This was published 7 years ago
Armando Iannucci: politicians have stolen my best lines
By Linda Morris
The comedic mind behind television political satires Veep and The Thick Of It has ruled out new seasons, saying he is reluctant to return to parody the inner workings of government when politicians have so convincingly stolen his best lines.
At the premiere event of the Sydney Writers' Festival which starts May 22, Armando Iannucci told a large audience at the Sydney Town Hall on Tuesday night he was both delighted and horrified by the ever shrinking space between television satire and reality. And without naming him, he had a dig at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for appropriating a campaign slogan invented for Veep.
Iannucci decided he had had enough of The Thick of It, when the British political spoof turned the foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker into a hero of political aspirants. "Malcolm Tucker is the problem not the solution," he said.
To those who partly blame Iannucci's acerbic writing for current voter disenchantment in politics, "my reply is we come up with the most stupid, dumb and inane things possible and then our politicians will get in touch with us and say, 'how did you find that out?"'
Political satirist Armando Iannucci opened the Sydney Writers' Festival on Tuesday night. Credit: Matt Crockett
Iannucci gave the example of an episode of The Thick of It in which Tucker informs the minister there is no money for a grand policy announcement and tells him to come up with another that costs nothing. He got the actors to improvise. ''Within the next four of five years three of those policies they came up with were law: antisocial behavioural orders on pets, it would be compulsory for everyone to carry a plastic bag and a national spare room data base.
''Fast forward to Veep, Selina Meyers runs for election as president. We say let's come up with her campaign slogan, let's come up with the daftest, simplest, most inane slogan, it gives nothing away - continuity with change.'' The slightly modified phrase ''continuity and change'' was subsequently used by the Prime Minister.
Iannucci has just finished directing a tragicomedy about the final days before the death of Stalin in 1953. The film is due for release later this year. Comedians, he said, needed to rethink their approach to the US president, Donald Trump, and not go for the ''easy joke''. ''Satire is about taking something that is true and twisting and distorting it and making it absurd but that is what he does anyway. Every sentence is a masterclass in comedy. I think comedy is having a little reset and rethink.''
Political change cannot come about by the telling jokes: ''Peter Cook used to talk about the wonderful Cabaret in Weimar Germany in the 1930s, it did so much to stop Nazism. Political comedy took off in the UK under Margaret Thatcher who went on to win three more elections.
Famously foul mouthed figure: Malcolm Tucker , the colourful character from The Thick of It.
At best political comedy can help maybe articulate the way what people may feel about something, the way they respond to something, the way they analyse something differently but it you want to change stuff you've got to join a party or encourage others to get involved.''
In the lead up to the UK election, Iannucci is involved in a campaign to lift the youth vote. While ever turnout among young voters remained low, it was easy for politicians to cut education and youth benefits.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina in the HBO spoof Veep.Credit: AP
Iannucci went to the same school as Billy Connolly but not at the same time. Connolly's ''play on the crucifixion'' was regarded by the teachers of Iannuci's Catholic school as ''heinous blasphemy'' until Connolly become famous and was invited back. ''And that's when I learned about institutional hypocrisy.''
He aims for comedy that is the ''blend of the clever and the stupid at the same time''. Radio comedy, where he started, was a ''great discipline because you don't have visual effects and a set and it's just the sound, it forces you to make each word important and there is nothing worse than listening to radio that is too long''. ''That discipline forces you to write with economy and as sharp as you can.''
For the The Thick of It Iannucci went behind the scenes of government. ''It's a very frenetic, highly stressful, pressurised environment ... everyone is striving to be the ballsiest in the office. There is a lot of people thinking that what they are doing is the single most important thing taking place on planet earth at that moment. So if it's not f---ing happening there is going to be blood on the carpet. And all it is they are trying to come up with a press release about some veteran games that might be happening in four years time.''
Iannucci knew the series had to contain swearing but tried tom make it interesting. A member of the writing team was the ''swearing consultant'' Ian Martin, who ''right from day one'' coined one of Tucker's famous insults: ''as useless as a marzipan dildo''. ''A lot of The Thick of It is grown ups acting as children under pressure,'' he said
Armando Iannucci will appear at a Wheeler Centre event at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre on May 3. The event is booked out.