilley, he’s far more Ricky Gervais or Steve Coogan than Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, but they don’t come around too often.
“As for Lilley, he’s far more Ricky Gervais or Steve Coogan than Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, but they don’t come around too often.”
Yep, it’s social satire, not political satire (although the two are connected).
John Greenfield wrote:
proof positive that the show is a crock - tories with their noticeable lack of humour love it. It’s not a documentary John.
yes, Darlene, one way it’s connected is that our taxes pay for a system of government-run schools which leave much to be desired; staffed by teachers who are far from perfect; with brats running amok; and another school system thriving nearby, creaming off many Uni places at the end of Year 12 etc, with their students snobbing the state school kids endlessly
and the private school should have a big sign near the front gate saying, “Your taxes at work”, too
Surely we’re not into that whole this side has a sense of humour and that side doesn’t thing.
Some people have a sense of humour and some people don’t. Some conservatives have a sense of humour and some lefties don’t and vice versa.
And if the word l*vvie comes up in anyone’s response someone’s getting a spanking.
It’s a travesty that money is channelled from kids who need it to the ones who already have it.
A private school should be a private school.
“It’s a wonderful show, cringeworthy and hilarious at the same time.”
Agree, Phil. Lilley has a talent similar to that of a young Barry Humphries. At times his gibes appear needlessly cruel as he prods us with some very uncomfortable home truths. He’s mining deep into Aspirational Nationalist Dreamtime with this. Definitely worth another squizz.
Better than We can be heroes, more focused. Ja’mie’s ignorant speech to a bored school assembly was a masterpiece, as good as Clarke & Dawe at their best. It would have been easy to make Jonah out to be some sort of monster, he got the balance right. This isn’t top-shelf comedy but clearly the ABC have a longterm investment in Lilley. If he becomes the next Garry McDonald this need be no bad thing.
Sideshow is only useful as a staging point for individual acts. Hopefully the wonderful Kransky Sisters will be developed further. Hopefully the talentless Chloe Hooper and Steve Abbott will piss off, and McDermott will both get a better gag-writer and cut his time on screen. I am glad the the Umbilical Brothers aren’t as stale as Flacco. You can’t do variety without irony.
Humphries has had nothing to say since about 1970 and The Chaser have never had anything to say other than “look at us!”.
Thought Summer Heights High was brilliant. You know its good when it makes you cringe with embarassment and laugh at the same time.
Don’t agree about Claire Hooper entirely. She’s a bit hit and miss, but when she’s good she’s really good.
Comedians being arrested? Have we gone back to the early 60s. Or is it a sign that there really is something seriously wrong with our democracy?
If that’s Claire Hooper, I’ve seen her perform live.
Just one of a number of really average female comedians I witnessed over a few months earlier this year (for example, see also Bec Hill and Alison Bice).
The Kransky Sisters are interesting, however.
Jonah - Good, brilliant imitation.
Mr G. - Good, brentesque, ridiculous, bit of a cheap shot
Ja’mie - Fish. Barrel. High Velocity Lead Projectiles. Meh.
Well, I watched it last night and thought it was brilliant. I think a clear sign of a country that is becoming mature and self-confident is one that develops an ability to poke fun at and laugh at itself and its various groupings in society. The British do this exquisitely and with great effect. Kath and Kim has done it well. And now Summer Heights High is doing it. I hope we see a lot more of it in the future. It makes the best kind of comedy, and there is a lot of potential material out there in the great land of Oz.
I agree with Leinad that a certain kind of private school kid is almost too easy a shot, but I still though that clip was brilliant — sort of an antipodean Vicky Pollard in reverse.
Pavlov’s Ca’t, you’ve made the comparison I was about to make.
Ja’mie is straight out of Walliams and Lucas’s playbook (not to suggest that Lilley in any way stole the idea); in that she’s essentially one dimensional, ridiculous, overdrawn etc — that’s funny up to a point, but past it the only changes that can be made are quantitative in nature: watch Ja’mie be more callous, more self-centred etc. She’s drawn in such terms that even the slightest awareness of her behaviour would be out-of-character, and so she doesn’t really have much to do or much of a place to go, story-wise.
