John Oliver mocks Steven Joyce mercilessly – why can’t we have satire like this in NZ?

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The new episode of Last Week Tonight is out and it is just so damaging to Joyce…

Screen Shot 2016-02-15 at 6.12.22 pm

…once again we have to rely on overseas satirists to spike the bullshit of this country. The problem is that with so many corporate media stations in lock step with Key and the National Party, satire just doesn’t happen here.

Like Mike is still funny, but I don’t know anyone who watches ‘WatchMe’. The Civilian has become awkward rather than funny and 7 Days lost its magic for me once I found out how it is actually made. The comedians on screen aren’t coming up with clever one liners, the material is viewed by a small pool of underpaid comedians who submit one liners and if the comedians on screen use their line, they get paid a measly royalty. It’s manufactured satire with all the nutritional value of KFC.

Toby Manhire & Steve Braunias are still good for a chuckle, but most satire in NZ is boiled down to this…

290513 The Marlborough Express Al Nisbet cartoon
290513 The Marlborough Express Al Nisbet cartoon

…good satire attacks those in power, rather than punching down on the weaker members of society. NZ media don’t criticise or attack power, they suck up to it so sharp satire like John Oliver can’t get funded or supported in NZ.

It takes courage to do this kind of satire, and we have zero courage in the mainstream media.

We are a poorer nation for this deficit.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

24 COMMENTS

    • Didn’t Race relations Susan Devoy claim that, that highly offensive cartoon was not racist, when clearly, it most definitely is?

  1. andrew little was not amused..by the dildo baggins skit…(sigh..!..)

    ..is he trying really really hard to come across as a humourless prig..?

    ..’cos he nailed it with that one…

    • Andrew Little said he thought it was “hilarious”

      The point Andrew Little was making is that John key and his National government have continually made NZ a international laughing stock since John key’s appearance on the David Letterman show in 2009.

      • you are talking about the second revised/re-drawn reaction from little..issued after showers of ‘humourless-prig’ epithets rained down upon him..

        ..i am talking about littles’ initial (and i wd argue more honest) reaction…

        ..the one that most saw/took notice of..

        • I have watched and read a wide number of responses on this and Andrew Little has maintained his view, often with a witty and humourous arrangement of words.

            • Don’t think you have read my response properly. Strange, where your focus is at on this, but I know you don’t like Labour and Andrew little, that much is clear from your comments. You can always provide a link Phillip.

  2. When Oliver really gets his teeth into something, he’s superb -funny and effective in pointing out hypocrisy. But this is seems to be just him harking back to his pommy roots and having a laugh at the funny old colonies. There’s no analysis of the issue and Joyce comes off as a likeable oaf, rather than a calculating, conscienceless, smiling assassin.

  3. With Julie-the-Wickard-Witch-of-the-TV-West Christie’s expectation that anything she touches should be met with a double down for public funding, and the role of the media as an arm of the state (according to the NBR “An Open Letter to TPP Protesters”), and the Kiwi ‘Free’ Market Push-over Population’s obliviousness to how their consent is manufactured through the serialized Psyop known as ‘the news’, the lack of TV satire is the inevitable sorry result.

    Emmerson is my pick for cartooning political satire.

    Snoopman has been pioneering Snoop-O-Journalism for the last two years, including these cutting satires …

    Why I Rented-a-Crowd of Misinformed Protesters at: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1508/S00124/why-i-rented-a-crowd-of-misinformed-protesters.htm

    NZ PM John Key’s Suppressed ‘Missing Million’ Voters Letter at: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1410/S00029/john-keys-suppressed-missing-million-voters-letter.htm

    THE CENSORED EXCLUSIVE: A Serial Ponytail Yanker’s Lasso of Truth Interview [Full Transcript, 13 April 2015] at: http://snoopman.net.nz/2015/04/26/the-censored-exclusive-a-serial-ponytail-yankers-lasso-of-truth-interview-full-transcript/

    Conjuring the Smiling Assassin at:
    http://snoopman.net.nz/2014/06/21/conjuring-the-smiling-assassin/

