![]() ![]() G operate with the same smug cluelessness of Baron Cohen characters like Borat (the anti-Semitic Kazakh) and Bruno (his over-the-top Austrian fashion reporter). Horrified by her lowly surroundings, she divides humanity into "fugly poor people" and "rich hot people," and blurts out her offensive convictions with the same frequency that she exclaims "that’s so random" and "oh my god." Privileged, silly and cruel, Ja’mie is a private school girl serving a public school term at Summer Heights High. But there’s nothing camp or winking about Lilley’s portrayal of Ja’mie, which skewers a certain type of teenage nightmare - the rich bitch. He distils her self-consciousness in two gestures: incessant hair twirling/flipping and a coy tilt of the head. ![]() Kitted out in a public school uniform, a long, auburn wig and lip gloss, Lilley plays the 16-year-old girl more convincingly than a 33-year-old man should be able to. Ja’mie (pronounced "Ja-may" - though only by her, oddly enough) is Lilley’s opportunity to "frock up" (i.e. His insane song lyrics provide many of the show’s best laughs and his crimes against political correctness - particularly with the special-ed kids - are a testament to Lilley’s fearlessness. is the most recognizable comic type on the show, but his familiarity makes him no less amusing. G writes a jaunty musical about the drug overdose of a student another time, he lobbies to have a 10,000-seat centre for performing arts built to serve his talents. G’s surplus self-worth and peculiar creativity. ![]() Clair (played by Chistopher Guest) in Mr. "You’ve got an industry-level entertainment professional for the price of a teacher," he tells us.įans of Waiting for Guffman may see something of Corky St. G shares with David Brent (Gervais on The Office) is that he’s convinced he’s a first-class entertainer stalled in a third-rate profession. (Yes, it’s a one-man show.) One quirk Mr. He also has a habit of discussing his ridiculously inappropriate original compositions, like Tsunamarama, a musical inspired (!) by the tsunami of 2004 and set to the music of Bananarama. In every episode, he’s either singing, dancing or workshopping bizarre scenes ("Grandma’s been raped") for the kids. Vain, self-absorbed and completely indifferent to the feelings of his students and fellow teachers, Mr. Like Cohen, Lilley inhabits his creations. But as a performer, Lilley has more in common with Sacha Baron Cohen, the provocateur behind Da Ali G Show and the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of American for Make Benefit of Glorious Kazakhstan. Lilley’s interest in the absurd horrors of small-scale social reality lends itself to comparisons with Ricky Gervais, known for taking on the minutiae of working life in The Office and Extras. Emmy).Īnother of Lilley's characters in Summer Heights High is Ja'mie, a snobby female student. The effort won Lilley awards from the Australian Film Institute and garnered him his first Logie (akin to the U.S. In 2005, he wrote and performed in the six-part mockumentary series We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year (which also featured Ja’mie King). Lilley started out as a standup comic, and spent a season on an Aussie sketch comedy show called Big Bite. With the exception of cannibalism, Summer Heights High leaves no taboo unspoken. In the eight 30-minute episodes that make up Summer Heights High’s first season, he manages to land a joke on every hot-button topic going: racism, incest, rape, bullying, child abuse, teen drug-use, the enduring class war, teenagers with Down syndrome. G"), the school’s egomaniacal drama teacher Ja’mie King, a 16-year-old "private school girl" and 13-year-old Jonah Takalua, a Polynesian outcast who can’t read, sit still or stay out of trouble.įor Lilley, high school provides endless material for satire. Lilley, who created and wrote the show, plays the three central characters: Mr. Aussie performer Chris Lilley is a writer, satirist, musician and elastic comic character actor who disappears into his often monstrous, sometimes heartbreaking characterizations with Peter Sellers-like ease.Īs successful as it was controversial in Australia - where it originally aired in 2007 - the mock-doc Summer Heights High purports to record the goings-on at an Aussie public school over the course of one term. ![]()
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