Oops, walked into the wrong thread by mistake. Don’t mind me.
(But I b’ought a couple of extr’a apostrophes! They were on s’ale at this da’rling b’out’i'que!)
for those up the thread - how could you miss the bro’s being islanders? - jonah’s side-kicks were all islander and they mentioned being islanders three or four times - “that’s why they could be racist against redheads”….
the thing i like about lilley, is that some of his characters are too finely drawn to be mere caricatures –eg. the lady who was rolling to uluru and her husband - from his Australian of the Year series - the scene when she’d died and her husband was sitting alone with her dolphin collection…it was actually quite moving…
i don’t think ja’mie is going anywhere in a hurry, but i loved the speech and the whole show.
the chaser boys are tops in my book – i reckon they are doing an admirable job drawing in the yoof and subverting a bloody decade of moralising govt spin and aussie nationalist preening…i’d wager they are one of the reasons there has been a suburban backlash against howard in certain age groups
and they really put themselves on the line…it will be interesting to see what are the ramifications re: the fake motorcade stunt today.
The Chaser once made up a mock Channel 10 “Australia’s brainiest non-Asian kid” competition.
Bring back - the Big Gig, the Late Show, Good News Week!
It’s true - I never get out on the weekend. I miss all those guys though.
Lilley and the Kranskys will never be a substitute. He’s very clever, but it’s completely a one-man show. Which I suppose shouldn’t hold him back, should it.
(Gaw’d I miss Go’od New’s We’ek.)
Even Teh Glass House would do.
Oh lawdy lawd; never knew they were using Brighton Sec to film it.
Class of 2004 here.
Mr. G is simply Pat Mullins with a bit more leg showing.
Oh The Glass House. Talk about overstaying its welcome by five years. Dave Hughes is the simply the vilest person in Australia.
I’ve got to say that the Chaser are best when making mockery of self-important authoritarians. The APEC incident will give them a great ratings boost and will be worth watching next week.
As for Summer Heights High, a good foundation for a show but not just that sure yet.
One day we’ll make another comedy program that isn’t totally satire-based.
Noocat
“a country that is becoming mature and self-confident is one that develops an ability to poke fun at and laugh at itself and its various groupings in society.”
yes indeed, and I do believe Barry Humphries (and many predecessors) were doing that years ago: Lenny Lower, Max Gillies in the 70’s; and that nice little Kiwi bloke from Taihape University, Fred Dagg.
Dave Hughes vile? I reckon Paul McD at The Sideshow’s Pure Vicious.
Agree the Glass House overstayed its welcome. The Big Gig and Late Show, good stuff. “Mother and Son” for social observation, Norman Gunston for clever mayhem.
Darlene wrote:
Look - perhaps I was overly harsh. Of course the right have a sense of humour: no end of nignog and poofter jokes. Their clown prince, Lexie Downer, was on display again today with an adolescent sex joke which made Australia, yet again, proud to have him on the international stage. Perhaps Mr Greenfield could regale us with an old-time, pre-political correctness abbo joke we could have a good larf at.
I’m assuming he’d prefer humour like this ??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Billy_Cokebottle
Too highbrow Frank - you need to have an abbo named Bourneville somewhere in there to make it funny.
There are not many who can make other’s laugh.
But Lilley is a bit too derivative and I cringe a bit when I see him do his Gervais routines. Too soon for that. And he needs a writer who can take his characters somewhere rather than giving us gags in endless loop. He is a very good performer however.
The Chaser are as good as any going at moment. ‘Hit and miss’ !!?? That’d be sketch comedy at a guess.
Comedy intends to produce an extreme emotion - laughter. As we ourselves don’t even know why we laugh, it is hyper-critical to slam a comedian when they fail to make each and every one of us experience said affect at end of every line.
Enjoy the laughs where u can get ‘em.
