MetaFilter posts tagged with satire and tv

Police Squad! In Color

not_on_display — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:05:47 -0800

In 1982, the comedy team of Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker introduced Police Squad! to network TV viewers. It lasted six episodes before being cancelled. What, you missed it? You weren't even born? Here are episodes two, three, and four. • More clips: 1 2 3. • A compilation of episode epilogues. • The Police Squad series spawned three successful spinoff movies (clip 1, clip 2 [interspersed with Airplane! clips], Siskel and Ebert review), but lesser known spinoffs included a series of advertisements in the UK for Red Rock Cider. (Leslie Nielsen also starred in a series of commercials broadcast in Holland for Dutchtone: 1 2 3.) • Leslie Nielsen also farted on a morning show in the UK. Turn up the volume. • The DVD's pretty cheap, too.

TV Offal's songs and the US radio jingles which inspired them

feelinglistless — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:49:18 -0800

TV Offal's songs and the US radio jingles which inspired them. "It's nice in Detroit." "It's nice being Esther." TV critic Victor Lewis-Smith's late night comedy show was short lived but well remembered by those of us who saw it on Channel 4in the UK (cf, Google Video and YouTube).

Terrorist fist bump!

Artw — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:05:02 -0800

Mock the Vote: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert interviewed.

Not with a bang but with a televised political satire

sdodd — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:07:41 -0800

"We don't vote for them, we don't even know their names and we're not quite sure what they do. But they wield enormous influence. They are the power behind the power. They are The Hollowmen." You can watch the Australian Broadcasting Company's new political satire The Hollowmen [warning: sound] on the web. Or you can find it via Bittorrent. (Or if you live down under I suppose you could watch it on ABC 1 Wednesdays at 9pm or ABC 2 Thursdays at 8:30pm.) It's worth a look because it may be the funniest new satire on any English-language network. "I tell you, they become prime minister and they start thinking they can do what they want." The Hollowmen follows the Australian Prime Minister's fictional Central Policy Unit, charged with crafting the PM's public policy whilst battling the civil service and the press. Sound familiar? Episode two of the first series could be a "Yes, Minister" episode almost unchanged. But there's a lot less swearing than "The Thick of It." The Working Dog Productions show was picked up for a second 6-episode "series" (AKA "season") before the first episode even aired. Having settled into second place in its time slot, I suspect we'll be seeing more of it in the future. Thanks to this show I now know the national capital of Australia and the definition of "ANZAC."

War on Everything

augustweed — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:53:00 -0800

The Chasers reveal the irrelevant of many surveillance cameras and the ignorance of many Americans by declaring War on Everything.

I'll rip yer bloody arms off...

chrisgregory — Thu, 30 Jan 2003 05:02:13 -0800

The greatest TV show you will probably never see: Aunty Jack, a ten-foot tall, boxing-glove wearing, motor-cycling, moustached cross-dresser, was the star of The Aunty Jack Show, which ran for thirteen episodes in 1972-73 on the Australian Broadcasting Commission TV network (and was the first show broadcast on Australian TV in colour). Many of the original episodes have been lost (but records of them exist). Re-release on video or DVD of the remaining episodes is tangled up in copyright issues. The 1974 album Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong was re-released on CD, and still seems to be available. It includes such classics as 'Fish Milkshakes' and 'Teenage Butcher' and the song 'Farewell Aunty Jack', which was a number 1 hit in Australia. Some samples can be found here. There were spinoffs from Aunty Jack, most notably the Norman Gunston Show, with Norman playing the prototypical terrrible interviewer and inspiring the much later Ali G, Dennis Pennis and many others. I was two years old when the series aired: Aunty Jack's threat at the end of each episode, that: 'If you don't watch next week, I'll rip your bloody arm off!' meant that I never, ever, missed it.

RavinDave — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 23:41:22 -0800

"I have taken down the "Bert is Evil!"site from my server. I would like to thank Sesame Workshop for their patience and restraint all these years. I implore all fans and mirror site hosts of "Bert is Evil" to stop the spread of this site too. -- dino"

Mocata — Thu, 19 Jul 2001 04:34:38 -0800

Contrary to what you may have heard, the new Brass Eye is indeed about paedophiles. And it's got Phil Collins wearing a "Nonce Sense" t-shirt.

Grangousier — Fri, 06 Jul 2001 09:46:11 -0800

Last night's Brass Eye special was mysteriously pulled from the schedules, seemingly because it concerned "an army of paedophiles". Apparantly, this is not the case

Mocata — Fri, 23 Mar 2001 03:42:59 -0800

Great news! Channel 4 to re-screen Brass Eye - with restored footage.

jkottke — Sun, 06 Feb 2000 22:03:04 -0800

Did anyone watch the Simpsons Sunday night? Did you notice how bad it sucked? Maybe it was on purpose, as a response to the feud going on between the show's writers and the alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup.