Comedy TV

The End of an Era (we hope)

Earlier this week this not-exactly-news-type-news was announced: the days of Daryl Somers hosting Seven’s Dancing with the Stars are no more: “Seven let me know recently that they have signed Chris Brown to the network full-time and amongst his commitments he will be hosting DWTS.” Not only was it a case of “you know that... Read More »

Vale Mother and Son

The biggest single problem Mother and Son is that so much about the way it’s been made seems to be working against it being comedy... Read More »

WTFAQuestion Time

For some reason or another the ABC is currently running ads featuring Dr Karl. You know, the guy who answers all your science questions? Only if you actually listen to his answers, he often doesn’t answer your questions – he just throws out a bunch of quirky facts that are kind of adjacent to whatever... Read More »

C*A*U*G*H*T-ing laughs

Stan’s new comedy C*A*U*G*H*T is the sort of show no one expected in 2023. It’s a pure comedy which just wants to make you... Read More »

Vale Thank God You’re Here 2023

We can’t blame Working Dog for taking an “if it ain’t broke” approach to their revival of Thank God You’re Here. The original run was much loved and fondly remembered… though not by us, which is why fans of the show might want to skip what comes next. Glad you enjoyed it, it’ll probably be... Read More »

Thank God You’re Back… Again

The opportunities for Australian comedians on local television have been shrinking for the last [insert depressingly long stretch of time here]. After a while, it becomes a vicious circle: no jobs for comedians means less comedians means less comedy on television means no jobs for comedians. Want proof? Time to open the blue door to... Read More »

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em

There’s a lot of reasons why remakes and revivals and adaptations take place [you mean beyond money? – ed.]. The celebrity driven ones – where someone famous says “I want to do this” and they’re famous enough to make it happen – aren’t always the worst, but they’re rarely the best. The problem is that... Read More »

WTFAQ&A

This week WTFAQ made its debut on the ABC. Not that it felt anything like a debut, as it’s really just the latest version of the kind of lightweight infotainment series the ABC has been flogging since at least Hungry Beast. Every time it returns we tune in to see if this time it’s actually... Read More »

Gimme that White Fever

White Fever seems firmly in the recent tradition of making shows that look like sitcoms but turn out to be mildly depressing... Read More »

Mother and Son 2: Charnel House

There’s a certain kind of cheap thrill you get when something you had low expectations for somehow manages to be even worse. Good news: being a hater sometimes pays off. And while nobody was expecting the Mother and Son reboot to be anything more than exactly what the words “Mother and Son reboot” promise, the... Read More »