Thursday, December 6, 2012

Gillard's end of the world spoof is life imitating satire

I'm sure you've heard about Julia Gillard's allegedly tongue-in-cheek address to the nation about the impending catastrophe predicted by the Mayan calendar. It's such a stunningly stupid stunt my eyes started to bleed after I watched it. It's actually beyond cringe-worthy and even beats Craig Emerson's "No Whyalla Wipeout" as the most tragic publicity stunt by an Australian politician so far this century. 

Countless people must be scratching their heads about why she's done this. I think her spin doctors have put her up to it to maintain her support amongst the sneering hipster demographic. But what's the point of that? It's a given anyway ... They're probably trying to get the focus off all this AWU stuff, too.

Whatever the motivation behind making the video, it's embarrassing in the extreme. Any non-moron would be wondering what on Earth it has to do with running the country. Can you imagine John Howard or even Paul Keating doing something so frivolous, puerile and totally unfunny?

The saddest thing about it is her droid-like delivery. She reads her lines in the same completely emotionless way that she announces her stupid failed policies.

You'd think that she'd know that for it to work as comedy it requires a bit of wit and oomph in the delivery. Apparently not.

And she's pretending to announce the end of the world, remember. Where's the mock-seriousness? She managed to summon something that seemed sorta heartfelt for her embarrassing suck-speech to the Yanks a while back (which actually was funny, for all the wrong reasons). Why not do a bit of pseudo-emoting here?

It's just sooo Gillard. Whatever she does she does not only badly, but in the most thoroughly inept manner possible. The only things she's good at are knifing people in the back, lying shamelessly and hanging onto power at all costs. 

And I wonder who wrote it, by the way? Presumably someone on staff at Triple J. More of your hard-earned taxes at work, people ...

12 comments:

  1. I heard it played on a commercial radio station and I cringed. I previously posted that she had no honour and she has now proved that she has no style. A Prime Minister should have at least a little of what the Romans called "gravitas". Sadly for us she has nothing except an overweening self belief with no real vision for our country.

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    1. Her conviction that she is always right is quite amazing. Politicians are routinely called delusional and narcissistic, but the terms are too extreme for them most of the time. I think they are accurate descriptions of Gillard, though.

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    2. I think another term you could add to her growing list is sociopath. Having read the points which define a person as such, it seems they all fit her like a glove >:(

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    3. Do you know her?

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  2. It could of been funny had three zombies walked past in the background with the 3rd stopping to tap the PM's head. After moaning "brains" its could have then shrugging its shoulders and shuffled off to re-join its group (exit screen right). "Nothing to see/eat here."

    Now back with the others "...must be one of us" moan shuffle, shuffle.

    A dead-pan delivery works best when delivered by the living not the dead. Let the dead bury the dead.

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    1. True. She's dead already!

      And for such mock speeches to work, it has to be clear that the speaker is aware of the absurdity of what they're doing, while not making this overt. It's kind of a subtly knowing tone. (It's not like straight acting, in which the performer immerses himself in the character completely.)

      There was absolutely none of that with Gillard, which made it doubly excruciating.

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  3. I thought this was hilarious, and so do probably, most of the country... Those who dont are probably the same people ruined by thge evil Howard years.

    Please remember, we are Australian... have we really forgotten that? We can laugh at ourselves and revel in dry humour.. at leat that used to be out culture.

    Triple J Rocks!

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    1. Not sure what you are on Tony but that was not humour, dry or otherwise. Most of the country thought it funny? You'll need a Fairfac Poll to back that up. As for laughing at ourselves all that lady makes me do is cry for my country. My dear old departed Dad had a dry Aussie sense of humour and so did quite a few in my old Unit and brother let me tell you that lady hasn't got it and never will. The Thought Police are also trying to stamp it out.

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    2. I'd be very surprised that anyone found it genuinely funny, even among the Triple J audience. Sure, their intellects have been severely dulled by drugs and left-wing indoctrination. But you'd have to have a brain the size of a pea to get a wucka out of that astonishingly lame prank.

      That's why I suspect Tony's comment above is itself parodic in nature.

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  4. She should have put on dark glasses and said "Come with me if you want to live." Which, in Jooolyaspeak, would have come out as "Kaarm with mee iv yew wonnt too liiiv..."

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  5. It's actually funnier that Gillard deadpanned this just as she would deliver a real speech. She's not an actor, if she tried to ham it up it would be ridiculous - notwithstanding how painful she is to listen to.

    Still, it's no surprise that as a conservative you prefer comedy that tells you when to laugh; Gillard should have included some rimshot sound effects and a canned laugh track for those who don't understand nuance or subtlety.

    It's tempting to draw parallels with conservatives' preference for simple, black and white solutions to the problems we face.

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  6. If you're seriously arguing that Gillard's performance had nuance and subtlety, well, that IS funny.

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