WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.779 Welcome to the deep dive. Whether you are prepping 00:00:02.779 --> 00:00:05.299 for a meeting, catching up on a specific field, 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:09.259 or you're just insanely curious about how pop 00:00:09.259 --> 00:00:11.619 culture actually evolves, you are in exactly 00:00:11.619 --> 00:00:14.500 the right place. You really are. Today we have 00:00:14.500 --> 00:00:17.260 a massive fascinating stack of source material 00:00:17.260 --> 00:00:20.300 to get through. Specifically, we are looking 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:23.300 at an expansive, deeply detailed Wikipedia article 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:25.640 that covers the careers of the legendary Australian 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:29.589 comedy duo Roy and HG. It is a remarkable document 00:00:29.589 --> 00:00:31.190 to read through. I mean, we are talking about 00:00:31.190 --> 00:00:33.969 decades of broadcasting history, cultural impact, 00:00:34.329 --> 00:00:36.990 media evolution, all packed right into these 00:00:36.990 --> 00:00:38.950 pages. It's quite the journey. Our mission for 00:00:38.950 --> 00:00:41.250 this deep dive is to explore how two comedians, 00:00:41.329 --> 00:00:43.509 essentially pretending to be sports broadcasters, 00:00:43.609 --> 00:00:46.490 managed to sustain a career for nearly 40 years. 00:00:46.649 --> 00:00:49.329 Which is practically unheard of. Right. And they 00:00:49.329 --> 00:00:51.170 didn't just parody the culture they were commenting 00:00:51.170 --> 00:00:53.450 on. They actually became real world cultural 00:00:53.450 --> 00:00:56.109 institutions in the process. And here is the 00:00:56.109 --> 00:00:59.000 hook for you listening. Whether you're a diehard 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:01.460 sports fanatic who lives and breathes statistics 00:01:01.460 --> 00:01:04.379 or you couldn't care less about athletics and 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:06.140 you change the channel the second a game comes 00:01:06.140 --> 00:01:08.959 on, there is a master class here in deadpan satire. 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:10.879 Oh, absolutely. We are going to be talking about 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:14.480 completely made up Olympic bids, fake talk shows, 00:01:14.599 --> 00:01:17.739 and a level of commitment to a bid that is almost 00:01:17.739 --> 00:01:20.420 unmatched in modern entertainment. What makes 00:01:20.420 --> 00:01:23.260 this duo so uniquely brilliant and what really 00:01:23.260 --> 00:01:25.239 stands out when you synthesize this source material 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:28.319 is their incredible adaptability. Yeah. They 00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:32.680 survived and honestly thrived across radio, television, 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:36.000 and decades of shifting media landscapes, all 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:37.879 while maintaining these incredibly specific, 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:40.739 unwavering personas. Okay, let's unpack this. 00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:43.019 Because to understand the longevity of the act, 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:44.840 you really have to understand the core dynamic 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:47.219 between the two of them. The duo actually consists 00:01:47.219 --> 00:02:00.049 of Greg Pickhaver and John Doerr. It's a classic 00:02:00.049 --> 00:02:03.129 double act, but it's got a very specific satirical 00:02:03.129 --> 00:02:06.329 twist. So Pickhaver's character, H .G. Nelson, 00:02:06.590 --> 00:02:09.930 is positioned as the overly excitable, perpetually 00:02:09.930 --> 00:02:12.789 enthusiastic play -by -play announcer. The hype 00:02:12.789 --> 00:02:15.469 guy. Exactly. He's the guy who treats every minor 00:02:15.469 --> 00:02:18.900 pass or fumble as a historic moment. On the other 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:21.300 side, you have Doyle's character rampaging Roy 00:02:21.300 --> 00:02:24.199 Slavin. Roy is pitched as the retired sporting 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:27.240 legend turned ultra serious expert commentator. 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:30.199 Got it. He is stoic. He speaks with this faux 00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:32.719 gravitas. And he acts as though his years on 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:34.919 the field have given him some profound, almost 00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:37.020 philosophical insight into the human condition. