DeniSummer Heights High- Not Just a Funny Face?
May 31st 2009 07:51
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The mockumentaries churned out by the ABC never fail to provide fodder for endless cultural reference, and are well known for pushing the boundaries to crank up the ‘crack up factor’. However the ABC is also known for producing work with real substance, and the apple never falls far from the tree. It’s my hypothesis that mockumentaries like ‘Summer Heights High’ (Lilley, 2007) are often also intended to convey some sort of meaning at the same time.
Comedy has long been used in creative works to break the ice between performer and respondent, and Summer Heights High, the wildly popular comedic offering by ABC, is definitely no exception. Satire in its very nature is a genre that searches for and attempts to expose truth through the ridiculous. Indeed, the series is absolutely hilarious, but one could argue that the ratio of humour to substance is almost if not quite equal. To exemplify this point I offer Jonah, the break dancing Polynesian rebel who is one of the trio of main characters featured on Summer Heights High, and shall discuss the way in which the characters and their interactions are used to create a sharp sense of satirical meaning.
For example, when Keerin, an Australian boy, teases Jonah continuously, and viciously, he receives no punishment, and Jonah is assumed to be completely at fault. To his credit, he is shown to be clearly struggling to hold himself back from attacking Keerin during their eventual confrontation, and in several shots we see his expression as not angry, but hurt. Furthermore, his English teacher, Miss Wheatley, openly taunts him in front of the class, in a way that holds absolutely no comic value at all. Here, at these crucial points in the story, Jonah is not the antagonist, but the antagonised.
His teachers do not hear him when he speaks any poignant truth, because it is him who says it. Miss Palmer, the one teacher that sees his potential, and treats him with respect and trust, receives the same back from him, and we notice from the positive interactions of these two characters that Jonah develops in maturity, and is definitely not as much of a lost cause as the rest of the school seems to think he is. The scene in which he takes refuge at Gum Nut Cottage after his expulsion, only to be physically dragged out by Mr Peterson, is heartbreakingly raw, and quite out of place in what is meant to be a comedy series.
The show points out the disturbing truth that racial stereotypes still play a part in Australian schools, and more obviously the way in which some problem students need only the right kind of patience to help them change for the better. Through these examples of character and interaction, we are left without a doubt that ABC mockumentary has a conscience, and that it is alive and kicking in series such as Summer Heights High.
Comedy has long been used in creative works to break the ice between performer and respondent, and Summer Heights High, the wildly popular comedic offering by ABC, is definitely no exception. Satire in its very nature is a genre that searches for and attempts to expose truth through the ridiculous. Indeed, the series is absolutely hilarious, but one could argue that the ratio of humour to substance is almost if not quite equal. To exemplify this point I offer Jonah, the break dancing Polynesian rebel who is one of the trio of main characters featured on Summer Heights High, and shall discuss the way in which the characters and their interactions are used to create a sharp sense of satirical meaning.
For example, when Keerin, an Australian boy, teases Jonah continuously, and viciously, he receives no punishment, and Jonah is assumed to be completely at fault. To his credit, he is shown to be clearly struggling to hold himself back from attacking Keerin during their eventual confrontation, and in several shots we see his expression as not angry, but hurt. Furthermore, his English teacher, Miss Wheatley, openly taunts him in front of the class, in a way that holds absolutely no comic value at all. Here, at these crucial points in the story, Jonah is not the antagonist, but the antagonised.
His teachers do not hear him when he speaks any poignant truth, because it is him who says it. Miss Palmer, the one teacher that sees his potential, and treats him with respect and trust, receives the same back from him, and we notice from the positive interactions of these two characters that Jonah develops in maturity, and is definitely not as much of a lost cause as the rest of the school seems to think he is. The scene in which he takes refuge at Gum Nut Cottage after his expulsion, only to be physically dragged out by Mr Peterson, is heartbreakingly raw, and quite out of place in what is meant to be a comedy series.
The show points out the disturbing truth that racial stereotypes still play a part in Australian schools, and more obviously the way in which some problem students need only the right kind of patience to help them change for the better. Through these examples of character and interaction, we are left without a doubt that ABC mockumentary has a conscience, and that it is alive and kicking in series such as Summer Heights High.
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