    Royal Pencil in Print: Lorde’s suppressed Grammy speech makes front-page news in New Zealand at: http://snoopman.net.nz/2014/02/16/royal-pencil-in-print-lordes-suppressed-grammy-speech-makes-front-page-news-in-new-zealand/

    Harry Potter’s Suppressed Interview (Edited Transcript) at:
    http://snoopman.net.nz/2014/07/19/harry-potters-suppressed-interview-edited-transcript/

    “Bibi, stop bombing or we’ll cut your bullets,” Obama Tells Netanyahu at:
    http://glossynews.com/top-stories/unamerican-world-news/201408062347/bibi-stop-bombing-or-well-cut-your-bullets-obama-tells-netanyahu/

    Yoda says, “Give peace a chance, sissy Earthlings, you must! Mmmm.” at:
    http://snoopman.net.nz/2015/12/20/yoda-says-give-peace-a-chance-sissy-earthlings-you-must-mmmm/

    Behind the Secret Aqua Love Affair (John Key + Metiria Turei – Full Transcript) at: http://snoopman.net.nz/2014/12/05/behind-the-secret-aqua-love-affair-full-transcript/

    Ecological Concerns are “Clap-trap”, Simple Simon says (again) at:
    http://snoopman.net.nz/2014/04/11/ecological-concerns-are-clap-trap-simple-simon-says/

  4. Yes it takes an overseas sketch to make us wake up and realise we have all been put to sleep here in sheep country because Steven Goebbels opps I mean (Joyce) wants his dictator to have a seemless audience that is totally obedient.

  5. I certainly have no problem with John Oliver ‘harking back to his pommy roots and poking fun at the funny colonies, ROGER GNOMICS,… if only because we as Kiwis often did the same with stuffy whinging pom jokes a while back…

    A good ribbing often is a humorous precursor to highlighting what lies beneath, …and we should be grateful Oliver actually does this…it certainly raised Dildo’s global profile – and not in a particularly enamoring way for global credibility… to which Dildo richly deserves.

    But the real point is , not since the days of McPhail and Gadsby have we had any real gritty political satire … just sporadic incidents. And if we look back to that era – it was way back in the Muldoon years.

    Which suspiciously places it in the same timeframe of the advent of the neo liberal subversion years. It was then that we quietly noticed a decline in political satire… and has dramatically worsened during Glitter Bomb John Keys Prime Minister-ship. Therefore demonstrating direct interference and gagging of the media.

    Which gives us a valuable insight and thus a tool that can be used…particularly with Key , it seems… he seems susceptible to derision.

    I’ve watched the latest John Oliver clips several times and each time it was impossible for me not to laugh…whether its the subject material or the mans mannerisms or both , I don’t know.

    All I do know is that it was intelligent and delicious satire and gave a sense of freedom we used to know years before , and gratitude that out there – there are still those with wit and razor sharp perception to lampoon corrupt politicians with impunity .

    And that at once gave me a tremendous sense of relief yet at the same time sadness that the people of this country sorely lack any avenues to express this vital aspect of democratic participation.

    • Hmmmmm. I guess my concern is that when Oliver derives a fair bit of his humour from our funny , colonial accents and the like-which he sort-of does, he’s lumping us all in together. When he made fun of John Key’s accent, (when he covered the pony-tail pulling thing) he made fun of NZ, rather than Key-and that is playing into the kind of game that Key wants played. Yes, he pointed out what a creep Key is, but he seems to think the way we talk is at least as risible.

  6. I doubt there would be any ACT supporters who do not believe that there is absolutely no place in New Zealand politics, for satire, irony or humour. The Office of the PM and politics is a very serious and well-respected position that should be sacrosanct and above the reach of low-life satirists who attack it.

    I know that I have coqu-ed up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7plURl4sx4) in the past and thankfully no scalliwag in New Zealand has sent John Oliver French mon faux pas.

    Hopefully someone has written and apologised to the French unreservedly.

    However, I have yet to see an apology from the French for their ACT of terrorism by bombing the Rainbow Warrior.

    Just saying.

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