Say what you want about the bloke, but Charlie Pickering and his show, ‘The Weekly‘, prove pretty regularly that they have that John Oliver-esque ability to pull off the impossibly difficult task of mixing solid political insight with hilarious social commentary.
Take tonight’s episode, for example. Pickering kicked it off by talking about the Q Society – a disgusting group for conservative Aussies who vehemently oppose Islam. A suite of Q Society fundraising dinners were held across the country last week – attended by literal demon/Senator Cory Bernardi, human polyp/cartoonist Larry Pickering, and steaming pile of filth/political commentator Ross Cameron.
Pickering (cartoonist, not the lefty bloke) allegedly made a series of truly horrific (but tragically unsurprising) comments about Muslims and gay people, including something along the lines of how not all Muslims are that bad because they throw gays off buildings.
Cory reckoned that these statements were “out of line”, and Charlie P. noted that if you prompted Bernardi to reckon you were out of line, “you must be ripping into opinions so extreme you make Pauline Hanson go, ‘come on, that’s a bit much’”.
Killer burn.
Cameron also had some stuff to say about it – that Pickering is a “comic artist” who offered “an attempt at a joke… our job was to entertain the crowd”.
Charlie P. was then joined by actual comedian Tom Gleeson, who (obvs. sarcastically) insisted to Charlie that the rhetoric spewed by these vile men are indeed jokes – claiming that he went to the Q Society dinner himself to “get some new material”.
As Charlie read through the series of terrible statements – including, but not limited to, Cameron’s contention that “The NSW division of the Liberal Party is basically a gay club” and “I don’t mind that they’re gay, I just wish, like Hadrian, they would build a wall” – Gleeson responded to every point with equally as ridiculous claims like “that’s a classic” or “I don’t even get that, but it’s good”.
Ultimately, Gleeson revealed that – considering the outrageous hilarity of the totally cooked things these ‘people’ have been saying – he chose to take his “new material” to an actual comedy club, where the audience were totally unaware that they would bear witness to a slew of racist and homophobic comments.
The crowd did not take it well, and each of Gleeson’s “jokes” were met with crickets (AKA proving the point he wanted to make all along).
Charlie P. ended on this powerful note:
“If the silent majority are so silent that nobody can hear them, are they a majority at all?”
Phwoar. Brace yourself for an incredibly uncomfortable watch and have a squiz below:
MUST WATCH: @nonstoptom headed out to his local comedy club to test the latest “jokes” from Q Society dinners.#TheWeekly pic.twitter.com/CVeDmj2sGJ
— The Weekly (@theweeklytv) February 15, 2017
Photo: Twitter / The Weekly.
