Australia in Pop Culture

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So Simone Warne is going on Dancing With the Stars and Shane Warne is going on Neighbours? Talk about one-up-manship...

And are my eyes deceiving me or is Warwick Capper about to resurface? My god how many public lives does that man have. Does anyone remember the big to-do he had with his wife Joanne---something about him beating up another guy and then everyone was loveydovey again.

The thing that gets me about Shane Warne is that nothing, NOTHING ever sticks for long to him. How does that happen??? Bet there are some pollies who would love to know his secret.

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It's because he's the best spin bowler, or perhaps the best bowler period, evah in the history of the world and in Australia, no matter what else you've done if you're good at sport that's all that matters. I know it sounds like hyperbole but it's not. He is absolutely disgusting.

I want to know why is it that Australians can't do situation comedy? They can do observational humour and political satire but not sit-coms. I don't really rate Kath & Kim as a sit-com - there's really only one premise to it which has been done to death. Generally Australian sit-coms lack subtlety, are obvious, and the acting. My G*d. Sit-com acting by australians is completely embarrassing - the bad timing, the overenunciating and the way the punchline is delivered as if in ALL CAPS to emphasise that it's meant to be funny.

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Actually I think 95% of Australian television is embarrasing. I have been saying it for years that they just can't make decent TV. No wonder all of our few talented actors move to the US or UK. They have to get out to get decent work and pay.

[Deleted]

EXACTLY to you both (regarding Warnie)...most of us Aussies are indeed crazy for our sports, which is why when I came to the states for study abroad, the furor over American football (cough cough...which is rugby with pads...cough cough), the craziness of the fans didn't surprise me at all. Thus, people like Warnie and Barry Hall can act like pigs off of the field, and people will still worship them because in their eyes, athletes can do no wrong. They just shrug, say "They're Aussies, and they're blokes, and they're famous...how do you expect them to act?" Uh...I expect them to act like the rest of us. Meaning, they actually abide by the rules and don't develop egos the size of Queensland.

I can't say I've ever really watched Aussie sitcoms. I've never been into sitcoms in general; I think I caught Friends once or twice, thought it was really stupid, and never watched anything after that. But, for what it's worth, I think *all* sitcoms are obvious (laugh!here!now!) and annoying.

Capper was a little bit before my time, but I would almost like him to resurface again. He's hysterical, and I think he knows it. I mean, how could a person who attends public events wearing skin-tight Daisy Duke shorts and stileto boots while sporting a striped zebra-esque mullet *not* realize his own innate ridiculousness?

And to Real McCoy (you posted *right* before I did), you really are 100% correct. As I said when I started this thread, I did like the early seasons of McLeod's Daughters, but other than that, our TV really is bad. Which is a shame, because there is so much potential...Australia is a great country, dammit! (Despite our worship of Warnie) Only a great country could invent the best biscuit known to man.

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I even think most of the soapies here are embarrasing. The only good one out the last 5 years or so was Secret Life of Us and that was canned after all the good actors upped and left it. If I am at someone house and they make me watch Neighbours or Home and Away it is like pulling teeth. All their 'actors' sound as if they are reading straight off with script in hand. Eek!

Capper was a little bit before my time, but I would almost like him to resurface again. He's hysterical, and I think he knows it. I mean, how could a person who attends public events wearing skin-tight Daisy Duke shorts and stileto boots while sporting a striped zebra-esque mullet *not* realize his own innate ridiculousness.

I unfortunately remember him from years ago when he guest starred on Neighbours back in the 80's. Think he still looks just as hysterical now as he did back then. Lol!

[Deleted]

Did anyone see The Chaser's War On Everything on Friday night? It has a new format, where the team sits around a makeshift loungeroom. I don't think it was as effective as the News station format. As CNNNN it parodied on two fronts. Now it is going for the jugular without also making the point that we need to think about the way we receive news media information.

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Well in that case the point has already been made hasn't it? The new format allows them to do a broader range of gags and satire while still focussing a lot on current affairs, news and politics. I guess it reflects well on CNNNN and the election series that people compare the former shows more favourably, but I do think they were right to stop CNNNN after 2 seasons. It's better to leave on a high than do the same format to death and have the audience grow bored and weary.

[angelicfruitcake]

Speaking of The Chaser, what does everyone think of this ? www.smh.com.au/news/national/chaser-behind-leunig-stunt/2006/02/15/1139890807095.html

I think it's awful. Much as I don't like Leunig, I don't think they should have submitted his cartoon - if they wanted to make the point, they could have drawn their own.

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It wasn't a Chaser stunt. It wasn't done for the show, the website or any other Chaser activity. If it was for publicity, I think they'd own up to it - they've been arrested for indecent exposure, questioned by the federal police who knows how many times and have copped criticism for their 9/11 satire, publishing the Howards' Kirribilli phone number and publishing a map to the Howard family's holiday home in Hawke's Nest. If it was a Chaser thing, they would have owned up to it regardless of criticism.

As it was, the writer did it for his own edification. Are you saying that just because he was a writer for the Chaser then the Chaser is somehow vicariously liable? He sent it out at the Chaser office on the Chaser network, but is an employee automically responsible for all the emailing activities of its employees regardless of how ill-advised and regardless of the fact that it was beyond the scope of employment? If yes well, the person who did it was a Fairfax writer as well - are they somehow implicated? Why aren't being criticised?

[dool]

Actually I think 95% of Australian television is embarrasing. I have been saying it for years that they just can't make decent TV.

Well I think we have plenty of talented people but television in Australia is just so costly to make that it's too expensive for TV stations to take risks. The only channel that seems to support local development of interesting/challenging TV is the ABC and funding there has been gutted. I remember great series on the ABC like The Damnation of Harvey McHugh, Phoenix etc.

I think the comedy/satire is definately our strong suit, and it probably takes less to produce than a drama series.