Yahoo Serious
Yahoo Serious is running late (for an interview with Bert) and, as a direct result tries to pack too many things into the 20 minutes allowed for a press interview. He apologises for eating his lunch while talking, and proceeds to pack his ham and lettuce sandwich with french fries from the side of the plate. He tries to ascertain whether or not his interviewer is a surfer and for a while seems more willing to discuss great Victorian surfing spots rather than his film. These things would not be on most people’s list of priorities when there was an understanding that Bert Newton might be kept waiting, but the man who would be referred to as Yahoo has a different set of priorities to most people.
It seems that Yahoo’s priorities lie in trying to achieve everything possible in the amount of time given. This is quite obviously translated in the way he makes his films. Writer, director, producer and actor, Serious doesn’t want to miss out on anything in the process. There is always the danger that taking on too many things at once may compromise the overall result (the sandwich may not be finished, the interview may be cut short, the film might not be as perfect as he would have it), but then again, if he didn’t take on too many things at once, it wouldn’t be a Yahoo Serious project.
“I love it,” says Serious of his primary past time, surfing. “I always try to write it in the movies but it’s the damnedest sport because it’s not a competitive thing, so it doesn’t work in a way with the curves you have to have in a film to make the story work.”
In his latest film, however, Serious seems to have managed to find a place for everything but surfing. Suicidal fish, fratricide, extraterrestrial vehicle hub-caps, and large-arsed policewomen all play a role in Mr Accident. The film is so jam packed with things that Serious has tries to fit into the curves of the story, that those curves often become bulges which, as is our experience with goitres and buboes, can be somewhat unsightly.
“It’s so hard to get the money to make Australian films, I always think that I try to put about four times worth of scripts into one,” says Serious, which explains an awful lot. “Also, it kind of makes it much more fun to make. You’ll give yourself little challenges like I thought ‘let’s have the big fat person comedy thing.’ But how can you do that and do it in a different way, then I thought to isolate the thing to just a big bottom, and where we can go with that. So we had the cop with the big bottom, and then you kind of get a topper of the bog bottom in the shower. So you give yourself little challenges. I guess, at the end of the day there are only ten types of jokes in the world, so you’re really interpreting, or reinterpreting comedy for your generation. So we’re looking at it from contemporary context. Like the garbage can avalanche, for example. That’s the thing that, one night I was taking the garbage out and I tripped over it, and you know when it goes everywhere and you’ve got to clean it up and it stinks and everything like that, and it’s kind of like a tragedy for you. But somebody walking past laughed and I thought: ‘Well, of course, what’s tragedy for someone…’ So, what if you take something like that and turn it into the biggest epic event ever in cinema. And so we have the garbage can avalanche.”
When Yahoo Serious talks he tries to communicate a number of different ideas at the one time, which fits in nicely with the rest of his persona. His attempt to do everything comes out of a passion for stuff in general. There is nothing specific, but Serious could potentially get excited about anything. It’s something we don’t see much in film-makers any more, but Serious seems to be making movies because he finds them fun. It is difficult to say whether or not the fun can then be transposed to the audience. From where he’s sitting, Serious films achieve success, often despite the critics. As with all things, perspective is the key.
“Australians do,” says Serious about how people relate to his films. “That’s the thing. Sometimes reviewers don’t and they go and see a movie at eight o’clock in the morning by themselves. It’s not for them. It’s like someone going along and hearing a rock band at eight o’clock on a Monday morning when the pub’s empty. Because comedy is like rock. It’s of the people. It’s popular culture. In a way I think popular culture is leading opinion now. I come from a very blue collar, working class background and I think most Australians do. I love to take our culture and hold it up to people and be proud of it. Some people, they have these cultural cringes about different things. They have cultural cringes about our comedy. I think that’s a remarkable thing. A lot of people are embarrassed by things that are Australian. Well I don’t think that, I proudly go out and say: ‘Hey, listen. Ten different people laugh at ten different things. Either you get it or you don’t.’ If you walked in here and slipped over, we’d both laugh. That’s what we are, and that’s wonderful. Australians are subversive. They love having a sense of fun.”
Cultural cringe is not isolated to Australia. It was recently revealed the Four Weddings and a Funeral would not have been as successful in the UK if it hadn’t opened to wide acclaim in the USA first. There does seem to be an allowance for Australian films if we can see international success reflected in the screen.
“They go really well,” says serious about his films’ success in other countries, especially Young Einstein, which Jacques Chirac opened on the Champs Élysées. “Young Einstein was one of the biggest films that ever came out of this country. And that’s crazy right? It’s nuts. When you see a Scottish comedy, you want it to be a Scottish comedy. When you see an American comedy, you want that. And when people want us to be us, they don’t want ‘Ooh, maybe we should have American things in there so it will be ok.’ Bullshit. You go out and proudly do something that’s Australian. I always think you should give people value. So whatever budget we have, we always make it look like this big glossy American film. So people can go along and be proud because it’s a proper big film. But it’s them and they’re culture.”
By Josh Kinal
Mr Accident opens nationally on September 7.
