Wells’ satire exposes suppressed views
‘We are sorry if it made some people uncomfortable.’’ This was the apology from Radio Hauraki’s David Ridler following Jeremy Wells’ spoof of Hoskins on matters Maori a couple of weeks ago.
I have had some time to really give this some thought and it has left me feeling a little concerned. For a start let’s make it crystal clear – I am not sorry about Wells’ few minutes of satire and I honestly do not think anyone else should be either.
Not surprisingly a few of the usual suspects had something to say.
One intellectual giant from ANU in Canberra suggested how offended one might be if they came across the comments on Facebook with no context. A little like asking if we should run constant warnings throughout the next Twilight movie in case someone thinks vampires and werewolves are actually fighting right now in the Appalachian Mountains.
Then Susan Devoy managed to dumb the debate down even further by directing her criticism at Wells and not taking the opportunity to unload her wisdom upon us. To comment on the state of New Zealand society, the lack of collective insight in to our own condition and the value of the ‘‘mirror’’ that Wells holds up.
Clever satire is one of the most satisfying modes of social commentary. It is a western tradition that extends across millennia and has endured from society to society. The greatest satirists often choose pure entertainment as the vehicle for shining a light on our cultural norms, our weaknesses and our unstated driving philosophies. Something like The Simpsons has managed to achieve both of these things on a weekly basis for several years. I suspect that most people see The Simpsons for what it is and one might label this Horation satire. It is where a soft approach is taken allowing people to laugh at themselves, and others, with, perhaps, a long-term view of change or empowerment as a result of insight.
Wells’ form of satire might be better described as Juvenal which is prepared to be more challenging in his efforts to expose the bits of our society we don’t feel that comfortable talking about. We have had some great commentators over the past 30 years who have adopted a form of satire to accentuate their observations but the challenges have been subtle.
McPhail playing Muldoon or Gadsby’s Wayne down the pub were both vehicles to make a statement but they were also carefully constructed to entertain and, ultimately, not to offend. Between A Week of It and Billy T James, for example, the political leaning on treaty issues was to generally focus on greedy Maori or absurdities around inter-generational theft. The 1981 protests were a no go for television satire so there was no excruciatingly incisive observation on social justice, collusion with a racist regime or our own dubious history.
Wells is a mixed bag of intellect, culture, satire and entertainment. I alway enjoy what he has offered us and there is a degree of sophistication in his messaging that often goes unappreciated.
Who could forget Havoc and Newsboy branding Gore the gay capital of New Zealand. This raised the hackles of the locals to the point that once when he revisited Gore he was quite seriously threatened and became entrapped within his hotel room by a mob of lads.
This merely confirmed the absurd point being made in the first place. What is the most homophobic town you might think of in New Zealand? Let’s pick Gore and the visceral response is something along the lines of, ‘‘Don’t you call me no bummer, boy.’’
Suffice to say the town responded on cue and the mayor even suggested that Wells was stupid to come back to town. The key message that could have been taken is that we are still a society that is offended by homosexuality especially if you are directing it at me. It is an insult, a derogatory comment of such vile implications that he who suggested it should be tarred and feathered. If it was just a laugh they were after, then the sheep-shagger capital would have put a smile on everyone’s dial.
A couple of weeks ago Jeremy Wells took a hammering for using his alter-ego personification of Mike Hoskins to expose another underlying attitude that continues to exist in our society. We pat ourselves on the back over our race relations because we have come so far and, God forbid, ‘‘We truly are one people.’’
But the Hoskins’ tirade is meant to show us that this farcical, everyman character is harbouring a number of politically incorrect views that are suppressed by a media machine that convinces us race relations are exemplary because of the treaty reconciliation machine and that poverty is an accident of place and time – nothing to do with race or ethnic background.
Take home message? Let’s talk about it.