Everybody’s got their own two cents on ShireGate, the media furore surrounding Channel 10’s dramality The Shire, but not many received the kind of airing and response that Sydney-based producers James Woods and Jay Cagatay did when their five-minute YouTube clip purporting to be leaked footage from the controversial show went viral and received 70,000 views plus coverage in every national news service and beyond. We took five minutes for a quick Q&A – or QYIEEEW & A – to discuss the clip, going viral, and, of course, Snooki.
PEDESTRIAN: How did the original idea for the clip come about?
J&J: As soon as we saw the ‘sizzle reel’ and that dude saying ‘yiew boys’ we knew we had to put on our satirising hats. It was too good to pass up.
Where are you guys from?
We both grew up in the Shire.
You’ve obviously got pretty good local knowledge then. Would you consider Declan and Tom to be a pretty accurate depiction of twenty-somethings from the Shire, or are they completely overblown parodies?
Jay: There should always be truth in comedy.. that’s what makes a joke even funnier. There are some exaggerations in our characters of course, but a lot of the gags are based on situations that are ‘the norm’ for some people. And some of these situations aren’t bad either, but putting them in context with our ‘bro-ey’ Deco and Tom personas make them seem a lot more embarassing.
James: Yeah, that. The characters were essentially an amalgam of a bunch of different people we’ve encountered. They’re overblown, but I wouldn’t say completely overblown.
What did you make of the local council’s initial (and failed) response to try and shut down filming of The Shire? Including statements that Mayor Provan would implement roadblocks to stop film crews and urged local residents to actively resist cooperation with film crews?
Jay: I can understand her argument. She went on Sunrise (I love that show) and basically said the producers had fed her a completely different idea of what The Shire would be before she saw the sizzle reel. However, she can’t stop people or corporations from filming in a public place. She can’t stop contenders from desperately wanting to be part of the cast for their 15 minutes, and she can’t stop the public from watching car-crash TV. That’s why “Snooki” is a commonly recognised word in our society, and not some sort of obscure Russian sex thing.
James: It’s kind of silly, really. Trying to ban a show is essentially the best way to ensure it will be a success.
I understand Shine producers tried to have YouTube remove the clip for copyright infringement. Have producers contacted you directly?
Jay: That whole thing was pretty silly. You can’t file a copyright infringement claim to YouTube if we’re not infringing on your copyright. Ten were – rightly – scoffing at the Council for wanting to ban the filming of their show. But then, someone from Ten goes and tries to ban a parody of their show? They should have just linked to it on their Facebook and gone like “haha good 1 guyz! we’ll hav da real fing up 4 u Shire fans soon so stay t00ned!” Also someone from Shine did contact me to say they thought the clip was great.
What’s your take on the response to the clip so far? A lot of people seem pretty convinced of its authenticity.
Jay: We did this one a budget of $0, with 1 camera and 1 crew (a best friend). So when I read stuff saying “SLICKLY PRODUCED” I just felt really flattered. We love comedy, we love making people laugh, we love satire and we’d love to do this kind of stuff full-time. So prospective TV execs: hey. if we did this with $0, just think what we could do if you gave us .. $5000? Or the entire marketing budget of Excess Baggage!?
James: It’s fairly funny. Most people love it, which is nice, however the people who hate it may be the exact types of people we’re satirising.
Will you guys watch The Shire?
Jay: I’ll probably watch 30 seconds of it on YouTube and go “Ok, that exists.”
James: Nahhhhhhhhhhhh.
And most importantly, will there be a sequel?
Jay: We have some great ideas for another one.. and a lot of footage we had to cut. But at the moment, the clip speaks for itself with what we wanted to do. We’re always paying close attention to pop culture and anything in the news we think would make a unique and ridiculous bit of comedy or satire.
James: Yeah, there’s no real need to follow it up. We don’t want to be known as those guys who do that Shire bogan schtick. We did exactly what we wanted to do with this video and any sequel would essentially be the same jokes, or the same comic themes at least. Having said that, it’s tempting to produce a full episode and see if we can get more viewers than the show itself…
