Friday, November 2, 2012

The Hamster Wheel's lame Dumb, Drunk and Racist parody

There's just so much dreary ol' bolshie bias in the ABC it's hard to know where to begin. And it's obvious in ways both big and small. Last night, for example, the Chaser boys did a sketch about Joe Hildebrand and his show Dumb, Drunk and Racist.

I was only watching The Hamster Wheel intermittently so I can't remember the exact details but basically it attempted to satirize the fact that when he wasn't making docos for the public broadcaster he worked at the eeevil News Ltd. So they concocted this follow-up to the initial series, in which he confronted some Indians with the horrible reality of his co-workers' appalling attitudes. The sketch took pot shots at Miranda Devine, Andrew Bolt, Piers Akerman, etc, basically accusing them of being racist.

In the same way that misogyny has a clear and unequivocal meaning -- hatred of women -- racism means perceiving others as different and inferior on account of their race. Now all these high profile journos have said controversial things about racial politics, railing against divisive policies that identify people according to their race before their essential humanity. But none of them have ever condemned, sneered at, or looked down on any group or individual because of their race -- at least as far as I know. (And if any of them have, I'm happy to be corrected.)

So the sketch had a false subtext -- not that this would bother the kind of meatheads who think The Hamster Wheel is insightful, courageous and cutting edge, of course. They are forever conflating race with political belief, culture, even religion, after all. 

As well as completely missing its intended target, the sketch also scored a massive own goal in that its, er, "humour" depended on the seeming incongruity of the right-on Hildebrand working with these appalling reactionaries. But all this really proved to any thinking person was that News Ltd actually employs people with a range of political views. (And Hildebrand isn't the only one who tends to take a PC line. There are heaps of other journos who clearly have more left-wing sympathies in that corporation.)

Yet do the Chaser boys hold a diversity of views? Or can you find any conservatives in the entire national broadcaster, for that matter. (Maybe one or two, but they're rare as hen's teeth.)

Another case of taxpayer-funded self-satire from the sneering hipsters at their ABC.

7 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed it's just too low grade. The boys need to work much harder.
      They should review some Webb and Mitchel stuff and then offer value with a wider appeal.

      http://proudthinkingaustralian.blogspot.com/2012/11/an-ugly-edition-and-revision-of-events.html

      Have a read and then watch the video link. Better than the Chaser boy's I would hope.

      Delete
    2. Yes, British comedy is consistently better than stuff we do here.

      Delete
  2. The Chasers are still locked in undergraduate mode and, from what little I have seen of them, unfunny. Watched one show and consigned it to the file of shows I will not waste time on. "Racist" is that handy blocking word when your mob, whoever they are and whatever shade your skin is starts to get quizzed on your right to somebody elses money or your demand for special treatment not shared by your fellow humans. A quick retort of "Raaacist" and the argument stops. Just look at the travesty of the Bolt case where his Judgeship read "between the lines" to find what it was that racist thoughts Andrew Bolt was thinking. Every time I've tried to read between the lines all I've found is blank paper. Must be my glasses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, still in undergraduate mode. Kinda sad when you remember that they're all approaching middle age.

      Delete
  3. Come on, the Chaser crew are a very diverse bunch of left-leaning university educated middle class white boys who provide a choice case for government subsidized tertiary study.

    (Though at least they're not as bad as Rob Sitch who took one of the limited medical school places only to choose ass-clowning as his final vocation. Thanks Rob, I'm sure your humour has saved more lives than a scalpel ever could have.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suspect they're mostly from private schools, too. So much for the ABC being representative of the people who pay for it.

      Delete