But there aren’t any characters to start with; vessels for caricature aren’t automatically characters.
This is why you can never have a feature-length Kath and Kim.
I loved SHH. I think that Chris Lilley’s real talent is finding actors who can so convincingly play straight to his outrageous nonsense. The Physics teacher in awe of Mr G was my personal favourite although a commendation goes to the red headed kid in the discipline office with Jonah.
I think that by narrowing his focus to three characters this series potentially can deliver a lot more than We Can Be Heroes. I’m disappointed that Ja’mie is getting another run, but after the enormous response that she received last time around I’m not surprised.
“Their clown prince, Lexie Downer, was on display again today with an adolescent sex joke which made Australia, yet again, proud to have him on the international stage.”
Crikey, you mean Alex topped the “things that batter”. Comedy, errr, gold.
Frankly, you are engaging in stereotyping, which is exactly what you are accusing others of.
Oh my gawd, King Billy Coke Bottle. Yikes.
Keep coming with those apostrophes.
Dawned on me what’s being discussed here.
Firstly sympathies for Kim. am sick of the damage these have done to SBS.
The show suffers from lack of budget- the bane of OZ arts for a nearly two decades now.
The idea is good.
Trouble is it has been done in slightly different form already by the Brits, with that schoolteacher thing buried away in the wee small hours on the ABC like lots of other “old” content- driven TV, since neolib telly finally triumphed.
Add a zero to the budget and the transformation would have been dramatic.
johna is the funnist person ever the first time i saw summer hights high man i had a good laugh and i will defenetly be watching it again for sure!
JOHNA IS THE BEST…….NO 1 CAN BEAT HIM WOOO GO JOHNA!!!!!!!!!
Amigulous
I adore Paul McDermont! He’s smart, ironic, clever, and sexy. Dave Hughes gives bogans a bad name.
Jonah is indeed an exemplar of multiculti Australia. A South-African born and raised Polynesian.
Do you mean “Teachers”? The first couple of series were brilliant. Last one was a bit weak I thought.
Seven Periods With Mr Gormsby
six of the best
Did some LP moderator’s kid just get the keyboard?
Hi Larni, alas I’ve still not seen the show. He looks pretty cool (is that what the young folk say?).
Well, Helen, it might have been my cat but she’s at home (probably asleep or looking at birds or playing with golf balls or chasing insects - no she’s probably asleep).
Umm its seems like i’m a bit too late and i can’t download the first episode anymore. Can anyone tell me where to download the first one please? Thankyou ^^
Summer Heights High is everywhere and it is no surprise for it success. They have used some very clever psychological marketing to get the show a viral success. At Adspace Pioneers, I look at the reason for it phenomenal success.
http://adspace-pioneers.blogspot.com/2007/09/summer-heights-high-fandom.html
Ahhh, Hippopotomus, you might have to wait for the DVD. Check with the ABC.
Julian, “viral success” is an interesting term. Surely that’s not a negative way to market?
I adore SHH.
Yes, Viral is not being used in a bad way. I think it is excellent what they have done online and am just trying to highlight that.
http://adspace-pioneers.blogspot.com/2007/09/summer-heights-high-fandom.html
argh! y do u pple think so hard into things..seriously it was soo funny, who cares if jonah was islander or south african! if u dont enjoy DONT WATCH IT - SIMPLE!
Very late here but just wanted to say that Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby was great. Glad someone else thought so.
“Yep, it’s social satire, not political satire (although the two are connected).”
Yes, I agree Darlene, and this connection was evident when the show’s social satire crossed into inviolable territory the other night, by satirising the death, it seems, of Annabel Cat. This seems to have politicised the satirisation to the point that the ABC officially apologised today. Ive always wondered how it is, when young people die of drug OD’s, they are expunged of normal risk taking behaviour and become the sainted victims of the anonymous “drug scourge” killing our kids (eg, Anna Wood). Its an unrealistic rendering of the teenage drug use or any drug use for that matter. It seemed to me that Lilley was poking holes in this hagiographic exercise. I could be reading too much into it though…although I do think some of Lilley’s characters articulate what polite people should never say, do not say, at least publicly, but always manage to say behind closed doors - and so we get scenarios like a power mad teacher concoting a musical about the slutty drug addicted Annabel (the character of Summer Heights that is).
