callans kicks

Not a bad effort but weaker than previous years. Thought the Tubs Muppet worked well, especially the motley contributions at the tribunal scene. Looks like there only budget for 1 Muppet so Simon H escapes this year ;).

The Maura Derrane and Joanne McNally characters also decent.

i listen to Callan's Kicks in New Zealand and joined this board just so i can express my enthusiasm for what i think is the best satire in the English-speaking world, despite not understanding half of what is going on in the shows. i've had to enlist a colleague from Cork to translate some of what is being said and who is saying it, and to explain cultural references. And what i'm learning makes me marvel even more at the depth and breadth of the satire.

In particular, i'm in awe at the way Callan uses regional accents and dialects to sketch character and generate humour and satire. not just regional dialects either: i'm in fits of laughter at Biden's clumsy faux-Irishness (which of course is not just about Biden, but about cultural misunderstandings by descendants of Irish), and at the way Callan uses cultural and linguistic errors by Flatley, Varadkar, etc to underscore how unrepresentative of Ireland they are.

This week's segment with the gardai arguing about fences was grand stuff. Callan made clever extended use of a silly, simple pun (fence, offence) and had wild fun with accents and Irishisms. I suspect there's a regional stereotype at play - the not-so-bright rural policeman - but i was fascinated by the use of Irish language in an English-language conversation. It sounds similar to the language change that's happening in New Zealand with the rapid growth of Maori words and phrases in NZ English, so for me there's more to this comedy than poking fun at stereotypes: it's a commentary on language and culture and how those are used in modern Ireland.

Compare Callan's Kicks to the tedious, plodding humour in the BBC's Dead Ringers, for example. Oliver Callan is a treasure and i hope he's appreciated in his home country.

Mosha mosha macushla. Whatever that means.