Resisting the Rebellion

So we decided to give Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery another shot, even though the producers are clearly continuing their new policy of not featuring comedians by interviewing Rebel Wilson. Zing! Actually, we only tuned in to see how a show so firmly focused on the guest’s childhood and early years would deal with Wilson’s flexible approach to her own age. Her grandparents let slip she graduated in Law in 2009 – quick, does that fit into the official timeline? Oh no, she mentioned filming a year 12 video in 1997! Wow, it’s almost as if the producers went out of their way to use footage to lock in her real age.

Which then explains why Zemiro actually straight up asks Wilson about her age (she just stopped mentioning it) and her name (she used her middle name in high school). Controversy defused! She’s back in our hearts! Apart from that time she said that Australia celebrates “mediocre people”, but clearly she was joking there because here she is getting an entire half hour show on Australian television celebrating her.

Age aside, this is… well, around ten minutes in Zemiro asks a question that wakes us up: “Comedy influences, Rebel?” Ooh, this should be interesting… hang on a second, Wilson basically says “I never paid attention to comedy growing up”, lists no influences whatsoever and then tells a story about how a shitting dog inspired her career. So Rebel Wilson has no influences as far as comedy goes? That explains a lot.

“Somehow I got in the cool group, in the very first day”, “I liked to get 100% in maths, and I usually did”, “I got 99.3 in my HSC”, “Sometimes they say if you have a very high IQ you have a low EQ”, “And then I became known as a bit of a cheeky character”, “I’m proud to announce I was the school basketball captain”. A picture’s certainly being painted here, and the lack of modesty is actually kind of refreshing.

“Did you always think you were going to be successful?”

“Yes, yes I did… for some reason I had the right combination of factors that made me successful in an area where the percentage of making it is like… one in a hundred million.”

Yeah, okay, that’s enough now.

When Wilson says that DVDs of Bogan Pride were “passed around amongst high level comedians in America… they were saying ‘this girl’s got something'”, it’s… well look, that might be how it happened, right? However she made it big in the US is going to be at least as unlikely as that story, isn’t it?

And again, when Wilson blames the network for the failure of Super Fun Night, maybe that actually is what happened and not, you know, exactly what you’d expect from giving the creator of Bogan Pride another television show. “Writer-performers…” says Wilson, “it’s very difficult for them to succeed”. Examples to the contrary on the back of a postcard.

Even when she pointedly says “Australia does really good dramas”, thus underlining how she feels about the Australian comedy scene that gave her shot (Pizza) after shot (Thank God You’re Here) after shot (Bogan Pride) after shot (Monster House) after shot (The Wedge), it’s like “well, she’s not wrong”.

But when she says “The Australian media are very harsh towards Australians”, that’s where we have to draw the line. C’mon guys, where’s the proof to back that up?