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:39.280 So they're essentially playing every sports broadcasting 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:41.620 trope we've ever seen. But it feels like the 00:02:41.620 --> 00:02:44.180 target of the satire is a bit broader than just 00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:45.939 the guys sitting in the commentary booth. That 00:02:45.939 --> 00:02:48.300 is a great observation. Yeah. act as a deeply 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:51.539 affectionate but entirely irreverent parody of 00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:54.000 Australia's intense, almost religious obsession 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:57.159 with sport. Yeah, sport is huge there. Massive. 00:02:57.300 --> 00:03:00.539 But beyond that, it's a parody of the bloated 00:03:00.539 --> 00:03:04.039 nature of sports journalism itself. They captured 00:03:04.039 --> 00:03:07.319 the cadence, the self -importance and the absolute 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:10.639 absurdity of men sitting around in suits, analyzing 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:13.120 a game of football as if it were a matter of 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:15.099 national security. And they never broke character. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:17.020 That is the thing that continually surprised 00:03:17.020 --> 00:03:20.580 me reading through the sources. You listen to 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:23.080 them or watch them and they treat their fabricated 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:26.960 world as absolute. unvarnished reality. It's 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:29.080 incredible discipline. It really is. It's like 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:32.259 long form improvisational theater masquerading 00:03:32.259 --> 00:03:34.620 as a weekend sports wrap up. But surely that 00:03:34.620 --> 00:03:37.060 alienated some viewers early on. I mean, did 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:39.620 the actual sports networks or the athletes ever 00:03:39.620 --> 00:03:42.020 take offense to this parallel universe they were 00:03:42.020 --> 00:03:44.360 broadcasting? You'd think so, wouldn't you? But 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:46.400 their approach was so deadpan and so thoroughly 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:48.719 committed that it actually bypassed defensiveness 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:50.900 and won people over. They weren't vicious. They 00:03:50.900 --> 00:03:53.960 weren't attacking the athletes maliciously. Instead, 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:56.900 they employed a very specific guiding philosophy. 00:03:57.699 --> 00:03:59.520 There's a vital quote in the source material 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:03.000 from H .G. Nelson's 1996 book Petrol, Bait, Ammo 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:06.280 and Ice that perfectly defines their entire comedic 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:08.740 style. Oh, what is it? He described their approach 00:04:08.740 --> 00:04:11.719 as making the serious trivial and the trivial 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:14.340 serious. Making the serious trivial and the trivial 00:04:14.340 --> 00:04:17.160 serious. That is an incredibly potent way to 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:20.110 look at media. But why do you think that specific 00:04:20.110 --> 00:04:22.589 formula resonated so deeply with the public? 00:04:22.769 --> 00:04:25.500 Well... If you think about the psychology of 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:28.180 it, we are constantly bombarded by the hyper 00:04:28.180 --> 00:04:30.439 -serious nature of the daily news cycle. Everything 00:04:30.439 --> 00:04:33.199 is breaking news. Exactly. And sports media often 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:35.959 mimics that urgency. We're told every grand final 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:38.500 is the most important event in history. By treating 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:41.160 a monumental sporting event like a casual afterthought 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:44.040 and simultaneously treating some bizarre, obscure 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:47.560 detail like a player's fictional hobby, as if 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:49.160 it's the most important thing in human history, 00:04:49.339 --> 00:04:51.819 they expose the artificial stakes of the media. 