Chris Lilley’s presumption to represent state schools as a privileged Upper Middle Class North Shore private school boy is a real ethical worry.
Actually Casey, the series wrapped be the real life Annabel died. It’s actually just an unfortunate coincidence. Which is why I think the family was happy to accept the apology.
before, that is, not before.
seriously? amazing coincidence - thanks Patrick. Oh well retracting it then. I suspected it was stretching it a little but it seemed such a direct hit at the girl in question…sigh. back he goes to the social satire shelf.
Summer Heights High is everywhere and it is no surprise for it success. They have used some very clever psychological marketing to get the show a viral success. At Adspace Pioneers, I look at the reason for it phenomenal success.
No cigar, Julian (and you know, sometimes a cigar… etc…) But I don’t give credit to viral marketing. Yes, they did the vodcast, yes they have the gimmicky promotions on the web, but so do every other program in the universe.
The program has something, and it’s not just marketing.
I think the satire in the Annabel the Musical situation is clearly directed at the gross insensitivity of the teacher Mr.G. It must have been horrible for the Catt family, just the same.
Ah yes, that’s true Casey. It’s an unfortunate truth, as many of us know, that kids do engage in risk-taking behaviours, and some of them don’t make it to adulthood as a result. If you’ve identified what Lilley was trying to do, I think it was a worthwhile exercise. Of course, the sanctification of the young person is easier, apparently, when they are young, white and middle class.
One just gets the terrible feeling that these days there are folks who don’t get satire.
“One just gets the terrible feeling that these days there are folks who don’t get satire.”
That’s no doubt very true, Darlene. I could be one of them. But I am not entirely convinced that the mockumentary format is, ultimately, satire. Or, to put it another way, I wonder if the satirical capacity of the mockumentary form has been either exhausted by repetive use of a pretty limited set of technical and dramatic building blocks, or even more subtlely, simple been diluted by the way that at least aspects of the technique have become adopted as social norms. It’s not really satire or irony to simply mimic what is already the self-satirical and self-ironic poses of a very media savvy generation.
Satire requires a short but very clear ironic distance from reality for its expository leverage (and its comedic bite, among other things). Reality TV and the general blurring of the fiction/fact line has, I think, dissipated the chances of the ‘fake documentary’ finding and holding that line clearly while cutting close enough to the bone to work. Lilley’s a terrific parodist and I admire anyone who can get a series up in Oz, simply because of the energy demands..but for me the structural style and tone and ‘look’ of SHH is (by necessity) just a little too close now to what an actual Reality TV version would be to be genuinely satirical, so to try to hold that delineating line clearly, Lilley has had to make his characters and storylines a little too caricature-like to stand apart from the now-entirely unremarkable dramascape. But prod a parody too far away from reality - as in, say, the drama teacher in his creepier moments - and it loses the tenderness and ‘fairness to character’ that is the satirist’s authorial duty of care if he is to avoid becoming a spiteful condescender. How plausible - even within the suspended disbelief of SHH - is the ‘drugs musical’ concept, really? The last ten minutes of the last episode, in which Lilley was demo-ing a few songs to the headmistress - all those sung ’sluts!’ - just wasn’t ‘fair’ to the character, not even when you factor in a pinch of the gay-misogyny Lilley is going for. Jai’me is Lilley’s biggest albatross: satirical creations have very short shelf lives, and he should have packed her away like Gervais did Brent. She’s pure cartoon, now. He probably had to prostitute her to get the series up (I use that word knowingly: last episode’s ‘relationship sub-plot’ with the twelve-year-old boy was, for me, far creepier, far more satirically pointless, and far less defensible than the drug one.) But this sort of satirical over-reach is also my main gripe with the latest Kath and Kim (yeah, I’m probably just jealous of successful dramatists). And again - maybe the problem is not Lilley, but his audience: when we’re all instinctive satirists anyway no-one really can be a ‘Satirist’ without slipping into caricature.
