Remember the days when your teacher would roll in a TV cart from the school library?
You knew what that meant. TV in the classroom = awesome. The day's lesson was about to come alive through video.
When we spotted this picture on George Takei's Facebook page the other day, it made us smile, because it represents a significant trend in education. And we put our own little spin on it.
Before I began researching the news comedy programs outside the U.S., I had no idea what the world had in store. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has inspired so many TV shows and spin-offs worldwide, that the initial query of "who are they?" evolved into a four-part series. (See posts 1, 2 and 3.) Right on key, the Foreign Policy in Focus recently wrote about the Global Stewarts, too.
We have learned that comedy and politics are tightly integrated, not just at home, but abroad. It's been good to pop out of our own "cable TV bubble" and to see how the international crowd entertains, from living rooms in South America to Israel. In today's final batch of shows, you'll see that every nation's comedic style reflects the social and political culture of the population. Comedy is how people make sense of, poke holes in, and cope with the critical, and oftentimes trivial, events gripping their daily lives.
Because laughter is the best medicine, here's your next dosage of satirical TV programs. Today's Rx of "newstainment" shows includes the most hilarious pundits of Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. British comedy standards run especially high, because they're the ones responsible for television's satire boom in the '60s (as explained in my first post earlier this week.) Writer's warning: Side effects may include side-splitting abdominal pains, acute cackling, involuntary snorting and severe shortness of breath.
Following up on yesterday's post: We're exploring international TV shows equivalent to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, in terms of their cultural significance and satirical style. To kick off our trip around the world, let's take a look at the funniest fake news TV shows of South America and Italy, where everyone loves Tarantino movies and double entendres. As awesome as descriptions are, it's even more telling to watch the clips!
Caiga Quien CaigaAbout: Caiga Quien Caiga, translated to "Whoever May Fall," is the big front-runner on the world stage, having won an International Emmy for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment in 2010. Also known as CQC, this Argentine TV show is a weekly news mashup that injects current affairs, show business and sports with humor and irony. When you watch the clip featured above, you'll get the futuristic, rock-concert vibe right away. CQC has also been adapted in Spain, France, Chile, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, and briefly in Israel and the Netherlands. The hosts vary from country to country, but in Argentina, they are Juan di Natale and Guillermo López. Where: Argentina et al; Canal 13. First Aired: 1995 Fun Fact: All presenters on the show wear trademark black suits and sunglasses, inspired by Quentin Tarantino's movie Reservoir Dogs. |
If you've heard of SnapStream's TV monitoring technology, you've likely heard The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report mentioned in the same breath. While we can't take credit for Jon Stewart's acerbic on-air personality or Stephen Colbert's deadpan delivery, we can say one thing: we are the television search technology behind the news-driven humor.
Yup, our very own closed-captioning search technology is at work on the TV production sets of both of these Emmy-award-winning shows. For this reason, we at SnapStream have a special place in our hearts for the TV genre of news satire, or "fake news." So, this got us thinking, when did this trend come into vogue? Are there mock newscast shows in other countries? Who are The Daily Show equivalents worldwide? It turns out, The Daily Show's international impact is pretty astounding.
TV Search on Target for Speed, Play Back H.264 on Your Mac
SnapStream 5.5 introduces lots of exciting, new features to the TV Search platform:
But we didn't stop there. We made some notable improvements, too:
Will you be at NAB April 16-19? 'Cause we will! We're very excited to show you all that's new with SnapStream's TV search technology. In the last year, we rolled out six new releases, featuring these heavyweights:
- New! Web Player for Mac and PC
- New! Task Rules
In South Upper Hall SU9115, SnapStream's new Mac and PC Web Players will go head-to-head in a series of hands-on demonstrations. Don't miss this epic NAB showdown. You'll definitely want a front-row seat, so...
SnapStream's newly released Mac Web Player opens up the world of TV search to Mac users for the very first time. As we hoped it would, the announcement of Mac support generated tons of excitement and fanfare on Engadget, GigaOm and a bunch of other places.
Today, it gets even better. We are releasing 5.4.2, which carries support for HD video playback on Mac OS X. Woohoo!
So now you can enjoy the crisp resolution of high-definition television as you search, play and clip content from your Mac, connected to your SnapStream HD. Version 5.4.2 also features increased stability for the Mac Web Player and the ability to load guide data from offline sources, if you're so inclined.
Apple fans, today is your day. After over a decade of developing software for Windows, SnapStream is thrilled to announce the all-new Web Player for Mac OS X. This is the big cherry on top of Fifth Generation SnapStream, which has brought you scalability with clustering, Workflows, and tons of other new features and upgrades.
With the new release of 5.4.1, Mac users can now experience TV search in their native environments, for the very first time.