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:55.180 It gives you, the audience, permission to enjoy 00:04:55.180 --> 00:04:58.000 the spectacle of sport without being emotionally 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.480 manipulated by the hype. It's a massive relief 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.160 valve. Precisely. That makes total sense. It 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:05.339 cuts through the noise and lets you just laugh 00:05:05.339 --> 00:05:08.660 at how seriously we take ourselves. And that 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:11.120 philosophy clearly worked because they absolutely 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:14.230 conquered the radio landscape. Let's talk about 00:05:14.230 --> 00:05:16.730 where this really took root, the Triple J era. 00:05:16.930 --> 00:05:19.589 A legendary run. Yeah. For those listening who 00:05:19.589 --> 00:05:21.889 might not be familiar with the Australian broadcasting 00:05:21.889 --> 00:05:25.850 landscape, what exactly is Triple J and why was 00:05:25.850 --> 00:05:27.990 it significant that they started there? Triple 00:05:27.990 --> 00:05:30.370 J is Australia's national youth broadcaster. 00:05:30.990 --> 00:05:33.129 Historically, it's known for alternative music, 00:05:33.350 --> 00:05:36.509 grunge, counterculture, pushing boundaries. Right. 00:05:36.569 --> 00:05:38.790 So not exactly the traditional home of sports 00:05:38.790 --> 00:05:41.709 radio. Not at all. So having a multi -hour weekend 00:05:41.709 --> 00:05:44.290 sports show on a youth network that was traditionally 00:05:44.290 --> 00:05:47.209 anti -establishment was always a juxtaposition. 00:05:47.209 --> 00:05:49.949 It was the perfect incubator for a show that 00:05:49.949 --> 00:05:52.449 was essentially a subversive parody of the establishment. 00:05:52.769 --> 00:05:55.819 And it wasn't just a brief experiment. They hosted 00:05:55.819 --> 00:05:58.779 this live, improvised, satirical radio program 00:05:58.779 --> 00:06:02.100 called This Sporting Life on Triple J from 1986 00:06:02.100 --> 00:06:06.980 all the way to 2008. 22 years. 22 years. It ultimately 00:06:06.980 --> 00:06:09.199 became the longest -running program in the history 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:11.579 of the station. The source notes that its cultural 00:06:11.579 --> 00:06:14.620 significance was so massive that in 2013, it 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:17.500 was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's 00:06:17.500 --> 00:06:20.420 Sounds of Australia Registry. And let's not forget 00:06:20.420 --> 00:06:23.560 the critical acclaim. A 30th anniversary retrospective 00:06:23.560 --> 00:06:26.699 collection of the show actually won an ARIA award, 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:30.259 which is Australia's premier music industry award. 00:06:30.339 --> 00:06:34.019 Wow. For best comedy release in 2016. They were 00:06:34.019 --> 00:06:35.959 consistently putting out comedy albums based 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:37.939 on their radio work going back to the late 80s 00:06:37.939 --> 00:06:40.180 and early 90s with brilliant pun heavy titles 00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:42.379 like Pound for Pound or Wicket to Wicket. So 00:06:42.379 --> 00:06:44.740 they're basically building an empire on audio. 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:47.899 But how do they expand beyond just a weekly studio 00:06:47.899 --> 00:06:50.060 show? If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:52.360 what's remarkable is that they recognize that 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:54.459 the ultimate medium for their satire was live, 00:06:54.500 --> 00:06:57.019 momentous events. So they started broadcasting 00:06:57.019 --> 00:07:00.620 live alternative commentaries. Live commentary. 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:04.459 That is bold. Very. They didn't just talk about 00:07:04.459 --> 00:07:06.300 the games after the fact. They called them live. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:09.279 They covered the major rugby league and Aussie 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:11.759 rules grand finals. They called those the Festival 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:13.899 of the Boot, parts one and two, right? Correct. 