David M. Green (2014)
Comedian and Writer
About
David M. Green (born May 24, 1987) is a comedian and writer. Originally from Adelaide, he’s now based in Melbourne, Australia. In 2014, he is the host, head writer & EP of 31 Questions: the “fabulous” TV game show produced through RMITV. Season 3 airs Saturdays 8.30PM on C31 Melbourne & Geelong and on community stations around Australia & New Zealand. He also wrote on Season 3 of Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell, fulfilling a childhood dream.
1. How would you define censorship as a content creator?
Censorship is where somebody else, or yourself, prevents something from being broadcast. We do it [on “31 Questions”] for comic effect quite a lot, when somebody swears and there’s just a bleep noise. I think that’s funnier than swearing, in my opinion. I always think it’s funnier to hear the beep noise than the swearing. So there’s that aspect of it. But then there’s also when, I might think of something that I think is really funny, but I know I can’t say it because it’s offensive or racist. So then I guess I self censor myself before I even put it into the TV show, or radio show or whatever I’m working on. Then also, say at the ABC, they have teams of lawyers who look over scripts to make sure they’re not defaming someone.
If it’s a current affairs show and they’re talking about a case that’s in the courts, or something like that, there are rules about what you can say and can’t say, depending on the case. Like, if someone’s been accused of murder, a lot of the time, their identity is supressed, so you’re not allowed to say their name on TV, or print it in the newspaper. So say, someone’s written a script, and they’ve used the name, a team of lawyers would look over it, and say ‘you can’t do that, we’ll get in trouble.’ The TV station can be fined, they could even be put in jail for defamation. I think that kind of censorship is good.
But then I guess there’s the bad kind of, North Korean, censorship, where you can’t say anything bad about the government. That’s pretty extreme.
2. What is your experience with the censorship procedures at the ABC?
I think it happens with every show, to some extent. Being a writer on Mad as Hell, I didn’t have to deal with any of that. I just wrote what I wanted and sent the script to the editor and then they made the call. If it got through them, then the lawyers looked at it, so I never had to deal with them directly. I don’t think the ABC is that restrictive. I think that maybe the ABC is one of the least restrictive TV stations in Australia. Most of the commercial networks are scared of doing comedy shows. They hardly do any in the first place, because they’re considered risky to begin with. The comedy shows that they do make, don’t take many risks, they keep it very bland. They don’t want to touch those topics where you’re opening a can of worms. Except maybe on “Can of Worms”.
3. Do you think comedy can get away with more, in terms of censorship?
Yeah, I think you can. Because if you’re not making a joke about it, you’re just defaming someone, and it’s not even funny.
[on swearing in comedy]
I don’t swear a lot. Occasionally I do. You do see comedians who aren’t particularly funny and they just think they can swear their way through a routine. Sometimes it works really well, like some of Alex Williamsons stuff or Billy Connolly, where every second word is a curse word and it’s really funny. But there’s a lot of comedy structure behind that, which a lot of people don’t realise.
4. Do you think Australian censorship is a good thing and why?
The level of censorship in Australia is pretty good. There’s not anything you’re not really allowed to do or any sort of reasonable person would want to do. I don’t feel restricted at all. When you compare our country to North Korea, or China, then you can appreciate how we can go on the Internet and pages aren’t blocked. You can look at whatever you want, more or less. But then there are some things that are illegal and censored, like child pornography, and other horrible things like that. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere, and that’s probably a good spot to draw the line.
5. Have you ever had to deal with censorship?
There are a couple of cases on Mad as Hell, where the lawyers have said, ‘no, you can’t do that’, and they’ve had to change it. That only happened a couple of times, and they where pretty small things that you wouldn’t give a second thought to. There have been occasions with 31 Questions, where I’ve really wanted to do a joke, and people have advised me not to do it, but I did it anyway. And then we realised later, it just didn’t work, the audience didn’t get it, or whatever. We’d be looking at it in the editing room and see it didn’t work, and we just cut it out. Luckily we can do that. It’s not a live show. You wouldn’t have that option on a live show.
