This is probably a little provincial for a weblog, but I’d just like to bitch a little about a certain Australian TV show called The New Inventors [8PM Wednesdays on ABC]… It sucks balls!

James O’Loghlin [the host] is an annoying git who spends too much time trying to come up with something funny to say, and not enough listening to nervous people attempting to describe their life’s work in a few sentences.

Not only that, but on tonight’s episode the three judges each selected a different invention as their favourite, prompting our host to embarrassingly suggest that each of the inventors have another go at selling their ideas, and thereby attempt to get one of the judges to change their mind [so as to avoid this utterly unforseeable dead-heat].

And one of them did.

So one of the inventions which had for a fleeting moment been considered equal best, suddenly became the loser. If I were that inventor, I would be mightily pissed off.

The low art of Comedy

I once read something by Douglas Adams about how he realized his attitude toward comedy had changed when he watched a standup routine based on scientists [and their wacky theories perhaps]. Douglas noticed that he had infinitely more respect for the scientist’s work than for the comedian’s wilful misunderstanding of it, and so found himself unable to apprehend what was so damn funny. I can really relate to this feeling. [if I could find the actual text/quote I would post it, but it eludes me for now]

The point I am trying to make here is not that comedy is bad, rather that humour is better when it embraces its subject, instead of simply ridiculing it.

Also on the subject of DNA, my friend Richard recently stumbled upon this forgotten page , featuring a portrait of Douglas with daughter Polly, as well as a couple of quicktime videos. It’s strangely poignant to encounter such artefacts, some three years after his unexpected death.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2004 at 8:30 pm and is filed under TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.