Choice, Minister

Everyone's favourite Public Choice Theory sitcom is returning to the screen. Yes Minister returns with the original writers Jay and Lynn. Let's hope the reboot survives the test of time in a way that Reggie Perrin didn't.

The Sacred and the Pro Fane

Nothing is sacred. Popes, paedophiles, politicians, police, Paris Hilton, BP, Hitler, Jews, Jesus Freaks, Cancer, Aids, Paul Holmes. It's all fair game.

I was hoping this David Fane thing might have died out by now, but no, the nation seems transfixed on this comedian's joke fail still. The clacking of knitting needles coming from Rachel Glucina's direction has legs. That's where it all started, wasn't it?

It certainly shows, given the polar opposite stories in the HoS and SST a week later. No-one seems to have been interviewed for the Herald on Sunday story. A blogger could have written it:

Just what other celebs in the audience thought that night is hard to ascertain. Mike Hosking, and Willy de Wit did not respond to phone messages or emails from the Herald on Sunday. Paul Ego declined to comment. Jason Gunn called back but did not respond to messages after that.

Jeremy Corbett emailed twice to say he was too busy filming 7 Days to respond and was then going on holiday. On the night, Corbett said about Fane's offensive outburst, "That's just Dave. He featured in an episode of Deal or No Deal once but it was so offensive it never aired."

In contrast, the Star Times went where comedians go, the Classic Comedy Club of Scotty Blanks. They talked to them, not the Harlot on Sunday. Another story, apart from the offensive comments, emerges.

*cough*

The offence to which the jester is accused of took place at night at the Northern Club m'lud. It is a private establishment and no children were present at the time. Club policy I believe, yer honour. The alleged offence occurred in front of a paying audience, none of whom appeared to take any long lasting grudge because of Fane's comments.

The roast subject, which was omitted from the original HoS Story, was some suits. Not the Jews, not HIV people, not Hitler. It was the SUITS who were accused of being a bunch of Jews, nazis, HIV patients, which is fair enough. I've personally wished worse on some suits myself. Suits are fair game, m'lud.

A gossip columnist, probably with a complimentary entry ticket, one Rachel Glucina, thought the sour joke was memorable enough to be printed in the only metropolitan newspaper in the City of Sails, the NZ Herald. Note well! I doubt that the worldly Madam Glucina personally took offence, merely that she considered it newsworthy. She should stick to her knitting and leave the comedy reviews to people who give a damn.

La Porcette! J'accuse! It is Madam Glucina who should be in the stocks, not this fool! Attempted murder of a comedian! I'm sure that this femme fatale du porc won't be welcome in the comedy circles for a damned long time at the very least.

And as for the nasty, small-minded little sadists who yum up this lynch mob mousse and buy the faux-rage, shame on you too.

7 Days returns

Current affairs improv comedy returns to NZ with an hour long episode of 7 Days. The My Kid Could Draw That segment is hilariously irreverent to the BSA's decision on one of last year's shows. There's also a few video nuggets of 7 Days over at NZ On Screen, featuring a full-length episode from last year and an interview with host Jeremy Corbett.

Fuzzy logic at the BSA

The latest round of Broadcasting Standards Authority rulings on viewer complaints has been released. Chimpanzee with a receding hairline, Breakfast TV's Paul Henry, has had a complaint dismissed against his use of the word schizo. Back luck to the comics at current affairs improv show 7 Days though. The BSA has ruled against the comedians:

Airing last September on TV3 show 7 Days, a panel of comedians interpreted a young girl's picture of a recent news story - in this case the proposed double-bunking of inmates.

The girl introduced herself, then held up her picture of two prisoners sleeping in a top bunk, and another two arguing about who should get in the bottom bunk first. Part of the girl's picture read: "No money, plus a lot of prisoners, equals a lot of grossness up ahead."

This prompted the comedians to make off-colour jokes of a sexual nature, one involving sodomy.

That the adults-only rated programme had a verbal warning before it started and was on at 10pm was not enough to prevent it from breaching good taste and decency standards, the BSA said. 

The full 7 Days decision is here. Crunch point:

[20]   The Authority considers that the child’s presence and identification in the segment was unnecessary and exploitative. Essentially, the segment directly linked the young girl to a ribald discussion about sex and drew her into a context which was highly inappropriate.

OK, let's get this straight. It's OK for bald chimps to use low brow humour at a time when young children are part of the TV audience. But it's not OK to use the same humour after 10pm at night, after the least subtle viewer warning ever. Go on, have a look.

Sodomy doesn't even make it into the top 31 swear words, not unless you include bugger at 31, below even bloody. Still, it seems that if one uses a primary school kid's drawing as an improv device, jokes must be kept to a child's level of humour. Fart, poo and Paul Henry jokes only.

Why not relive the good old days of NZ comedy fresh at NZ on Screen, back in the day when anything was good for a laugh. HT Spare Room.

The other Yorkshiremen

Many comedy lovers will be familiar with The Four Yorkshiremen, outdoing themselves in childhood deprivation:



Less well known is the same joke told in Deaf context. Sign language has a way with punch lines:

A week of the shit

After years of next to no NZ comedy on the box, 7 Days hits the screens with laugh out loud lines. Like a fast paced, less prosaic version of Stephen Fry's QI mixed with a witty version of A Game of Two Halves, the show's premise takes current events and squeezes them through the raw and uncensored minds of NZ finest comedians. Utterly brilliant.

HT Tim Watkin at Pundit.

Daily Show visits the LHC

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Large Hadron Collider
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis First 100 Days

Losing the argument

Frogblog posts a vid bemoaning the supposed privatisation of ACC, while Boing Boing links to a vid bitching about the supposed nationalisation of Citibank. Production values aside, the contrast between earnest and effective has never been so apparent:

Loser:



Winner:

The New F***ing Citibank - watch more funny videos

Bitchfight at NatRad

Limited thermonuclear weapons were deployed yesterday afternoon on NatRad. Dick Griffin and Chris Trotter joined Jim Mora. Then Jim called Mike Moore. One of the best episodes ever.