00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:16.500 They also called the Melbourne Cup. which is 00:07:16.500 --> 00:07:19.079 Australia's most famous horse race. And they 00:07:19.079 --> 00:07:21.339 did live commentary for the state of origin, 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:24.399 which is arguably Australia's most fiercely contested 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:27.420 tribal rugby league rivalry. So people could 00:07:27.420 --> 00:07:30.120 just tune into them instead. Exactly. They offered 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:32.839 the public a parallel broadcast universe. You 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:34.480 could turn down the volume on your television 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:36.879 broadcast with the serious commentators, turn 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:39.279 off the radio, and experience the biggest sporting 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:42.199 events in the country entirely through the surreal 00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:45.439 lens of Roy and HG. That is such a brilliant 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:47.720 concept. You're actively choosing to watch the 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.319 real event but consume their fictionalized narrative 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:52.240 of it. And they didn't even limit themselves 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:54.300 strictly to sports. I read that they applied 00:07:54.300 --> 00:07:56.899 this exact same sports commentary style to the 00:07:56.899 --> 00:08:00.279 1988 Bicentennial celebrations. They did. They 00:08:00.279 --> 00:08:03.300 even covered the 2007 Australian federal election. 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:06.439 Yes, which they titled Indecision 07. What's 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:08.899 fascinating there is how they could take a polarizing, 00:08:08.980 --> 00:08:11.660 highly charged political event like a federal 00:08:11.660 --> 00:08:14.819 election and strip the partisanship right out 00:08:14.819 --> 00:08:17.100 of it. Right. By filtering the election entirely 00:08:17.100 --> 00:08:20.259 through the neutral, ridiculous, hyper analytical 00:08:20.259 --> 00:08:24.600 lens of sports commentary, they managed to impartially 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:27.300 report on the political process without taking 00:08:27.300 --> 00:08:29.920 any political sides whatsoever. Right. It just 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:32.279 proves how versatile their formula was. And that 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:36.019 versatility is exactly why they have. endured 00:08:36.019 --> 00:08:38.240 for so long. Their journey through the radio 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:41.299 landscape alone is an incredible testament to 00:08:41.299 --> 00:08:43.039 their staying power. Yeah, they really moved 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:45.519 around. They did. After leaving Triple J in 2008, 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:48.139 they simply adapted. They moved to the commercial 00:08:48.139 --> 00:08:50.200 Triple M network for shows like The Life and 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:52.740 later The Sporting Probe. They had a stint on 00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:54.759 Macquarie Sports Radio with a show called Just 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:56.960 Short of a Length, and ultimately they returned 00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:59.580 to ABC Radio. Which brings us right up to the 00:08:59.580 --> 00:09:01.879 present day. The source material highlights their 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:05.139 2024 Paris Olympics show, People, Medals and 00:09:05.139 --> 00:09:08.500 Cheese. Great title. So good. And their ongoing 00:09:08.500 --> 00:09:10.740 Saturday afternoon show, Bludging on the Blind 00:09:10.740 --> 00:09:13.299 Side. Almost 40 years later, they're still finding 00:09:13.299 --> 00:09:16.539 new ways to talk about sports and culture. Athletes 00:09:16.539 --> 00:09:19.899 retire. Entire sports leagues change their formats. 00:09:20.299 --> 00:09:22.960 But the underlying culture of sports broadcasting. 00:09:23.299 --> 00:09:26.019 Ego, the commercialism, the hype. Yeah, all of 00:09:26.019 --> 00:09:28.360 that. It never really changes. So their satire 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:31.440 literally never goes out of date. Precisely. 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:33.860 They tapped into a permanent vein of cultural 00:09:33.860 --> 00:09:36.039 absurdity. