Comedy TV

White Lines

Where do you draw the line with White Fever? As previously discussed, it’s perfectly fine for what it is: it’s just that what it is isn’t a comedy. Which is a problem, because if a half hour scripted series airing on the ABC at 9pm on a Wednesday isn’t a comedy, what is? As you’ve... Read More »

Six Days in a Weekly

So The Weekly isn’t funny. No news there. You know what else contains no news? The Weekly itself. Wait, hang on a second. The selling point of the current version of The Weekly is that “we watch the news so you don’t have to”. As the ABC Youtube channel put it: “Charlie Pickering takes all... Read More »

White Fever all through the night

White Fever is a light, surreal, theatrical drama about a Korean-Australian adoptee finding her identity and learning to date Asian... Read More »

An Environmental Decline

So yeah, things have been pretty dry around here of late. There’s only so many weeks you can watch The Weekly expecting to see something new (or funny). Other options? They’re somewhat slim. What’s going on? Don’t people like to laugh any more? We’re a comedy blog, so don’t expect any great insights here. But... Read More »

Stand (up) In The Place Where You Live

Earlier this week 10 broadcast a stand up comedy special from Aaron Chen, If It Weren’t Filmed, Nobody Would Believe. It’s ok. One of the best jokes is hidden in the opening title; Chen also undergoes a mystery costume change halfway through that is never (directly) commented on. The show is pretty good, not amazingly... Read More »

The Australian Roast of John Cleese with leastest

The Australian Roast of John Cleese, which aired recently on Seven, had a few decent laughs in it, but, mostly, it was a slapdash... Read More »

Old News is No News

As previously mentioned, currently Australian television is serving up one (1) new Australian comedy series: The Weekly with Charlie Pickering. One show. Across all of Australian television. Real solid foundation we’ve got for a blog there. This perhaps wouldn’t be quite so big a problem if The Weekly was any good at its job. As... Read More »

Where has all the comedy gone? Part 3,671

In not-very-surprising news, a study into first run Australian content on ABC has found a 41% decline over the past... Read More »

Satire? You’ve Got to be Joking

Sometimes when you want to get rid of something, slowly whittling it down to nothing is the way to go. Other times, a big rug pull to get it over and done with works best. And when you’re the ABC looking to trash 50-odd years of satirical content, why not both at once? Let’s not... Read More »

Fresh Blood 2024: A new hope

The ABC’s new comedy talent initiative Fresh Blood has thrown up some shows of variable quality. But in 2024, things are looking... Read More »