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Humour
Arthur
There are some mean spirited types that say New Zealand doesn’t do comedy well. Certainly, the comedians on our two breakfast shows aren’t very funny. John Campbell’s excessively woke woker is overacted and Hayley Holt’s ageing female air-head impersonation, and I hope for her sake it is an impersonation, gets dreary at times. At least sensibly she is leaving a dying show.
Jenny May does her straight role well though although occasionally overly severely. Matty Maclean’s take-off of an ineffectual gay man often works and his comedic revelation some time back that he cannot effectively use or even start a motor mower was rolling in the aisles stuff as was his confession he’d rather be chipped so he could pay at the TV1 canteen more conveniently than the massively sheer inconvenience of pulling out a pay wave card. This was pure irony on First World problems. When he is on a comedy hot run, he’s hot. The comedians on the other channel’s show are just clowns at times, with Garner and Richardson channelling Laurel and Hardy to excess, although Amanda Gillies does well playing the exasperated mother straight role to the two oafish dolts. I suspect she can mow a lawn too.
However, this article is not about those two shows. It is about a bit of a sleeper show in the afternoons. I suspect it goes over the heads of many, as it purports to be serious and has no laughter canned or otherwise even though it has a live audience. It could be accused of being derivative of a 1990s American show as it is about nothing most of the time. What saves it from derivation oblivion are some unique New Zealand touches and some bitter irony. Also of great mirth is many are sucked in and take it seriously, which to those in the know is the greatest laugh of all.
First off, you need a run-down on the characters. It is a show about a stand-up comic whose stage persona is a medical professional working for the Government. This is used to channel pan faced irony, nonsense and just plain farce about a scary pandemic. His name is the name of the show, Bloomfield. Oddly, although the show is named after him the other characters can dominate the show and provide many interesting moments. In many respects, he plays the straight man to the other three main characters.
One of these is his friend Jacinda. She is an interesting character who is on the face of it very kind and oozes unctuous nicety but has an underlying mean streak that flows through all her activities. One of her main comedic shticks is a play on the Kiwi accent, or should I say acksunt, as she wilfully sprinkles in Ds to replace Ts in the middle of words. Another is amazingly convoluted and meaningless monologues delivered with breathless schoolgirl enthusiasm.
Another character is Bloomfield’s angry friend Andy, who is neurotic and lacks confidence but hides it beneath bizarre ideas about life. One hilarious example is his bizarre theories on crime, prisons and reducing both. The first by not calling criminal activities crimes and the second by renaming prison inmates as guests and residents. Another is draconian hate speech laws that curb free speech to save freedom of speech.
No American derived comedy is complete without an odd ball neighbour who can burst in your front door at any moment, not needing an invitation or a key. This is the oddly named Twyford, and we are never sure if it is his last or first name or both. Twyford has a mountain of schemes and odd ideas he constantly tries to implement. He is an abject failure at this, but the laughs are in the journey to that failure and how big the failure is and how oblivious and enthusiastic he is about the failure.
There are guest appearance characters too. One is the acidic Parker who when he greets Bloomfield or Twyford he’ll overemphasise their names with a sneer by saying, “Hello BLOOOMFIEELD” or “Hello TWYYFOORD” and they’ll reply in kind with “Hello PAARRKKEER”. Another is the irrepressible Chippy or sometimes just plain Chip. He is boyish in appearance like a schoolboy with an apple for the teacher, but he has a grim and scary resolute streak and in counterpoint to everyone else seems vaguely capable.
I don’t know how long this show will last. It seems like a limited season show that has been extended several times due to popularity and demand, although that demand seems contrived at times by the makers. However, I recommend giving it a go. It is silly, not about much or as Shakespeare put it, “Much ado about nothing”, but it has an engaging level of farce that keeps people coming back for more. Certainly, the live audience seem to clamour for more and get aroused over every word uttered.
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