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:38.500 Because they didn't just conquer radio. They 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:40.659 took over television. And they eventually came 00:09:40.659 --> 00:09:42.879 to completely own the Olympic Games in Australia. 00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:46.960 How does a duo whose entire act relies on the 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:49.799 theater of the mind in a radio booth translate 00:09:49.799 --> 00:09:53.059 that to a visual medium? It took some experimentation. 00:09:53.259 --> 00:09:55.379 It started with some really avant -garde early 00:09:55.379 --> 00:09:58.320 TV appearances. In 1988, they were on an ABC 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:00.659 show called Blah Blah Blah, and the visual gag 00:10:00.659 --> 00:10:02.700 was that they were only seen in silhouettes. 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:04.679 Just silhouettes. Just silhouettes. The great 00:10:04.679 --> 00:10:06.779 visual metaphor for radio broadcasters trying 00:10:06.779 --> 00:10:09.100 to figure out how to exist on television. But 00:10:09.100 --> 00:10:11.769 they clearly figured it out eventually. By the 00:10:11.769 --> 00:10:15.230 mid -90s, they were hosting club buggery. And 00:10:15.230 --> 00:10:18.360 think about how wild this is. These two guys 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:20.659 doing a subversive parody of traditional broadcasting 00:10:20.659 --> 00:10:23.779 actually end up winning a Logie, which is essentially 00:10:23.779 --> 00:10:26.240 Australia's equivalent of an Emmy. Right. For 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.899 most outstanding achievement in comedy in 1997. 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:31.940 The establishment they were actively mocking 00:10:31.940 --> 00:10:34.259 was now handing them trophies. It's the ultimate 00:10:34.259 --> 00:10:36.980 irony. Yeah. But the absolute television goldmine, 00:10:36.980 --> 00:10:38.940 the thing that catapulted them into the stratosphere 00:10:38.940 --> 00:10:41.419 and made them household names, was the Sydney 00:10:41.419 --> 00:10:44.840 2000 Olympics. The big one. The big one. They 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:47.279 hosted a show called The Dream with Roy and HG. 00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:49.940 This was broadcast on the Commercial 7 network, 00:10:50.100 --> 00:10:52.639 and it was a massive, top -rating, late -night 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:55.720 commentary and interview program. It was so successful 00:10:55.720 --> 00:10:58.299 it spawned an entire franchise of Olympic coverage. 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:00.539 It really became a staple. It did. They went 00:11:00.539 --> 00:11:03.100 on to do the Ice Dream for the 2002 Salt Lake 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:05.820 City Winter Olympics, the Cream for the 2003 00:11:05.820 --> 00:11:08.580 Rugby World Cup, and the Dream in Athens for 00:11:08.580 --> 00:11:11.129 the 2004 Olympics. I really want to dive into 00:11:11.129 --> 00:11:13.909 the comedic mechanics of how they made the Olympics 00:11:13.909 --> 00:11:16.769 so funny because the notes give us some brilliant 00:11:16.769 --> 00:11:19.610 examples here. It wasn't just about making fun 00:11:19.610 --> 00:11:21.809 of the sports themselves, was it? No, it was 00:11:21.809 --> 00:11:24.149 much more layered than that. They used a mock 00:11:24.149 --> 00:11:27.450 serious tone. to state completely fictitious 00:11:27.450 --> 00:11:29.690 facts about the real athletes they were watching. 00:11:29.850 --> 00:11:32.169 So they would just lie about them. Essentially, 00:11:32.289 --> 00:11:34.669 yes. They would make up bizarre occupations, 00:11:34.690 --> 00:11:38.289 completely fabricated histories, and weird personality 00:11:38.289 --> 00:11:40.789 quirks for these elite competitors from around 00:11:40.789 --> 00:11:43.789 the world. So instead of a tragic backstory designed 00:11:43.789 --> 00:11:47.009 to make you cry, Roy and HG would calmly explain 00:11:47.009 --> 00:11:50.629 that a world -class European gymnast was actually 00:11:50.629 --> 00:11:53.889 a part -time forklift driver with a passion for 00:11:53.889 --> 00:11:56.629 collecting ceramic frogs. That is hilarious. 