A brief note on Australian political comedy…

WE saw more of Perth yesterday, visiting the art gallery, then doing a self-guided walking trail called Convicts & Colonials. Or a self-getting-lost tour, as we’re good at that.

Later, we had a meal at the house where our daughter is working as an au pair, which was lovely.

Returning home fairly late, we watched TV for the first time, tuning into a political comedy called Mad As Hell. I’m not sure what the Brit equivalent might be – a cross between Have I Got News For You and The Mash Report (BBC2’s latest attempt at news satire: slow to start but it had something about it, mixing topical jokes and silly parodies).

Mad As Hell is a political sketch show hosted by Shaun Micaleff, a grey-haired straight-man who presents as a sort of exasperated newsreader. I didn’t get all the jokes, but even without the political context, it was very amusing.

But it was interesting to watch a show where you needed to have all the triggers explained – especially if you’re a bit of a politics-head who likes to know what’s what. Here, my finger wasn’t on the button – barely even knew where the button was.

Luckily, our friends were on hand to explain the context, and even without that it was very funny. We don’t learn a lot about Australian politics at home, apart from the odd snatch, such as Pauline Hanson, the veteran nutcase nasty who wore a burqa in parliament as a horrible stunt. I guess you might say that she’s their Nigel Farage, only with a different sort of slime.

Maybe they should get themselves a Trump, as that brings the world’s eyes to your door, along with associated horrors.

Anyway, I am typing this at the breakfast table, which is very rude, and this morning we are going out for a walk in the hills, so I’d better put away my typing fingers, and walking into the shower.

 

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