This week we began taping our segments, starting with the bigger ones like vegans vs. vaccines, bendigo and the sports segments.

While I am pleased we managed to produce a comedy news programme fairly successfully, I think its important to reflect on whether or not our comedy news programme evoked the critical thought processes that satirical comedy news programmes are notorious for doing. Short answer: Maybe.

It’s hard to evaluate our successes in that front considering we had no actual audiences outside of the class, that showed up to watch the taping and could give us some feedback or comments. ( in hindsight, it couldve been due to lack of planning in that area and also bad timing considering it was the end of semester and people might have been rushing assignments etc)However, I personally feel that the show lacked the finesse in delivery that could’ve helped to increase the satirical element of it all.

I feel that the segment that managed to deliver that satirical element well out of all the segments we taped was the sports one. The character of each of the sports correspondents ( Zac being the proper one and Julian the bogan laid back one ) reminded me of how Colbert would deliver his interviews, which ultimately became one of the key aspects of the show that boosted it’s success. He would often personify this character and conduct his interviews in a ” deadpan, matter of fact tone” (pg 92 sophie mcclennen ) then continuously switch between voices and sometimes even imitate. While the surface value of his performance is meant to evoke laughter from the audience, it also ( almost as a domino effect ) causes the laughing audience to stop and ponder ” wait, why do i find this funny?” and therein lies it’s satirical value. While Colbert did not have a partner anchor neither could he have that friendly ‘ocker banter’ with someone else, that personification of contrasting characters between Zac and Julian managed to do what Colbert did by himself. Having that power-balance between the two anchors on the sports segment could also be a reflective of the different types of sports fans you see in real life- which i quite enjoyed. One really snobby know it all and one really lad-ish dopey one. So I think the sports segment not only managed to deliver a perfectly good comedy news story but also add into it the satirical element through the deliver and performance of the two anchors.

If that same personification and passion in delivery could be recreated amongst all our hosts, then perhaps we could be on the cusp of creating a solid comedy news programme. I think what separated Bendigo and Vegans vs Vaccines from the Sports segment was that it felt like they were regular news anchors delivering the daily news segment to everyone, it felt like a monologue. I had almost wished that the presenters could exaggerate themselves a little bit more and be alright to scream and shout and cuss like John Oliver because then I would feel like they were rubbing the message into my face and I reckon that’s acceptable for a comedy news programme thats trying to convey an important message.