Author: Stuart

Shaun gets more than he bargained for when a car he was buying turns out to be an ocean liner. Meanwhile, Roz and Francis are up to their old necks too when a horse they were impersonating has to be put down.

Actually, first Shaun recognised the traditional owners of this timeslot: Mother and Son (1984-1994). This weeks episode was filmed before a live studio audience could leave the chamber. The audience acknowledged they were real.

Shaun felt there was less violence during the Eygipian presidential election than Eurovision. To cover the election, they sent Francis to Chiro not Cairo. Mrs Conroy tells us it’s not easy running a country – so many leaders are in turmoil or have been jailed. Robert Mugabe is an exception, he didn’t even let being voted out of office get in the way of his sense of duty to his country.

The Queen has been running her country twice as long as Robert, and Shaun thinks that her subjects are just as scared. Even Paul McCartney remembers the last time visiting she “touched me with a sword.” He pushed for the ABC to show the Jubilee live, mainly because he doesn’t like Warren Beatty. There were then Vox Pops on the subject of when we should become a republic – “When hell freezes over?”

If you rule a country with too much fear, the UN will come in a monitor you go even further. Kofi Annan doesn’t seem like Syria’s cup of tea. In a report by Charliana Striptank, can Al-Assad’s wife appeal to her husband? Yes, but can she appeal to him to stop the violence?

Time makes some people more cuddly, like Jeff Kennett, who doesn’t think much of prayer rooms at the football. Shaun will defend your right to leave a sporting match to pray, despite the rooms best feature being that they have none.

Schapelle Corby could be out of her Bali hell-hole and back in her Gold Coast one very soon, and Golem Monfries, a free Schapelle advocate says she is stoked. Even if it meant the release of people smugglers, Golem felt smuggling 4kg of drugs was a lot less than 4-5 75kg of people. Shaun recommends you use Google if you want more information.

In Wisdom of the Elders, Francis spoke to William (Bill) Duthie about the anniversary of the Walk for Reconciliation. He felt it was a historic moment, and when he was younger, had no real understanding of Aborginality, but got a bit confused about which famous Aboriginals were which – was it Lionel Rose? The walk was about building bridges using an existing bridge, a great time saver, and involved 300,000 people or 600,000 legs walking as one massed leg. After forgetting what he was talking about, Bill asked Francis to help him mail Captain Cook’s skull back to England via post.

In an upcoming interview with a prostitute, Francis is informed the cost for the hand only, but he wants to know about the whole arm.

In this week’s Miss Fysher’s Murder Mysteries, there was no evidence whatsoever on who was the perpetrator, despite him being caught with the gun over the victim, and continuing to fire it into the body.

Shaun segwayed into Leaning about life through Pop Culture, and in X-Men comics, two men are getting married. Shaun doesn’t like mixed-marriages: a mutant and a non-mutant?!  Which DC character is going to come out? Superman, or the Flash?

Probably not coming up is Shaun debate with representatives of AWU and Mining lobby – Gina Rinehart is a single mother, she needs that $2million an hour.

Inspired by the Neighbours from Hell type story run by Today Tonight or ACA, Sharon Lola Brigita (Roz) covered the story of how Osama Bin Laden remained undiscovered for so long in Pakistan – it was the neighbours, who hadn’t dobbed on him because of his good community engagement – running events, bringing in the bins.

Shaun had a real interview with Rachel Perkins, the director of Mabo. There were comparisons with The Castle, talk of the dance scene, Andrew Bolt’s influence and the involvement of the Mabo family.

There wasn’t time to cover that while $6000 gets you dinner with Tony Abbott, $4.5 gets you dinner without. But Shaun did reflect on Vogue’s decision to not use young or undernourished children – where should they find work now? It’s enough to make you, or them, sick.

What were your favourite moments? Reviews, thoughts?

After much anticipation, it was the first episode of Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell! This week’s episode was also available in mono.

Shaun began explaining how he wasn’t going to be as mad as the opening titles suggest, more of a conduit for what makes us mad. He doesn’t take sides – even his desk has no sides; if he could have it teetering on a fence as a metaphor, he would.

But what fucking got him mad this week is Craig Thomson. As reported, Mr Thompson put Julia Gillard against the wall – literally. And the question was posed – can prostitutes be classified as a “health service”? Julia Gillard couldn’t be drawn on it, but Mark Knight tried.

Shaun asked if opinons can be formed on the basis of what we see. Police shooting bullets into a car is certainly not a very good look, and neither is Au Sung Sui Ki missing the first day of the Burmese parliament – but she’s used to working from home.

Is Peter Slipper a vampire? Ventura Grosby thinks we need to wait for the evidence – if we see him turning into a bat, then he probably is.

Julia Gillard talks to us like we’re retarded, reports Atlanta Monkley. And maybe we are, but the leadership speculation hasn’t ended, and Kevin Rudd keeps bringing up the name of Kevin Rudd. Atlanta interviews two staffers in the Julia and Kevin camps, who disagree on who is saying what. Is that what they’re saying?

After some out of context vox pops, Carrington Mews, private detective, reported on the movements of Christopher Pyne the night he met with the man who alleges Peter Slipper sexually harassed him. Carrington wouldn’t speculate on what happened, but did speculate on what others would speculate.

Perception – Julia Gillard is put around children to make he look more friendly, just like Wayne Swann walking to the treasury makes him look like he knows about the economy.

Paramore Quilt spoke to Cecily Crumb about how politicians are positioned at press conferences. Tony Abbott was put in front of Anzac biscuits to counteract Julia Gillard being at lone pine. Cecily most loved her ‘Tony Takes The Cake’ idea when he was seen cutting a cake.

As Shaun summises, never trust anything on television.

During the break, we were ‘sold’ on the idea of the Carbon Tax package and a new political satire called Back Benched!

Shaun received a few thankyous – ACA and Today Tonight were very similar, and Andrew Bolt sent some unfashionable shoes. Kerry O’Brien’s ghost appeared to also wish good luck.

Shaun tried to interview one of 6 parliamentary members of the Queensland ALP, but after introducing all of the ministries he was shadow minister of, there was no time for the interview.

Clive Palmer wants to build a replica Titanic  – Shaun thinks he would make a great treasurer, he certainly know how to look after money.

How much does a Grecian urn?  Not much at the moment, but if they want to pull out of the Euro, they better get themselves a non minority government. Is it a conspiracy that Greece’s problems began after the release of Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos?

Bethany Dogmueler is housing a refugee and gets $300 a week. He’s from Sudan, which is great as her first child was born a stationwagon.  She plans to adopt him and marry him later in order to keep getting government bonuses.

Before running out of time, Shaun got a massage and paid with a blank cabcharge, and reflected on the float of Facebook – worth more than the value of shares wiped from the Australian stock market in total. Yin and Yang.