In her piece about the rise of ‘news comedy’ on television, Melbourne comedian Courteney Hocking includes some fitting comments about wowserism in Australia from Ian Simmons, the head writer for Good News Week.
When The Chaser team was roundly castigated for their “Make A Realistic Wish Foundation” sketch it revealed another reason why satire rarely makes the grade in Australia.
“There’s almost a part of people that wants to be outraged,” says Simmons. “That sketch was two minutes in half an hour. People being outraged the next day, sure, but it went on for weeks.”
Simmons believes it’s partially attributable to our uncertain times.
“So much is out of our control — the war in Afghanistan, the GFC, Swine flu, they all affect us in different ways. This is a way for people to claw back some control in their lives, to express their anger and their outrage and to make them feel good about themselves.”
Which leads us back to the numbers thing — because of our relatively small population, vocal and indignant wowsers receive a greater share of voice than they would in countries like the US, where they can turn over and watch something else.
Simmons’ remarks about clawing back control are particularly relevant, especially when you look at recent cases like the Cotton On kids clothing ruckus. Author Hugh Mackay’s views on regulation in Australia give us insight into why: that if we make it appear we have solved a problem through regulation, we ease the burden of personal moral responsibility.
Other recent incidents of outrage, like that surrounding the Chaser Dog skit, probably rest more closely with our news media trying to whip up a storm in a teacup.
6 comments
NiroZ says:
Jul 25, 2009
I think it’s mostly just the chasers. They’ve alienated pretty much everybody at some point or another, it’s part of what they do, but not many people realise that.
And watching something for a sense of outrage is not just limited to australia. In america, they have right wing commentators that frequently go overboard. Unfortunately, they lack a sense of humor as well.
Carl says:
Jul 25, 2009
Which leads us back to the numbers thing — because of our relatively small population, vocal and indignant wowsers receive a greater share of voice than they would in countries like the US, where they can turn over and watch something else.
If “wowserism” is a personality trait then the relative proportion in any population would be equal.
Wowserism is alive and well in the USA. Home of the strong, brave, and abstinance-only sex education. Or try dropping the c-bomb on any broadcast medium overseen by the FCC.
Nicholas says:
Jul 25, 2009
I suspect people would cut The Chaser more slack if the joke were any one or more of:
1) Satirical
2) Original
3) Clever
4) Funny
Obviously the writers of The Chaser would want to pin the blame on some Australia-specific cultural trend, but I suspect simpler explanations fit better.
For examples of good satire, see The Onion and articles such as “Area 5-Year-Old Has Tummy Cancer”.
Heath says:
Jul 26, 2009
Basically, censorship all comes down to insecure people attempting to add validity to their own chosen views and/or lifestyles by forcing everyone else to live in accordance with them. As Mackay says in one of the articles linked to above, “by removing the option to choose [we] no longer have to exercise any moral discretion”. That’s why religious groups are particularly aggressive when it comes to advocating censorship. Their beliefs are impossible to justify on a logical basis, so when they see someone else enjoying themselves in a way which they deem to be immoral, it poses a catastrophic threat to their entire worldview. As such, they must act to eradicate it in order to keep their elaborate system of so-called “objective morality” from falling down around them.
Icaria says:
Jul 26, 2009
Apparently Nicholas needs to have the definition of satire explained to him. And FTR, whether or not a joke is funny has no bearing on it’s validity.
And Carl: the point was that due to our smaller population, alternatives are less abundant. That said, I didn’t find any of Ian Simmons comments particularly insightful. Heath makes a far more compelling case.
Linda Scott says:
Nov 24, 2009
OK I’m from the US and live in a small town, called the biggest little city in the world. I worked for a hospital that desided $$$ was more important than care so they got ride of all suport staff at the hospital, as I said this is a small town and I told my vet about the hospital and the loss of my job and why I would not be able to aford to declaw my cat, well she told her freimds and they told their freinds and at the drug store yesterday Barb asked me if my job was in safe, I said no. words of mouth is the strongest tool a community has … hugs unemployed Grandma Scott