I wasn't surprised that The Hamster Wheel really went to town on Alan Jones last night. Lots of gags about his off-colour comments regarding Julia Gillard's father's death, of course. But also some nasty stuff about his sexuality; stuff that would provoke howls of outrage and rampant accusations of homophobia if it were aimed at a darling of the Left (Bob Brown for example).
Of course PC lefties would counter that accusation of a double standard by saying that Bob Brown is out and proud. So he cannot be criticized. But isn't a person's sexuality his business? If he prefers to keep it private shouldn't "compassionate", "tolerant", "progressive" people respect that, regardless of his political affiliations. If they don't they're just subordinating gay rights issues to partisan politics, surely a backward step. What do they wanna do, take us back to the fifties?
Still on double standards, and sexuality: If you're going to bring up the decades-old story of Jones being arrested in a public toilet, then why not make jokes about a much more contemporary scandal; one involving a very well known and successful broadcaster being sprung downloading thousands of images of kiddy porn, for example?
The story of former ABC celebrity Andy Muirhead's trial and incarceration has been hogging the headlines of late. If anyone's just askin' for a cruel piss-take it's that guy, surely. And the Chaser boys could really have run amok with their "collector" gags!
Gee, I wonder why they didn't go there? Aren't they fearless satirists committed to waging a "war on everything?" Was it because they're too gutless to show their employer in a negative light, therefore risking their jobs? Oh no, that couldn't possibly be ...
And the show is supposed to be political satire with a media focus, right? So why no mockery of the hilariously desperate and silly attempts by every Labor pollie and his dog (as well as some commentators) to link Jones's comments to Tony Abbott? Nope. Instead they just joined the pile-on on the conservative broadcaster.
The Jones material took up a lot of the show. It was followed by a reality TV parody mocking Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology. Good on them for taking the piss out of that organization, but if they want to find more locally relevant and extreme examples of group-think to subvert with their courageously irreverent humour then why don't they try looking a little closer to home? The retarded, inward-looking culture of the ABC contains an abundance of juicy targets for sharp-eyed satirists.
If they were to do this The Hamster Wheel might even draw a bigger audience. And it would be one containing fewer parasitic sneering hipsters, and more of the productive, thoughtful people the organization is purported to serve. What a heartening subversion of the dominant paradigm that'd be! They are the ones who are paying for it, after all.
Hamsters - twitchy nosed hairy little things that crap and piddle all over the place and are bugger all use other than for South American Indians to eat for entree. Fits this ABC mob to a T - though South American Indians are probably more fastidious and would knock the free feed back if it were offered.
ReplyDeleteWhoops. I goofed. Hamsters are originally from Syria. Was confusing them with their larger South American cousins. So apart from the area of origin the remarks remain the same. Just read Syrians for South American Indians - and of course they would Hal Al so as not to offend anyone.
ReplyDeleteSome of the Chaser guys are/were friends with Andy - and that would be the comedy link, not the ABC. That would be why they didn't go there.
ReplyDeleteActually I didn't think of that. The Oz comedy scene is very small, so it's not surprising they would have known him.
DeleteStill, I think the ramifications for the ABC's image still would have weighed heavily in their decision not to mock him -- if they even considered that option in the first place, of course!
The Jones war is veering dangerously close to exploding cigar territory. Check out Professor Bunyip's piece at Quadrant Online: the Down With Jones petition that the other side are so proud of has gathered signatures from the likes of Heinrich Himmler and Skippy The Bush Kangaroo.
ReplyDelete(On a totally unrelated subject: Adele's theme song for the new 007 is fantastic!)
Yeah it looks like a lot of the big advertisers that boycotted 2GB were conned into thinking that this was a genuine grass roots uprising. But it was another example of "astroturf".
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