I am also probably just a bit old-fashioned, but I find that watching Lilley (and Ricky Gervais, and so on), makes me start grumbling things like: ‘FFS, write a plot, mate’, and ‘Can’t you act out a whole, fully-realised scene, instead of just mimic-riff-improv’ing a lousy twenty-second soundbite?’. (Then again, I find myself shouting ‘Gene Kelly didn’t need the editing suite, Timberlake!’ at those 0.2 seconds x 400 ‘dance routines’ on MTV…). I do start hungering for solid ground; the (much harder to pull off, IMHO) traditional dramatic staples that are layered and linear formal plot (over scattergun improvisation), dialogue that gets its poetry from…well, poetry, rather than idiomatic riffing (poetic, sure, but not for long or very far); developing characters, over pastiche and shorthand, and so on. It could be a generational thing - grim thing to say when you’re only 42, but testament to the speed of cultural shift…but I do doggedly think that it is ‘easier’ to parody a recognisable human character than create one that is free of the existential crutches of such explicit ‘quotation’. Falstaff is thrillingly human (and hilarious), and no doubt he was based on someone(s) real. But he’s no parody. He’s no satire. And so he’s exhilaratingly, independently alive in a way a Ja’ime or David Brent can, for me anyway, never quite be. One last thing: the unfortunate coincidence of the drug victim would be utterly moot if SHH wasn’t ‘mockumentary’ style, but straight fictional comedy. That’s a major bonus when you eschew the blurred ‘fiction/documentary’ line of mockumentary: you tend to innoculate yourself a little better against the ethical and moral potential dilemmas inherent in any such overlaps with real life. Every night on straight cop shows child characters ‘die’ of drug overdoses, and no-one complains of real life jarring, because we all understand the conventions of clearly-articulated fiction.
Word, JR.
Lilley’s best characters are the painfully real, ‘people you know’ sort: the ‘jumping castle hero’ cop with delusions of grandeur, the ear-drum donation kids from South Australia in WCBH, and now Jonah. Ricky Wong’s Indigeridoo was way more cringeworthy than Mr. G’s productions without being as crude and unlikely as that “slut” bit in front of the principal.
Indigeridoo was a classic. Yikes. There was an example of the melding of social and political satire. At the same time, there was affection for the characters’ foibles. Perhaps this time, he is trying to be too shocking.
Thanks for your interesting comment, Jack. The mockumentary form has been done to death. It was a relief when Gervais didn’t follow that path with the second series of Extras. It’s interesting that he is probably at his best when he allows his characters more than a soundbite, or at least allows them a greater range of traits (I say this as a mad keen fan of Gervais). My favourite bit from the second series of Extras is when Andy Millman first witnesses Maggie in her new red frock. It’s a lovely response; the response of a man in love and not a caricature. Alas, Maggie was reduced to nearly nothing in the second series.
Yes, I suspect Lilley wasn’t going to get his show up and running without the return of Ms King. Mmmmm, as for Kath and Kim, well, they could of followed Gervais’s lead and known when to stop.
I don’t think any of these shows are mockumentaries, unless reality tv is the same as documentary.
Don’t get me started on this piece of garbage.
I watched one episode & the representation of the Islander (Samoan?) student was a disgrace!
My wife has spent years as a teacher attempting to build the self-esteem of Islander students who feel stereotyped & devalued continually by the media, some authority figures here in Logan & the odd local. It’s bad enuff that we have Channel Nine reporters paying Samoan kids to do gang signs for the camera in order to promote another ‘fear-mongering’ & community dividing story (all caught btw on surveillance cameras at a Logan train station)…but to see our valuable tax dollars being wasted on juvenile claptrap like this show, which seems to do nothing but provide bad role models & act as another reason for the kids to emulate stupidity, well it’s infuriating.