6. Have you ever been afraid to joke about any topics?
I’ve always wanted to do a joke; you know when Aboriginal people are on TV, at the start of the program, where a newsreader would say, ‘a warning to Aboriginal and Torrens Strait islander viewers, this footage contains images of deceased persons’. There has to be a warning. And that’s very interesting to me, the cultural thing where they have to warn viewers. But we have a $50 note with a picture of David Unaipon on it. And he died in 1967. But this is in public display and there’s no warning on the money. That to me seems funny. I tried writing something on the concept but whatever I wrote, it just seemed racist. I couldn’t ever feel comfortable doing a joke about it, it doesn’t feel right. Maybe that’s because I’m white and relatively privileged. Why should I be judging other people? But it’s an interesting double standard.
I wrote the idea down, and put it on the list of potential ideas for 31 Questions, but when it came to putting the script together, I just thought, ‘is it worth taking the risk?’ I don’t’ think so, it’s too much of a risk, what’s the pay off? Even if it went really well, the potential down side is just too great.
7. Do you censor you’re websites?
Someone said recently on the 31 Questions Facebook page: ‘I would love this show, if it wasn’t for the host’. Obviously, that’s not very nice for me, as I’m the host. But still, I’m also the executive producer, creator and head writer of the show, so she’s still complementing my show. Removing those comments is up to the page administrator, which is me in this case, but I left it there. I didn’t want to be censoring comments like that. If it was more offensive, I might have removed it. But that was just someone’s opinion, so I’m not going to get rid of that. It also gave other people an opportunity to comment on it, and actually dispute her. I like that sort of open debate. I’d rather have people challenging these ideas, rather than removing them.
I’ve written some articles for The Drum, and they get quite a lot of comments. Often they’ll disagree with you. But it’s interesting to see these people who just come in and reply to other peoples comments, for a series of comments. Just arguing over whatever it was I was writing about. It’s interesting to read.
For more on David M. Green head to http://davidmgreen.com or check out 31 Questions at https://www.youtube.com/user/31questions
About
David M. Green (born May 24, 1987) is a comedian and writer. Originally from Adelaide, he’s now based in Melbourne, Australia. In 2014, he is the host, head writer & EP of 31 Questions: the “fabulous” TV game show produced through RMITV. Season 3 airs Saturdays 8.30PM on C31 Melbourne & Geelong and on community stations around Australia & New Zealand. He also wrote on Season 3 of Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell, fulfilling a childhood dream.
1. How would you define censorship as a content creator?
Censorship is where somebody else, or yourself, prevents something from being broadcast. We do it [on “31 Questions”] for comic effect quite a lot, when somebody swears and there’s just a bleep noise. I think that’s funnier than swearing, in my opinion. I always think it’s funnier to hear the beep noise than the swearing. So there’s that aspect of it. But then there’s also when, I might think of something that I think is really funny, but I know I can’t say it because it’s offensive or racist. So then I guess I self censor myself before I even put it into the TV show, or radio show or whatever I’m working on. Then also, say at the ABC, they have teams of lawyers who look over scripts to make sure they’re not defaming someone.
If it’s a current affairs show and they’re talking about a case that’s in the courts, or something like that, there are rules about what you can say and can’t say, depending on the case. Like, if someone’s been accused of murder, a lot of the time, their identity is supressed, so you’re not allowed to say their name on TV, or print it in the newspaper. So say, someone’s written a script, and they’ve used the name, a team of lawyers would look over it, and say ‘you can’t do that, we’ll get in trouble.’ The TV station can be fined, they could even be put in jail for defamation. I think that kind of censorship is good.
But then I guess there’s the bad kind of, North Korean, censorship, where you can’t say anything bad about the government. That’s pretty extreme.
