The Colbert Report, Australian Icon Towns
Watcher Column for The Canberra Times, Tuesday 6 February 2007 by Kaz Cooke


The Comedy Channel, generally an all-you-can-watch blokey buffet, is nevertheless worth the cable cost for its nightly feed of Jon Stewart hosting The Daily Show (9.30 weeknights), a US current affairs and analysis show that puts a comedy spin on the real news.

Political satire's harder than it looks when stuff happens like the Vice President shooting a guy in the face. While a lot of that sort of good work is done for them, the Daily Show's "correspondents" and writers keep coming up with "emperor's new clothes' pieces on the style, spin and surrealism of US and world affairs. They'll take an easy laugh, but don't shy from complex wordplay or unravelling something complicated so they can tickle some laughs out of the crannies. It's comfort food for anyone who's interested in politics, power and satire.

Faux reporter Steve Carroll went on from the Daily Show to become the '40 Year Old Virgin' and star of the surprisingly successful American version of The Office. Another rocket launched by the Daily Show is one of the deadliest of deadpan character performers - up there with John Clarke and Alan Arkin - a nerdy looking guy called Stephen Colbert (pronounced Colbair).

Daily Report fans have been frustrated by the way it always ends with Jon Stewart handing off to Stephen Colbert for his spin-off show, but we never got to see it. Now the Comedy Channel here is also taking The Colbert Report (pronounced Colbair Repor, although the Comedy Channel doesn't, 10pm weeknights, after the Daily Show). To really get the most out of the Colbert parody, you have to have seen the barkingly bombastic conservative commentators on the Fox News channel. Colbert will choose any issue, take the Government line, and run, run, run, like a girlie into right-wing la-la land.

Colbert is probably the most subversive person on mainstream television. Somebody who's probably now unemployed booked Colbert to appear at last year's black tie Washington Correspondents Dinner, at the White House, in the presence of George Bush. Colbert was riveting in his scathing satire, and considered by some to be literally too close to (Bush's) home.

The largely acquiescent press corps reporters were gobsmacked, most of them - okay, you need to concentrate now - reportedly not reporting it until they had to report that that blogs were reporting it. It even provoked a debate about whether and when to exercise the right to free speech. (To see transcipts and video of it online, search Colbert president speech.)

If you don't have cable TV you can see last night's highlights and archived bits of the Colbert Report and the Daily Show on comedycentral.com.


*****

The only thing I remember about Goulburn is waking up in the middle of the night once, being driven from Sydney to Canberra, and wondering why there was a giant Merino having its way with a kiosk. It was of course the concrete "Giant Ram" astride a petrol station. If that's not enough to frighten away the tourists, I don't know what is.

I got a second chance watching a preview of tonight's episode of Australian Icon Towns (History Channel 7.30 pm). Goulburn also has, let me see, the wool industry, some nice old buildings and a brewery. It...(snonk)...I beg your pardon I just nodded off there for a moment. I'm sure it's not Goulburn's fault, though.

I've been to some of the other towns in tonight's episode; Fremantle, Newcastle, and Broome, and found them really interesting. But if I'd seen this show first I might have given them a miss (except Broome, it's impossible to disguise how beautiful it is, even if you're being dull). It all seems to be about the level of a conventional school project (most obvious local industry, second world war, convict bridge). It's presented by Scott McGregor (the DIY guy on Better Homes and Gardens), who sounds improbably thrilled for somebody who has to say "subsidiary businesses".

The show is lucky to have McGregor's cheery enthusiasm and some really good incidental music that moves the whole thing along. Not to mention locations that are perfect for a "to-camera" bit, such as Broome's outdoor cinema, Sun Pictures. But I probably shouldn't have noticed the music. My mind was wandering and I was thinking, "Is he going to wear his hat in the dark?", and "That's a superior tune', and "What will we have for tea?"

Surely there's more to Fremantle than the America's Cup and submarines in the 1940s? Surely they could find more interesting people to interview? Surely the city of Newcastle deserves better than a slightly expanded version of "steel, earthquake, no more steel"? Not even Silverchair gets a look in. We are supposed to be interesting the young folk in history, you know.

Despite each place being introduced along with the local Aboriginal community's name, Aboriginal people's existence and their contribution to each town (even as its former owners) is pretty much ignored. There's a ludicrously scanty couple of nods in the Broome story; one sentence about there being slave workers in the pearling industry and "Broome remains a true melting pot". Snonk.