Ordinary Gweilo

If you’re looking for comedy on the two local English language TV channels, you have to be fairly resourceful. With Friends having ended, I believe the only comedy show in prime time is “Living for Lydia”, which is produced in Singapore and stars Hong Kong’s very own Lydia Shum (“Fei Fei”). I’m sure it’s rib-ticklingly funny, but most unfortunately I always seem to miss it when it’s on.

The other highlights include the unfunny “Becker” in the middle of the night, and “Pingu” and “Mr Bean” – if you’re six years old.

Fortunately there is an alternative. Hilariously bad government propoganda films (APIs) and woeful trailers for upcoming shows.

I’ve mentioned APIs before, but a TVB trailer caught my eye last night. It shows a guy running through the streets of Hong Kong with what turns out to be a video tape. Apparently each episode of the 2nd series of “The Apprentice” is despatched by surface mail to Hong Kong and then TVB send a guy down to Clearwater Bay Post Office (open every Tuesday afternoon from 2-5.30 pm) to bring it back to their studios. He runs, though, just to make sure we get it as soon as possible.

This way they are able to show us “The Apprentice” a mere 7 weeks after it has been shown in the States, discussed endlessly on the Internet and downloaded thousands of times through Kaaza and BitTorrent.

The trail informs us that TVB are doing all of this so we can be the first to watch it in Hong Kong. How kind. I hesitate to point out that anyone who really wanted to watch it earlier could do so if they had a fast Internet connection, and (more to the point) I believe that ATV manage to show “Survivor” in the same week that it is transmitted in the States, and David Letterman less than 24 hours after it is first broadcast. Their guy must run really, really, fast.