TV is the New Reading

“Big Girl’s Blouse”

is just hilarious

I couldn’t understand half of it, but honestly that might be because I was laughing too hard.

There’s a single-season Australian comedy series called “Big Girl’s Blouse” airing on the Sundance Channel at different times through the week, featuring the comedy stylings of Jane Turner, Gina Riley and Magda Szubanski, the team behind the Australian hit “Kath and Kim” (think “Mama’s Family” growing out of a series of sketches on “The Carol Burnett Show.”)

The writing is sharp zingy fun with a solidly female perspective and it’s subversive as all get out. It reminds me of nothing so much as what I imagine “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” would look like if it were written and acted by three women instead of five men.

The story follows a single thread throughout the half-hour episode but along the way it traces through wildly unrelated tangents. Last week’s episode followed a stage mother shoving her 33-year-old truck-driving daughter into every audition she could manage – even when the role called for a 3- to 6-year-old child. Needless to say, she stood out a bit.

The ‘90s-era comedy then traveled through ...

+ an implicit proposal of marriage where the mother of the bride started immediately making unflattering comments about her daughter’s weight ...

+ a ridiculous music video for Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” ...

+ a terribly incriminating video documentary about three socialites whose CEO husbands were facing indictment ...

+ a streetwalker who offers to write comedy for pay ...

+ a 1960s-era cocktail party in which such outrageous topics as Planned Parenthood and contraceptives were discussed in deliciously awkward ways ...

+ the quite natural reaction on the part of all women everywhere (judging from the storylines in his movies) to do horrible things to Michael Douglas ...

... and then back to the stage mother, who finally got her daughter a gig at a truck stop. Surprisingly, the daughter’s musical antics were sufficiently charismatic to get everyone on their feet and line dancing out the door and into the parking lot.

The accents were terribly thick throughout, which I believe was part of the comedy, and there was a certain amount of language and suggestive behavior. I don’t know if it was significantly worse than anything you’d see or hear on primetime network television, but since that standard has stretched to include “CSI,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Criminal Minds” and an edited version of “Dexter,” it’s hard to say what’s too inappropriate.

You can, of course, check it out for yourself. The brilliantly neurotic angst of “Big Girl’s Blouse” airs at 8 p.m. Saturdays on the Sundance Channel, with encore episodes from the week before at 5 p.m.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

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