CHRIS Lilley, you’ve done it again.
The eagerly-awaited Angry Boys, so long after Summer Heights High, has delivered more of the sharp observational humour we’ve come to love from this cheeky scamp.
It appears all Lilley’s characters in this one will be linked, with Lilley again playing most roles himself.
A delight so far is “Gran” – an evil old witch who works in a youth detention centre – who epitomises the political incorrectness that is Lilley’s stock in trade.
A highlight was “Gran’s gotchas” … like telling an inmate he’s got early release, packing his bags, taking him down to the gate, and then saying it’s all a joke.
Add the kind of racist epithets you haven’t heard in Australia for a decade, and the moral police have their panties in quite a bunch.
But it’s not just the racial jibes. There’s also the language. Oh, the potty-mouthed language.
Lilley has unerring eye and ear for what makes Australians tick, and it was pleasing to see last week’s media efforts to beat up the bad language fall flat on their face.
Angry Boys is not yet the triumph that Summer Heights High was, but we haven’t had a chance to fall in love with the characters yet.
That will happen this week, when Lilley blacks up to portray American negro hardcore rapper S.Mouse. And I for one can’t wait.
– Jason Beck