Welcome to another production by those who take glee in ‘dumbing down’ our society & causing social disharmony. The ABC needs to wake up! As do some of the audience.
Ta, Leinand. Well, thank you for the consistently interesting topic choices and the deft way you draw people into the conversations they provoke, Darlene. You have a fairly uncommon determination to look for and usually find the best in even shabby, trollish responses. That’s a great quality to embrace as a writer no matter the forum, but it’s especially bonzer in a blogger.
Yes, I agree with you both about the Indigeridoo character in WCBH. He was a cracker. Also the Queensland would-be finalist…impossible not to feel empathy for him, even as you squirmed at his boorish attempts to gatecrash the awards do. And yeah, Andy Millman as minor celeb was a splendid and highly-original character progression. Who could not rejoice at those last scenes with [spoiler police]’s fab cameo? Same vibe as the climactic five minutes of Blackadder: tender, humble, bittersweet, joyous, inclusive…comedy in which not a single person on the planet is the butt of the cosmic joke, but everyone gets to get it. Comedy that makes you go ‘Aaah…’ after you’ve stopped smiling, and then go out and do some volunteer work somewhere, because life is a good thing.
“I don’t think any of these shows are mockumentaries, unless reality tv is the same as documentary.”
I agree that reality tv is not documentary, Laura. I think if anything it’s closer to being the same as…well, mockumentary, except coming from the other side of the fact/fiction divide. I can’t think how else to describe this sub-genre of comedic fiction other than mockumentary, though: the key character expositional tool - the same as that of reality tv, nb - is direct articulation of a created persona by itself, but in a way that contrives a ‘found’ quality - usually of the audience eavesdropping as the actor/persona talks to off-camera kind - rather than any formalised one, like a soliloquoy, or a straight documentary interview. Lilley’s characters are essentially addressing some ‘Big Brother’ v/o figure - the ‘truth’ of the moment turns on the illusion that this is unfiltered, raw, glimpsed. That’s how much of ‘reality tv’ stakes its claim to our attention in a saturated and jaded info-maarketplace, too: this is eavesdropped, snatched, uncontrived truth, folks. Except that we all know by now that it’s not - so where does that leave its expository power? Reality tv or mocumentary, it’s hard to harvest piercing new human insights from an actor/persona pretending to be a ‘real person’ creating a ‘persona’ for a camera pretending to be a ‘camera’, when it’s now standard procedure for us all to create public personas whenever any camera appears in real life anyway. And now I’m getting lost…can anyone unravel the epistemology of Sacha Baron Cohen/Borat - with his ruthless ‘in-character-only’ scripted news conferences (except when he drops the mask to growl ‘for real’ at some pissed off reporter who has the temerity to not wish his own hard-earned professional ‘TV persona’ be exploited by a fellow ‘TV persona’ on the make, and so threatens the whole illusion). What about Jennifer Burns’s ’straight-man’ v/o for WCBH…that’s a real-life tv journalist who has often done straight documentary v/o’s investing some of that earned journalistic credibility in adding verisimilitude to a fake documentary v/o…I mean it’s all getting very blurry out there in ‘public persona’ land, isn’t it?
Pardon me, Leinad - I spotted the typo in your handle just as I hit submit.
I don’t recognise anything of Chris Lilley’s stuff in this description:
“the ‘truth’ of the moment turns on the illusion that this is unfiltered, raw, glimpsed.”
On the contrary, if we enjoy his stuff it’s because we’re delighted with the bravura of his performance, which is very obviously very highly wrought. He’s like Barry Humphries in that way. It’s the hyperbolic quality of the shafts themselves that we relish rather than any particular accuracy about the way they find targets.
“And now I’m getting lost…can anyone unravel the epistemology of Sacha Baron Cohen/Borat - with his ruthless ‘in-character-only’ scripted news conferences (except when he drops the mask to growl ‘for real’ at some pissed off reporter who has the temerity to not wish his own hard-earned professional ‘TV persona’ be exploited by a fellow ‘TV persona’ on the make, and so threatens the whole illusion). ”
What? Doesnt matter. Anything you say generally rules (I will work it out in a minute).
