Summer Heights High

[Mumpo]

Watched my first episode (5 of 8, apparrently) last night. It's a good sign when you can come to a comedy halfway through a series and within ten seconds, you're crying with laughter. It hits just the right line between subtlety and purility and clearly emulates the Larry David/Ricky Gervais style comedy of embarrassment and straining at the PC leash, but thankfully ends up more Larry than Ricky; and the performances by Chris Lilley are fantastic, to the extent that I even find myself lusting slightly after Ja'mie's pert teenage breasts.

Ten thirty, BBC3, Tuesday nights.

[Guest]

Summer Heights High

This is absolute rubbish. Lilley's insistence on playing all the roles himself ruins the comedy realism instantly, and he thinks people with learning difficulties are funny. Definitely a lot more Gervais than David.

[Mumpo]

Summer Heights High

I must admit, I've never heard the phrase 'comedy realism' before. Presumably it's not a concept Alec Guinness had in mind when filming Kind Hearts And Coronets.

And as for 'he thinks people with learning difficulties are funny'; yeah, I laughed at alot of the bits featuring people with learning difficulties.

[Guest]

Summer Heights High

You don't need to have heard the phrase to understand it, surely: it's the genre David and Gervais operate in, and Summer Heights High even (bizarrely and confusingly) goes as far as to claim at the start that what you're about to see is a documentary.

I assume the Kind Hearts reference is an amusing attempt to pretend that I think all comedy should be realistic? Very good.

[Mumpo]

Summer Heights High

All I'm saying is that although a show may have pretentions to operate in the field of 'comedy realism', it doesn't have to be a slave to it. It can play fast and loose with the rules.

You know, I'm not sure the phrase 'comedy realism' isn't an oxymoron. It's as if you're implying there's 'real realism' too.

[Guest]

Summer Heights High

I heard a great story about Larry David recently.

He got divorced from his wife a while back. The wife was apparently a big environmentalist and very eco-aware and into all her green issues etc etc.

So the first thing that Larry did when the divorce finally came through was to walk around his mansion turning on every single light in the house.

[Guest]

Summer Heights High

All I'm saying is that although a show may have pretentions to operate in the field of 'comedy realism', it doesn't have to be a slave to it. It can play fast and loose with the rules.

I guess - the (superior) American version of The Office certainly does, in that it's supposed to be a documentary but is set in a world where cameras are apparently absolutely everywhere. But letting someone play multiple roles is taking things a bit far, and letting a man in his thirties play multiple roles in a faux-documentary set in a school is just mental.

You know, I'm not sure the phrase 'comedy realism' isn't an oxymoron. It's as if you're implying there's 'real realism' too.

Well no, it's just a way of describing a well established genre. You seem to be aware of it as you've made comparisons to David and Gervais, its most famous exponents.

[Mumpo]

Summer Heights High

To be honest, The Horse, I think the whole 'documentary' thing is a bit of a red herring. Yes, the show claims to be shot in a 'realist' style but that never really manifests itself; to all intents and purposes, it's transparently a sitcom.

"letting a man in his thirties play multiple roles in a faux-documentary set in a school is just mental"

Imagine that! A man pretending to be a girl! In a comedy! Yes, we can tell that he's not really a thirteen year old boy or a sixteen year old girl. And in all probability, he's not a middle-aged flambouyant homosexual with a bigotted opinion of disabled children.

[Guest]

Summer Heights High

Ah, well if you don't think it's shot in a faux-documentary style and is just a sitcom, then Lilley taking all the roles isn't so much of a problem. Fair enough. I think the realist style is quite heavily accented, but there we go.

Imagine that! A man pretending to be a girl! In a comedy!

Yeah, yeah. I don't think it's just any comedy though, that's the whole point. So this sort of patronising sarcasm isn't really necessary.

[Guest]

Summer Heights High

With apologies for hammering the point home, I just watched the series finale of this and it was desperately bad. Very broad, unoriginal characters who just do their one thing that isn't funny the first time, with the only texture coming from some Gervais-style "we're laughing at people's prejudices, honest, even though we've offered no insight into them" gags about a drama teacher who casts a Down's kid as the lead in a musical.

I will concede that the faux-documentary style isn't as obvious as I'd remembered, but Lilley playing all the lead parts is still a really bad idea.

[Posty Webber]

Summer Heights High

Aw, c'mon. It might not be Blackadder, but it's a pretty good show. I went to a Sydney high school that could be SHH, so I can dig it.

[Guest]

Summer Heights High

I'm with the Horse on this one...desperately unfunny series.

Hugely feted down here, lord knows why.

But then again Lilleys previous series about potential "Australians of the Year" was similarly awful, and critically acclaimed. Can't remember what it was called. Summer Heights High is sort of a spin-off from that.

Unfortunately the woeful standard of most Australian TV comedy has meant that mediocrity such as these two shows and The Chaser are huge successes almost by default. It's a pity when there is plenty of comedic and artistic talent available to do it properly.

[Rory Bunk]

Summer Heights High

While I agree that Summer Heights High was way overrated, I really liked its predecessor, We Can be Heroes.

Scouseroo'll get no argument from me on the paucity of decent Australian comedies though. It's been a long time since Frontline, with only Kath & Kim, and to a lesser extent We Can be Heroes rising above mediocrity. Most 'funny' australians are too busy making lazy, easy money with panel-stle programs. The kind of thing where a bunch of people sit around some mics trying to be the most smartarsed about topical matters. I can do that with my friends, fer fuck's sake. Just write something good.

[Guest]

Summer Heights High

Rory Bunk wrote:

Most 'funny' australians are too busy making lazy, easy money with panel-stle programs. The kind of thing where a bunch of people sit around some mics trying to be the most smartarsed about topical matters. I can do that with my friends, fer fuck's sake. Just write something good.

Funny you should mention that, RB.

A few months ago, I turned up for work and found Glenn Robbins (Kel from Kath and Kim) sitting in reception. He'd arranged a meeting to discuss an idea for a "board game for adults" he'd come up with (I work for a toy company). There was another bloke with him I didn't recognise but who turned out to be Mark Mitchell who I was informed is a legend of Australian comedy (something called Con the Fruiterer).

It turned out not to be much of an idea. Basically, it involved picking a stick with a topic on it out of a tin and sitting back to enjoy the witty repartee brought about by questions like "what's your favourite room in the house?", "is there anything you won't eat?", etc.

We decided not to pursue the project.

[Rory Bunk]

Summer Heights High

Now that would make a good show. A couple of lazy, unfunny, washed-up old Australian comedians in their day-to-day peddling of crap ideas to make money.

[trimster]

Summer Heights High

Have to agree with RB's comment about Australian comedy.... Chris Lilley has been touted as a huge talent, but I found both "We Can be Heroes" and "Summer Heights" heavy going. Some of the characters he created in "Heroes" were vaguely promising, but then he just flogs them to death until you are sick of the sight of them.

And I'm dreading the return of The Chaser... I'm amazed they haven't tried to ambush the Pope yet....

[Guest]

Summer Heights High

ahhhhhh The Chaser..sometimes good.most of the time awful trying to be oh so subversive..dont think the Panel was much chop either.ditto Rove..didnt mind Pizza..Summer Heights just got so overbearing with mr.Lilley.
loved the Castle tho.classic Aussie comedy..