00:11:56.789 --> 00:11:59.169 It completely undercuts the manipulative human 00:11:59.169 --> 00:12:01.669 interest fluff pieces that usually dominate Olympic 00:12:01.669 --> 00:12:04.210 coverage. You're watching a world -class athlete 00:12:04.210 --> 00:12:06.909 perform incredible feats while the commentators 00:12:06.909 --> 00:12:09.269 earnestly discuss their fictional ceramic frog 00:12:09.269 --> 00:12:11.470 collection. And they extended that world -building 00:12:11.470 --> 00:12:14.129 to the venues themselves. They invented terminology 00:12:14.129 --> 00:12:16.570 to describe the action. When they covered the 00:12:16.570 --> 00:12:18.570 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics for the ice cream, 00:12:18.730 --> 00:12:22.710 they confidently claimed that a specific treacherous 00:12:22.710 --> 00:12:25.389 section of the Rio Luge track was officially 00:12:25.389 --> 00:12:28.990 known as Gobblers Gulch. Gobblers Gulch. Just 00:12:28.990 --> 00:12:31.570 completely deadpan. Yeah. If you were casually 00:12:31.570 --> 00:12:33.370 flipping channels, you would have absolutely 00:12:33.370 --> 00:12:35.909 no reason to doubt that the official Olympic 00:12:35.909 --> 00:12:39.870 name for that turn was Gobblers Gulch. I saw 00:12:39.870 --> 00:12:42.629 a mention in the notes regarding that 2002 Winter 00:12:42.629 --> 00:12:44.389 Olympics coverage about something called the 00:12:44.389 --> 00:12:48.429 Smiggin' Holes bid. What on earth was that? This 00:12:48.429 --> 00:12:50.350 is perhaps one of the greatest long -running 00:12:50.350 --> 00:12:53.539 gags in Australian television history. During 00:12:53.539 --> 00:12:55.740 the ice dream, they launched a completely fake, 00:12:55.860 --> 00:12:58.879 elaborate campaign to host the upcoming 2010 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:02.279 Winter Olympics in a tiny, real -world Australian 00:13:02.279 --> 00:13:05.519 ski resort area called Smiggin' Holes. A fake 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:08.299 bid for a real town. Yes. And they went all in. 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:10.240 They treated it with the utmost geopolitical 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:12.059 seriousness. Did they actually have a pitch for 00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:14.019 this tiny place? They had an entire marketing 00:13:14.019 --> 00:13:16.879 campaign. They generated absurd slogans and delivered 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:19.299 them with absolute sincerity. They pitched slogans 00:13:19.299 --> 00:13:21.840 like Unleash the Mighty Mongrel and Winter Wonder 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:25.149 Down Under. But the absolute best one. which 00:13:25.149 --> 00:13:27.190 they pitched with a straight face to their audience, 00:13:27.429 --> 00:13:30.149 was, if you've got the polls, we've got the holes. 00:13:30.370 --> 00:13:33.429 That is absurd. The sheer audacity to pitch, 00:13:33.590 --> 00:13:35.629 if you've got the polls, we've got the holes, 00:13:35.730 --> 00:13:38.269 on a major commercial television network during 00:13:38.269 --> 00:13:41.490 the actual Olympics is incredible. It's pure 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:43.990 genius. It's the ultimate expression of making 00:13:43.990 --> 00:13:47.169 the trivial serious. They took the immense billion 00:13:47.169 --> 00:13:49.250 -dollar machinery of an Olympic bidding process 00:13:49.250 --> 00:13:52.269 and reduced it to a cheeky rhyme about a place 00:13:52.269 --> 00:13:55.740 called Smiggin' Holes. Did the networks always 00:13:55.740 --> 00:13:58.980 love this level of unpredictability? Not always. 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:01.759 There's a great moment of industry reality in 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:04.720 the source text regarding the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 00:14:05.399 --> 00:14:07.620 Channel 7 actually didn't select them to cover 00:14:07.620 --> 00:14:09.500 Beijing. Oh, really? According to the sources, 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:12.000 there were security concerns, and Channel 7 management 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:14.860 felt that their specific style, which relied 00:14:14.860 --> 00:14:17.600 on airing live late at night, reviewing the day's 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:20.639 events in a studio, just wouldn't suit the Australian 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:23.200 time zones for Beijing. So what happened? Did 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:25.340 they just sit that Olympics out? Not at all. 