Yeah, it sucks about the no satire rule, and I'm sorry to see so many politicians sacrifice principle for the sake of pride -- sorry, but not surprised, because every New Zealander knows you can't trust the bastards. There's still plenty of room for satire, mind -- you just can't use parliamentary footage. Some of the television networks have suggested they'll break the rules if they get footage that suggests satire. Good for them. Notwithstanding that, I've probably been shirking my duty as a citizen by not writing letters on this one.
The best part of the segment is Stewart's blatant cluelessness about my country, of course:
"Whangarei [and I feel like I shouldn't spell that correctly, given the mangled pronunciation] is the northernmost city in New Zealand, known, comically, as a cultural backwater."
Yeah, right.
Gore, Mr. Stewart, Gore is the town most commonly referred to, comically, as a cultural backwater. In the South. Where it's cold, so people don't want to live there so much. Because this is the Southern Hemisphere.
I guess we really do need our own satire.
3 comments:
In all fairness, in the US, the derided cultural backwater is down south... the far north, i.e. Alaska, people forget exists too often for them to make fun of it.
In Israel, the far south is again more backward than the far north because of its arid climate. But Israel's in lower latitudes than NZ.
But his heart was in the right place, yes? (Or was that his an..? Oh, never mind.)
If you can't get your own satire, this surely stands in as a very amusing second.
I think that Stewart also forgot that Heavenly Creatures and Once Were Warriors were made in New Zealand.
"Kiwi the People," indeed.
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