New Zealand Listener

Part of the APN Network:

Made by:

From the New Zealand Listener archive

August 1-7 2009 Vol 219 No 3612

Features

  • Wit & humour Cover Story Wit & humour by John Clarke
    Voted the greatest living Kiwi comedian in the Listener poll, John Clarke writes that the New Zealand sense of humour is said to be “laconic, understated and self-deprecating” – but are those attributes unique to Kiwis?

  • Feature Silly buggers by Bill Ralston
    In 70 years of Kiwi comedy, we've come a long, long way.

  • Funny fulla Feature Funny fulla by Bill Ralston
    ‘I’m half Maori and half Scottish. One half of me wants to get pissed and the other half doesn’t want...

  • Feature Fright night by Bill Ralston
    Tom Scott recalls his night of fear and loathing at a National Party conference.

  • Feature Pull the other one by Bill Ralston
    Where’s this century’s Lyn of Tawa?

  • Feature A scholarly comic by Bill Ralston
    A lawyer turned writer, AK Grant produced three decades’ worth of sublime New Zealand satire, including 15 years at the Listener.

  • Feature Native wit by Joanne Black
    Heard the one about the Irishman who read 10,000 Irish jokes on a website and knew them all? It must have been Des MacHale.

  • Feature Sheep shots by Pamela Stirling
    It’s no use being sheepish about it. The Aussies find sheep jokes about New Zealanders hilarious – they were a favourite even of New Zealand-born Professor Fred Hollows, who later became an Australian citizen. Then, of course, there’s the funny way we talk. There are long lusts of the words we get wrong. Though that can work to our advantage: What did Kiwis do when an Aussie sprayed “New Zealand sucks” on a Sydney overbridge? Added “Australia nil”.

  • Funny House Feature Funny House by Jane Clifton
    David Lange was the undisputed wittiest of them all but there are other politicians with a finely tuned sense of humour.

  • The idiot box Feature The idiot box by Diana Wichtel
    New Zealanders have been laughing at home-grown comedy on TV for nearly 50 years. Relive some of the highlights and lowlights, the pleasure and the pain.

  • Feature Don't make me laugh by Diana Wichtel
    Heading down under for their last live show, UK comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders once almost lost it entirely making a parody of The Piano.

  • The unfunnier sex Feature The unfunnier sex
    Do women have a sense of humour?

  • Feature The bitch within by Sarah Barnett
    The tired old idea that women aren’t funny has been outed, and it’s clear men can be as premenstrual as the best of us.

  • Came a hot film-maker Feature Came a hot film-maker by Bill Ralston
    Kiwi film comedy has evolved slowly over the past 30 years, starting with such gems as Goodbye Pork Pie and Came a Hot Friday. The most recent is Tom Scott’s Separation City, but as Bill Ralston finds, it took two decades for the humour ­to become acceptable.

TV & Radio

  • The Lounge The Great New Zealand Fishing Scandal by Sarah Barnett

  • TV Week Dickens has secret lover; pre-op transgender model on ANTM by Sarah Barnett

  • TV Films Julia Roberts runs away; Katherine Heigl gets knocked up by Sarah Barnett

  • Radio Week Jazz luminaries on RNZ Concert; the story of the Lonesome Buckwhips by Sarah Barnett

  • Cast list

  • Radio frequencies Small country, big choice

  • TV Information Classifications and addresses

  • TV Informer Credit crunch drama already?

Columnists