January 7th 1953 – Johannes Salk was busy working away in his laboratory when he realised he had made a breakthrough – he had invented Polio (which already existed, and killed thousands every year) When his partner informed him they were meant to find a vaccine instead, he washed the results down the drain, but Polio is water borne, so he cleaned it up with Anthrax. The whole thing made Salk feel… mad as hell!
The week’s episode was guaranteed to contain no interviews with network sporting personalities.
Shaun didn’t feel angry about anything this week – maybe perhaps feeling a bit of envy. Of all the deadly sins, he wishes he had another. Maybe sloth, but he couldn’t be bothered changing. Shaun was envious of America (next door to Mexico – stupid country). Things are better there, at least from what he can see from TV. Barack Obama is cool, compared to the Australian parliament, which is very dull. Even Papua New Guinea is more interesting.
Even America’s mistakes are better than ours. And their losses. Queensland is in the red for $100 million, but in America, one man stole $7 billion in a Ponzi scheme. Jocelyn Stick (Veronica), Business Affairs Reporter, explained to Shaun how a Ponzi scheme works, and he seemed pretty taken by the idea.
Julia Gillard is a woman, and she admits it. Recently Julia raised the issue of the glass ceiling for women, saying it was cracked. Sandy Appleby (Tosh), Women’s Affairs Reporter, is concerned that all the men standing on it might fall through onto those women. Maybe a trapdoor should have been installed. The blue stocking movement might be strongest at the gusset, but if the women were on more boards, maybe they would reach the ceiling – metaphorically?
But Gina Rinehart is an exception. She’s sitting on many boards, and looks like getting some seats at Fairfax too. To explain it all, Shaun uses the prism of pop culture, starting with likening it to Citizen Kane, but when only a few understand, he eventually compares her take over of Fairfax to the movie Rock of Ages – “a terrible idea”.
Back to America, or specially, South America, they are celebrating the original Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Great idea, talking about the saving of the planet when the Mayan calender predicts the end of it.
Tuffy Gorgan (Roz) reported on Craig Jevello, who has been preparing 15 years for the amageddon. He’s got his food supplies sorted, with most of it highly perishable, but he’s avoiding preservatives. His 17 year old dog will keep him company, and he’s got a Kindle for all his books. The council refused his application to install a chimney for his fireplace though. Tuffy refused his invitation to spend a night in the bunker. In a postscript, Shaun revealed Craig was later rushed to hospital with botulism, smoke inhalation, rabies, bullet wounds and dysntry. [Shaun laughed here, but when I saw the taping, he did this straight.]
The days of the old wall calendars might be numbered; good thing, they’d be useless otherwise.
Francis held a debate on the subject of gay marriage, and most of the panel discussing the topic were against it, including a representative of the Families for Family Friendly Australian Families. Child Psychologist Heather Snap was very keen to cite common sense research, such as that being born was important for children. In the end, the panel agreed that two hetrosexual, single sex people could get married, provided there was no intimacy. Even the Sister was satisfied with the absence of sex.
Later, Shaun promised to talk to a representative of Fairfax, who was annoyed that they found out about they jobs via a media company – since when has Fairfax known what was going on?
During the break, Miss Fisher was insistent that while the ABC Wednesday comedy schedule was looking like a victim, her Murder Mysteries were not a comedy, and would be seen among the line up, despite her diva-esque behaviour.
Back on the topic of Gina Rinehart, Elance Feelings discussed some of the mining industry terminology, such as FIFO (fly in fly out), HIHO (helicopter in and out) and TITO (train in and out) but Dido is a singer.
Opinions on “should immigrants be made to speak with an Australian accent” in Top of the Vox Pops varied – “we just took the shelves back to Ikea for a refund.”
Shaun can’t stand sport, so he crossed to Maggie Bathysphere and the ABC sports team who were in London for the Olympics, where most of the budget had already been spent, 3 weeks out. [Writer Michael Ward is hiding at the back of the team] Since nothing was actually happening, the team had been visiting CatsThatLookLikeKerryOBrien.com and iQing Lara Bingle – the first time those two words have been used in the same sentence. They did have some great behind the scenes footage from The Masters, where the famous Green Jacket was constantly adjusted depending on who was in the lead.
Apologies to any Channel 9 viewers who would be offended by seeing a woman talk about sport.
In Know Your Backbencher, a segment looking at the unsung (suu-kyi) members of the Australian Parliament, they focused on little known… Kevin Rudd, who works for his constituents on local issues by consulting with world leaders and always keeps his cool.
Most of us wish to live free and happy lives, and those who don’t should be forced to. In a new segment, Hey No Nanny State!, Shaun discusses our freedoms. Smoking is your right, and Shaun will defend it to your death. Although some government control is required, because a lot of people are idiots. But the new large (mock) packages are rediculous, so Shaun says Hey Nanny No. Violence on trains is out of control, but as long as transit police do as per the Vietnamese, and stay outside the vehicle even when it’s moving, Shaun says Hey Nanny No.
On the subject of bullying, Shaun is against the idea of suing parents of bullies. But he interviews Belinda Tenducca, his former bully, and she makes him think she bullied him because she had a crush on him at school. After she breaks his heart again, and he changes his mind to Hey Nanny Yes.
Finally, Aung Sung Su Chi picked up her Nobel Peace Prize from 1991 – couldn’t they have home delivered it, or at least refrigerated it? Here’s tomorrow’s talkback…
The was also an interview taped with Robyn Nevin, who stars in Queer Lear, but this might end up as web extra or in next weeks episode.
so were the laughs off script? Because they were one of the highlights of the show 🙂
Not just off script, but they never happened when we saw it taped. So either, that bit was taped the previous week or re-taped between Wednesday and Friday.
Has anyone else had the Hey Nanny No song stuck in their head?