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:28.120 They simply pivoted back to their roots. They 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:30.620 went down the street to Triple J Radio and created 00:14:30.620 --> 00:14:32.940 a daily program called the Golden Ring Show, 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:36.460 where Roy was styled as Crouching Tiger and HG 00:14:36.460 --> 00:14:38.559 as the Hidden Dragon. You lock them out of the 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:40.360 television studio, they just go to the radio 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:42.480 booth and keep the bit going? Exactly. They just 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:45.529 could not be stopped. Everything we've talked 00:14:45.529 --> 00:14:48.409 about so far feels incredibly tailored to an 00:14:48.409 --> 00:14:51.850 Australian audience. Did this hyper -localized 00:14:51.850 --> 00:14:54.789 comedy translate overseas at all? Surprisingly, 00:14:54.870 --> 00:14:58.029 yes. It's easy to think of their comedy as something 00:14:58.029 --> 00:15:00.409 only locals would understand, but the themes 00:15:00.409 --> 00:15:02.309 they were playing with translated really well. 00:15:02.490 --> 00:15:05.429 They were essentially exporting a highly satirical 00:15:05.429 --> 00:15:08.889 version of Australian masculinity. How so? What 00:15:08.889 --> 00:15:11.049 does that satirical masculinity look like for 00:15:11.049 --> 00:15:12.590 a listener who might not be familiar with it? 00:15:12.629 --> 00:15:15.909 It's a parody of mateship, stoicism, the pub 00:15:15.909 --> 00:15:18.710 culture vernacular, and this deep -seated cultural 00:15:18.710 --> 00:15:21.669 obsession with giving everyone a fair go. It's 00:15:21.669 --> 00:15:24.210 the image of the rugged Aussie bloke who has 00:15:24.210 --> 00:15:26.669 an opinion on everything and speaks entirely 00:15:26.669 --> 00:15:29.289 in baffling idioms. Okay, I can picture that. 00:15:29.389 --> 00:15:31.750 And the UK audience in particular found that 00:15:31.750 --> 00:15:36.779 hilarious. In 1997, Roy and HG actually fronted 00:15:36.779 --> 00:15:39.720 an ad campaign in the United Kingdom for Foster's 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:42.480 Lager. Their tagline for the campaign was, Tickle 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:44.580 it, you wrigglers. Tickle it, you wrigglers. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:46.779 They even became recurring guests on the Ben 00:15:46.779 --> 00:15:51.000 Elton Show on BBC One in 1998. That leads perfectly 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:53.259 into a show they did in 2005, which is mentioned 00:15:53.259 --> 00:15:55.340 in the notes, The Memphis Trousers Half Hour. 00:15:55.480 --> 00:15:57.620 What was the premise of that project? Because 00:15:57.620 --> 00:15:59.580 the background on this sounds completely surreal. 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:02.600 It was an incredibly bizarre and layered concept 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:06.419 for a show on ABC TV. It was presented as a talk 00:16:06.419 --> 00:16:08.980 show that was supposedly filmed in various American 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:11.500 cities, places like Baltimore or Albuquerque. 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:14.399 The premise was that Roy and HG were bringing 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:17.080 brand new, essential, and completely fabricated 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:19.600 facts about Australia directly to the American 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:22.379 public. But the twist is that it wasn't filmed 00:16:22.379 --> 00:16:25.039 in America at all. It was filmed entirely in 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:27.220 a studio in Sydney. So they were faking the location, 00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:29.759 faking the facts they were delivering, and parodying 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:31.840 the format of the classic American talk show 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:33.580 all at once. And the name of the show itself 00:16:33.580 --> 00:16:37.080 is a layered joke, right? Yes. The title, The 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:39.980 Memphis Trousers Half Hour, comes from a very 00:16:39.980 --> 00:16:43.279 specific, real historical incident where the 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:45.580 former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Frazier 00:16:45.580 --> 00:16:48.340 famously lost his trousers in a Memphis hotel. 