2. What is your experience with the censorship procedures at the ABC?
I think it happens with every show, to some extent. Being a writer on Mad as Hell, I didn’t have to deal with any of that. I just wrote what I wanted and sent the script to the editor and then they made the call. If it got through them, then the lawyers looked at it, so I never had to deal with them directly. I don’t think the ABC is that restrictive. I think that maybe the ABC is one of the least restrictive TV stations in Australia. Most of the commercial networks are scared of doing comedy shows. They hardly do any in the first place, because they’re considered risky to begin with. The comedy shows that they do make, don’t take many risks, they keep it very bland. They don’t want to touch those topics where you’re opening a can of worms. Except maybe on “Can of Worms”.
3. Do you think comedy can get away with more, in terms of censorship?
Yeah, I think you can. Because if you’re not making a joke about it, you’re just defaming someone, and it’s not even funny.
[on swearing in comedy]
I don’t swear a lot. Occasionally I do. You do see comedians who aren’t particularly funny and they just think they can swear their way through a routine. Sometimes it works really well, like some of Alex Williamsons stuff or Billy Connolly, where every second word is a curse word and it’s really funny. But there’s a lot of comedy structure behind that, which a lot of people don’t realise.
4. Do you think Australian censorship is a good thing and why?
The level of censorship in Australia is pretty good. There’s not anything you’re not really allowed to do or any sort of reasonable person would want to do. I don’t feel restricted at all. When you compare our country to North Korea, or China, then you can appreciate how we can go on the Internet and pages aren’t blocked. You can look at whatever you want, more or less. But then there are some things that are illegal and censored, like child pornography, and other horrible things like that. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere, and that’s probably a good spot to draw the line.
5. Have you ever had to deal with censorship?
There are a couple of cases on Mad as Hell, where the lawyers have said, ‘no, you can’t do that’, and they’ve had to change it. That only happened a couple of times, and they where pretty small things that you wouldn’t give a second thought to. There have been occasions with 31 Questions, where I’ve really wanted to do a joke, and people have advised me not to do it, but I did it anyway. And then we realised later, it just didn’t work, the audience didn’t get it, or whatever. We’d be looking at it in the editing room and see it didn’t work, and we just cut it out. Luckily we can do that. It’s not a live show. You wouldn’t have that option on a live show.
6. Have you ever been afraid to joke about any topics?
I’ve always wanted to do a joke; you know when Aboriginal people are on TV, at the start of the program, where a newsreader would say, ‘a warning to Aboriginal and Torrens Strait islander viewers, this footage contains images of deceased persons’. There has to be a warning. And that’s very interesting to me, the cultural thing where they have to warn viewers. But we have a $50 note with a picture of David Unaipon on it. And he died in 1967. But this is in public display and there’s no warning on the money. That to me seems funny. I tried writing something on the concept but whatever I wrote, it just seemed racist. I couldn’t ever feel comfortable doing a joke about it, it doesn’t feel right. Maybe that’s because I’m white and relatively privileged. Why should I be judging other people? But it’s an interesting double standard.
I wrote the idea down, and put it on the list of potential ideas for 31 Questions, but when it came to putting the script together, I just thought, ‘is it worth taking the risk?’ I don’t’ think so, it’s too much of a risk, what’s the pay off? Even if it went really well, the potential down side is just too great.
7. Do you censor you’re websites?
Someone said recently on the 31 Questions Facebook page: ‘I would love this show, if it wasn’t for the host’. Obviously, that’s not very nice for me, as I’m the host. But still, I’m also the executive producer, creator and head writer of the show, so she’s still complementing my show. Removing those comments is up to the page administrator, which is me in this case, but I left it there. I didn’t want to be censoring comments like that. If it was more offensive, I might have removed it. But that was just someone’s opinion, so I’m not going to get rid of that. It also gave other people an opportunity to comment on it, and actually dispute her. I like that sort of open debate. I’d rather have people challenging these ideas, rather than removing them.
I’ve written some articles for The Drum, and they get quite a lot of comments. Often they’ll disagree with you. But it’s interesting to see these people who just come in and reply to other peoples comments, for a series of comments. Just arguing over whatever it was I was writing about. It’s interesting to read.
For more on David M. Green head to http://davidmgreen.com or check out 31 Questions at https://www.youtube.com/user/31questions