I think it should be labelled a stalkumentary mocumentary.Camera follows subject capturing the minutae of life, except its none of it is for real, it mocks the stalking gaze of the camera, and by extension -us, reversing the joke. I thought that was the brilliance of Borat, seriously. It made us look like tools when we inadvertantly laughed at Cohen’s racist Jewish jokes. I felt like Cohen had looked straight down the camera and said “so you think these American racists are bad?, look at yourself”. I think he is a dark genius.
“My wife has spent years as a teacher attempting to build the self-esteem of Islander students who feel stereotyped & devalued continually by the media, some authority figures here in Logan & the odd local. It’s bad enuff that we have Channel Nine reporters paying Samoan kids to do gang signs for the camera in order to promote another ‘fear-mongering’ & community dividing story (all caught btw on surveillance cameras at a Logan train station)…but to see our valuable tax dollars being wasted on juvenile claptrap like this show, which seems to do nothing but provide bad role models & act as another reason for the kids to emulate stupidity, well it’s infuriating.”
Thanks for that perspective. It’s pretty tough growing up in Logan as it is, let alone if you are having to combat such stereotypes. Of course, satire is meant to critique such stereotypes while it is seemingly induglging in them.
“Well, thank you for the consistently interesting topic choices and the deft way you draw people into the conversations they provoke, Darlene. You have a fairly uncommon determination to look for and usually find the best in even shabby, trollish responses. That’s a great quality to embrace as a writer no matter the forum, but it’s especially bonzer in a blogger.”
Thanks kindly for that, Jack. I guess it’s just a matter of trying to respect that everyone wants to be heard, and also of not taking things personally. Some people choose to be heard in ways that are negative at times, but that doesn’t reflect on them as people or on everything they say.
“Also the Queensland would-be finalist…impossible not to feel empathy for him, even as you squirmed at his boorish attempts to gatecrash the awards do.”
Yes, he was quite Brentesque I thought. You could feel his desperation to be somebody. There’s a sad quality to that. I guess that gets back to the notion of everyone wanting to be heard.
Ahh, the characters in Blackadder were all very flawed, but for different reasons.
“I can’t think how else to describe this sub-genre of comedic fiction other than mockumentary, though”.
No, perhaps a new term needs to be invented for this genre. Don’t have any ideas of what it should be, however.
“On the contrary, if we enjoy his stuff it’s because we’re delighted with the bravura of his performance, which is very obviously very highly wrought. He’s like Barry Humphries in that way. It’s the hyperbolic quality of the shafts themselves that we relish rather than any particular accuracy about the way they find targets.”
No argument - so long as that ‘we’ doesn’t have to include ‘me’, Laura. The great thing about art is that we’re all right, about all of it, all of the time.
Casey, you should TM that ’stalkumentary’. Splendid.
I agree the show does have something but marketing has helped. How many other Australian shows have there material vodcasted ?
Chaser and Thank God Your Here!
So I will have to disagree with you on this one not every show in the universe has a vodcast.
Marketing can occur in a organic way as well. As i promised i will show how word of mouth has helped boost the numbers for SHH, I would be interested in your feedback Helen and rest of the group.
http://adspace-pioneers.blogspot.com/2007/09/summer-heights-high-fandom-word-of.html
Jules
Nasking, what particular representation are you referring to?
The (one) episode I saw didn’t seem to be all that bad. Sure, they were homophobic, sexist and talked with mock-violent rhetoric. But that is a pretty accurate representation of many teenage males, regardless of their ethnicity.
“The (one) episode I saw didn’t seem to be all that bad. Sure, they were homophobic, sexist and talked with mock-violent rhetoric. But that is a pretty accurate representation of many teenage males, regardless of their ethnicity.”
Which is exactly what is being mocked, I presume.
I dunno, I think mocking is too strong. I think you could also