gigdiary

I love reading SMH. However, where once jocularity was reserved for Column 8 and the backpage comics, it’s now slap tickling you from the front page. Where once we had to read about the war in Vietnam, or pious pronouncements from the Prime Minister declaring our allegiance to Britain, or even Paul Keating’s dour warnings of the banana republic we had to have, this array of issues no longer causes us to knot our brows.

It’s lite and fluffy all the way with SMH today. If it’s a slow news day, or in internet parlance, a slow half hour, a photo of a cricketer on the front page will lift our spirits. This also works in winter, when a picture of a grimacing footballer in action stirs our blood in a way that would make Pavlov proud.

Politicians also add to this merriment. The slightest off-colour remark by a member from the other party guarantees at least a thousand words of copy, and the seemingly neverending rebuttals. ‘Who does the ironing in your house’ was one recent column filler. May as well have been who let the dogs out.

With Kevin 07, hoping to be Kev 11, on one side, and the boxer formerly known as the Mad Monk on the other, politics can become a trifle boring. Fortunately SMH holds its highest card till last, and usurps all other stories, even the NRL bad boys, with the ever relentless ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Vacuous’.

There is a wide scope here for creative thinking and the journos are more than up to it. Headlines shout loudly, then report an almost unrelated story. To wit, the Bingle Bungle apparently descended further into the sewer yesterday, one earnest Bach. of Communications graduate reported. Turns out she threw her engagement ring down the toilet. That boy has a bright future ahead.

Still, I shouldn’t complain, after all I’ve been able to cancel my subscription to MAD Magazine. Comedy this good doesn’t come cheap, but apparently with SMH it does. The only catch is that they want you to believe it’s real.