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"U/TOPIA"
MAGAZINE
1998
No, it's not just a wacky title for an article. The ABC has actually released a compilation of Paul McDermottıs bitingly satirical monologues which introduced last year's Good News Week episodes. Media junkies can not only rejoice at the return of the show for another year, but also relive their favourite newsworthy events of 1997 by listening to this charming collection. As the show resumes for another year, we can only hope that people keep shooting each other, politicians keep saying stupid things, and famous media personalities keep posing for Playboy, in order to provide the Good News Week writers with fresh material. Paul McDermott spoke to u/topia about the excitement surrounding his Unplugged CD release.
The non-rating period brought with it an avalanche of newsworthy pieces, including the Constitutional Convention and the Winter Olympics, yet Good News Week the show which thrives on such events was not on air to take advantage of them. While Paul, along with the rest of the nation, was enthralled by the visual feast that only the Curling event can provide, another crusader for justice was pursuing a different mission. The infamous Bill Gates pie-in-the-face incident shocked the world, almost as much as it shocked the hapless Microsoft boss.
"I would never
do anything as silly and juvenile as that. I mean if you're going
to do it, put something lethal in it. Thereıs so many people to
put a pie in the face to...why do that though? If you want to
make a point get a gun," suggests McDermott. "The idea
is to make a statement...all you need is the will and
determination. You're not going to spend a lifetime in jail if
you put a pie in someoneıs face. Might as well make the point
you know?".
Yes, and if we could only believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was
inspired to make his statement through reading his student
newspaper.
With comments such as
this regularly thrown around on the Friday night show, it is
inevitable that some people will take offence. But is there
anything that Paul has ever regretted saying?
"Actually, no. I don't care. The thing is, we think about it
a lot before we do it."
Although with the sensitivity of some of the material there is
bound to be some backlash.
"Yes, there's a fair bit of backlash, complaints from
grouchy people from some part of the country. Whenever you're
dealing with satire and irony, some people miss the point. The
weird thing is, you get Christians calling in saying that was a
fantastic thing you did about the bridge collapsing in Israel,
and then you get the Israeli's saying no, we weren't happy with
that. You slag off the Pope, and you get Christians up in arms
and Israelis being happy. Everyone's affected by something."
Last year the Good
News Week team taped one of its shows in Brisbane as part of the
Queensland Writer's Festival.
"And it was the best!" says Paul, "God I love that
city!"
Reports of those who attended say there were perhaps a few
overenthusiastic audience members.
"There were two young girls in the audience that were a bit
excited, but it's good to have people like that in the audience
because then you make everyone else laugh at them. If everyone
sat there quietly with their hands on their laps it wouldn't be
much of a night. I like audiences to get involved and
respond."
There are plans for the show to return to Brisbane for the
Writer's Festival again this year, so remember - screaming is in.
The genre of
satirical current events programs seems to be expanding this year
with Channel Tenıs new show "The Panel".
"I thought it was quite good. I think there were obvious
problems with it but they're smart boys and they'll iron those
out fairly quickly."
Interesting that the show's creators are longtime ABC stars,
including Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch and Tom Gleisner. Lured by the
promise of more money to a commercial station, Paul makes it
clear that he too is willing to sell out for the right price.
"I would advertise anything." enthuses Paul.
He even has plans for his own commercial game show.
"I think we could do games and give things away. Weıd have
people on the show that would be from the outer suburbs of Sydney
or Melbourne, or Brisbane - we'd fly someone in. We'd have Mikey
as Mrs Higginbottom from the Valley. They we'd have celebrities,
someone like Baby John Burgess, or someone like that. That'd be
good, wouldn't it?"
Channel Seven must be just about wetting their pants for
something like that. In fact, it sounds almost as good as Channel
7ıs show "Hot Streak - a fun and pacy word game where men
play against women and finding out the answer is only half the
fun!"
So now that Stuart
Littlemore's position as host of "Media Watch" has been
taken, what does the future hold for Paul McDermott?
"Probably crack, because I haven't done that yet. I want
them to develop something that doesn't kill you. You'd think with
technology as it stands we could have developed past mdma. Iıve
had enough you know. Designer drugs should be of a higher
quality, or else you just shouldn't use them".
Huge thanks to Avarice for typing this out!
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