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:51.559 Taking a strange, slightly embarrassing footnote 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:54.600 in political history and using it as the title 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:57.220 for a fake American talk show filmed in Sydney 00:16:57.220 --> 00:17:00.940 is just a stroke of comedic genius. It perfectly 00:17:00.940 --> 00:17:03.240 encapsulates their style. It really does. They 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:05.720 take a strange fragment of reality and build 00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:07.980 an entire surreal universe around it without 00:17:07.980 --> 00:17:10.740 ever winking at the camera. Exactly. It requires 00:17:10.740 --> 00:17:12.680 a tremendous amount of discipline to never let 00:17:12.680 --> 00:17:14.440 the audience see you laugh at your own joke. 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:16.759 So what does this all mean? We've covered radio 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:19.759 dominance, winning Logie and ARIA awards, faking 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:22.299 Olympic bids and inventing terminology that entered 00:17:22.299 --> 00:17:25.059 the public lexicon. The key takeaway for you 00:17:25.059 --> 00:17:27.180 listening to this deep dive is the sheer power 00:17:27.180 --> 00:17:29.880 of commitment to a bit. Unwavering commitment. 00:17:30.059 --> 00:17:33.099 By treating the trivial as serious and the serious 00:17:33.099 --> 00:17:36.920 as trivial for nearly 40 years. Roy and HG created 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:39.779 a beloved alternate universe. They built a world 00:17:39.779 --> 00:17:42.359 of sports and culture that has quite literally 00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:45.039 outlasted the very broadcasters, the networks 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:47.579 and the athletes they were originally parodying. 00:17:47.660 --> 00:17:50.039 They became the establishment by making fun of 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:52.140 the establishment. This raises an important question. 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:54.980 And there is one final fascinating fact from 00:17:54.980 --> 00:17:56.420 the source material that we haven't discussed 00:17:56.420 --> 00:17:58.859 yet, which perfectly highlights this transition 00:17:58.859 --> 00:18:02.079 from parody to actual cultural institution. What 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:05.680 is it? In 2001, a visual artist. named Paul Newton 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:09.480 painted a portrait of Roy in HG. Now this didn't 00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:11.759 just hang quietly in a local obscure gallery. 00:18:11.980 --> 00:18:13.980 This portrait was entered into the Archibald 00:18:13.980 --> 00:18:17.099 Prize, which is arguably Australia's most prestigious 00:18:17.099 --> 00:18:19.640 fine art portrait competition. Wait, a portrait 00:18:19.640 --> 00:18:21.880 of two fictional sports commentators was entered 00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:23.579 into the most prestigious fine art competition 00:18:23.579 --> 00:18:26.000 in the country? Yes, and it didn't just enter, 00:18:26.059 --> 00:18:28.400 it won. It won. It won the Packing Room Prize 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:30.380 and it won the People's Choice Award. That is 00:18:30.380 --> 00:18:32.720 unbelievable. So I want to leave you with this 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:35.589 thought to mull over. What does it actually say 00:18:35.589 --> 00:18:39.210 about the nature of modern culture when a satirical, 00:18:39.329 --> 00:18:41.730 completely fictionalized sports broadcasting 00:18:41.730 --> 00:18:45.230 duo ends up being immortalized and celebrated 00:18:45.230 --> 00:18:48.230 by the public in one of a country's most respected 00:18:48.230 --> 00:18:52.329 fine art institutions? Where exactly is the line 00:18:52.329 --> 00:18:55.970 between parodying national treasures and actually 00:18:55.970 --> 00:18:58.660 becoming them? That is such a profound question 00:18:58.660 --> 00:19:01.099 to end on. If you pretend to be a legend long 00:19:01.099 --> 00:19:03.059 enough with enough conviction, maybe you just 00:19:03.059 --> 00:19:05.859 become one. Thank you so much for joining us 00:19:05.859 --> 00:19:07.980 on this deep dive. We hope you enjoyed exploring 00:19:07.980 --> 00:19:10.500 the bizarre, brilliant, and deeply committed 00:19:10.500 --> 00:19:13.319 world of Roy and HG with us. It's been a pleasure 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:15.940 to unpack all of this. Keep questioning the serious 00:19:15.940 --> 00:19:18.359 things in life, and maybe take a moment to appreciate 00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:20.759 the trivial a little bit more. Well said. Thanks 00:19:20.759 --> 00:19:22.759 for listening, and we will catch you on the next 00:19:22.759 --> 00:19:23.339 deep dive.