Satire is all we have left

As we cross the 200 days of lockdown in Victoria, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to read, listen to or watch Scotty From Marketing without driving my generously sized head through the wall. One more insipid cliché or refusal to take accountability and me and the “Egg Boy” are on our way to Canberra! 🙂 I don’t want to kill the PM, but if he just slipped on a banana peel and went crashing into his lectern, I’d be happy. As a nation we deserve a good laugh!

There’s been some excellent journalism highlighting the misgivings of our Federal government and the (so called) Opposition but in politics, sadly the truth never hurts. It also doesn’t get the scale it deserves, because it’s only ever written or broadcast in the non-Murdoch press or on the ABC or SBS and can often just become click bait in the “next shiny thing” attention spans of this generation.

The Oxford Dictionary describes Satire as “the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.” In Australia we know it as, “taking the piss.”

Satire, when executed well, can cut through the diatribe and lies that politicians and the mainstream media are famous for and “dumb it down” for us, the great unwashed. 🙂 It’s an art form that was once a staple of our society and I still remember crying with laughter at Norman Gunston interviews, Monty Python doing their best to bring down the English establishment or Barry Humphries’ insights into Australian culture via Dame Edna and Sir Les Patterson.

In the 80’s on TV there was Fast Forward which launched so many careers, including the best satirist in Australia right now, Sean Micallef. Marge Downey’s extraordinary send up of Jana Wendt and Current Affair was part of many hilarious sketches on Fast Forward which ran from 1989 to 1992.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a sketch show like it since and how good would it be to have today’s reality programs given the treatment? The Block, The Voice and The Bachelor, all ripe for the picking! Marg Downey and Magda Szubanski could barely keep a straight face during these series of sketches mocking infomercials on Fast Forward.

The early 90’s saw the emergence of HG and Roy as well as the brilliant Frontline, produced by the Working Dog company. Perhaps the greatest Australasian satirist of all time was the late John Clarke whose collaboration with Brian Dawe was masterful.

The UK has always treasured their satire and many comedians have been hugely influential. Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, Chris Morris, Ricky Gervais and Steve Coogan are just a few who have classic bodies of work and the BBC Series’ Yes Prime Minister and The Thick of it absolutely nailed the banality and incompetence of governments.

My favourite sketch of all time is The Frog and Peach by Peter Cook with Dudley Moore. The character Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling, was invented by Cook and used in a few sketches. He’s a blue-blood, conservative, and entitled idiot. Sir Arthur is the king of pointless vocations and heavily financed failure.

The US had two great satirists and stand-up comedians in Bill Hicks and George Carlin. They were both firebrand truth-sayers who were more popular in the UK where their sense of irony was appreciated. Their challenges to the US establishment still illuminate today. (language warning).

With not a lot to look forward to in terms of political leadership right now, I thought I’d share a few short bits of satire to brighten your day, starting with Monty Python. This is from the film “Holy Grail” and known as “The Constitutional Peasant”. Similar to the Black Knight scene in the same film, it’s a homage to standing up for your rights against the establishment despite hopeless odds.