HAS the world gone beyond satire?
Are the people in charge now more outlandish than any dark, outrageous comedy skit?
Comedian Kate Smurthwaite attempts to wade through all the geo-political bullshit and make sense of the 21st century in her latest show Severe Lacerations to Head.
The Brit knows a thing or two about lampooning political leaders—she’s written for shows like Have I Got News For You and Breaking The News, and has been a political comedian for more than two decades.
So where do you start with someone who wants to annex Greenland?
• London-based comic Kate Smurthwaite had an unexpected name-check from Noel Gallagher (below) last year.
“I don’t find it hard to satirise politics because there’s always an angle, a different way of looking at things,” Smurthwaite says.
“One of the first rules of satire is that whatever horrifying crazy thing you come up with; within 12 months politicians will have done it, or probably worse.
“The most obvious example would be when the show Black Mirror had a storyline about the prime minister of Britain behaving inappropriately with a pig. (I’ll let your readers Google that in your own time, don’t do it at work).”
Smurthwaite isn’t afraid to take on world leaders, despots and even rich middle-aged rock stars.
Last year she got into a verbal spat with Noel Gallagher, after she blamed Oasis for the cancellation of her show when they played in Edinburgh during the Fringe.
Gallagher took her to task on stage at Murrayfield Stadium, in front of a massive, beer-swilling, Brit Pop-adoring, quasi-religious crowd.
“I was a casual Oasis fan in my student days,” Smurthwaite says.
“I had the albums but I usually played obscure old reggae if people came over so they would know how interesting I was (actually I still love old reggae).
Oasis
“I was not a fan of the band deciding to play Edinburgh in the middle of the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe, pushing hotel prices up to over £1000 (A$2000) a night, making life very hard for visiting performers and Fringe-goers.”
Smurthwaite has bigger fish to fry—political nutjobs.
But her biggest challenge might be keeping up with the rapidly-changing world events from Venezuela to Nicole Kidman’s divorce.
“I wrote a show about Trump and how he’s such good friends with Elon Musk. Then I threw that bit out. I wrote about the horrific things happening in the news and by the next week something even more horrific had happened,” she says.
“I’m asking you to buy a ticket right now to a show that will definitely have changed unrecognisably by the time you actually see it. The Musk stuff is out, the Venezuela stuff may or may not still be relevant. The story about how Noel Gallagher called my a lesbian will probably still be there.”
Her show will feature her usual blend of personal stories and satire, with Smurthwaite not afraid to tackle delicate issues.
“Probably the most revealing show I ever wrote was Clit Stirrer,” she says.
Her latest is aptly titled Severe Lacerations to Head.
“Last year my doctor gave me a print out of my medical history, which I needed for an official application,” she says.
I was worried it would be eight pages of UTIs but when I opened it, it said Severe Lacerations to Head.
“I wasn’t expecting this because I thought that was the sort of thing I would remember. Unless the lacerations were really bad… but the phrase also struck me as a metaphor for how I feel about the world right now.”
Kate Smurthwaite is at the Flaming Galah in Fremantle on January 28 and February 5 as part of Fringe World. Tix at fringeworld.com.au and more info at katesmurthwaite.co.uk.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK