Middle finger pointed upwards

By FIONA RAE

When a mate gave me a tape of Back of the Y a couple of years ago I almost made it to the end.

I managed to get through various laughably gross scenarios, but the final, post-apocalyptic story was just a bit too much.

Something about the guy with the bizarrely shaped penis and the blood, gore and completely gratuitous violence ... well, I got the picture.

But damn if I don't support the right of Back of the Y's Chris Stapp and Matt Heath to be the Eminems of local television.

They can be as stupid, gross, offensive and fourth-form as they want to be - as long as it's funny (which is actually more than Eminem can manage).

And now, through some strange set of machinations that presumably took place in another dimension, Heath and Stapp have been given their own network show, Back of the Y Masterpiece Theatre.

You may have already heard about it, as the media, starved for anything new, original and local, have already leapt on Back of the Y like a pack of hungry dogs.

Some already don't like it.

I'll go out on a limb here and say I'm pretty sure Heath and Stapp couldn't give a toss.

If they weren't too busy making sick jokes and filming unsuitable stunts, their middle fingers would be permanently pointed upwards. At everyone.

But about that being funny thing - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Tonight's first episode features the pair, their mates and some spectacularly cheap sets and props in a variety of silly scenarios.

Heath emerges on to a variety show set as Danny Parker (Bob's bastard son perhaps?), the shows (fake) moustachioed host.

"We've got the big bucks behind us now, which means a flash new suit for me, a flash new set for us and loads more action for you boring gits at home."

But even Parker - "New Zealand's most-loved television personality" - can't avoid cliches: "Deja Voodoo are a hot new band" and it is "all go on Back of the Y tonight."

Parker's moustache is recycled for use by stuntman Randy Campbell (Stapp), who is tonight jumping his BMX bike over a car and an angry gorilla in a cage at the request of a four-year-old fan.

There's also a very silly science-fiction skit, but probably the best of it is Vaseline Warriors IV, a continuation of that Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic scenario involving mutants, gore, violence, porn and rather a lot of onanism. You've got to admire someone who's prepared to go to these lengths.

That's the thing. They are prepared to make fabulously cheap television (no doubt that helped in TVNZ's decision-making process). They'll do the hard yards.

And, as Parker says, "If you don't enjoy it, I'm sure someone will for you."

* Back of the Y Masterpiece Theatre, TV2, 10.30 pm