And The Winner Is…

At this stage of an election it’s traditional for someone to ask the question: which side’s victory would be better for comedy? With most comedians leaning left, it’s generally assumed that while having the Liberals in power might not be the best for the country, it’s usually good for getting comedians fired up. But these days, who are we kidding? There’s no political comedy on our televisions (apart from the ever-reliable Clarke & Dawe) – unless you think GNW‘s utterly generic gags are “political” in any real sense – and so questions about which political party will provide more fodder for satirists are more of a cruel joke than anything these imaginary “satirists” have to say about politics.

So consider this a reminder – like you needed one – that not only this is one of the most boring elections in living memory, but it’s also one of the most humourless. It literally makes no difference whatsoever who wins as far as comedy on our screens goes, because there’s currently no serious venue for bad impressions of either Julia Gillard or Tony Abbot on television. Who thought we’d ever pine for the heady days of 2009, when you could at least see firmly average Kevin Rudd parodies / send-ups on both Rove and Double Take? Not us, that’s for sure…

(by the way, remember Paul McCarthy, whose Rudd impression made Comedy Inc and Double Take so meh? According to Wikipedia, “Paul currently works as a ESL teacher at RMIT University, Melbourne”. Just another victim of the Labor coup…)

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1 Comment

  • Pete Hill says:

    Remember on the Late Show when Tony Martin did the take-off of English folk/political singer Billy Bragg? About how much he was pining for the return of Margaret Thatcher- “I’ve tried singing about about that John Major but its just not the same….How can you write a protest song about a guy who looks as if he should be out spotting trains?”…..
    You are right, how can you make satire about some-one as bland as Abbott or Gilliard? It just seems almost, well….too cruel. Its like taking the piss out of the local librarian or dentist. Just pointless.