OUTRAGE

Vale Mad as Hell 2022

Well, we knew it had to end sometime. For a bunch of years and slightly more seasons, Mad as Hell has been an island of quality in a sea of mediocrity, the rare Australian comedy that was both Australian and a comedy. Times changed; it changed with it, going from a thinly veiled Newstopia rip-off... Read More »

Oh Yeah, Vale Housos: The Thong Warrior

Housos: the Thong Warrior finished a few weeks back. What more can we say? Maybe lay off the “machice” for a... Read More »

Sad as Hell

Well, it may not be a surprise, but it’s definitely still a shock: (the bad news here isn’t the bit about there being a new season – keep reading) As Micallef himself points out, he’s pushing sixty – a perfectly reasonable age to decide to slow things down a little. Comedy is traditionally a young... Read More »

In attack of the defence of Barry Humphries

Last week came the news that the annual best-in-festival award dished out by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Barry, named after Barry Humphries, would be renamed in light of Humphries’ comments on transgender people last year. As ABC News reported: Humphries is a household name for his iconic characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir... Read More »

Is it OK to swear in comedy?

Remember that story six months ago about that Tonightly sketch that upset the Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield, Cory Bernardi and various others, and inspired several complaints to ACMA and the ABC? Well, late last week, ACMA cleared the show: Today ACMA has found no breach by the ABC, noting the comedic context rather than... Read More »

Should Barry Humphries shut up and retire?

Barry Humphries has been in the news a lot recently, because of outrage at some comments he made about trans people in an interview with Lloyd Evans for right-wing UK-based magazine The Spectator: I ask if his biggest crowd-pleaser, Dame Edna Everage, has attracted the attention of trans activists, who are swift to take offence... Read More »

Whither Rebel?

In the wake of Rebel Wilson receiving a record payout as a result of winning her defamation lawsuit against Bauer Media, where does humanity possibly go from here? It’s the size of the payout that’s news-worthy; anyone with eyes to see knew she was going to win the second it was announced it was a... Read More »

Vale Growing Up Gracefully, or It Takes Money to Make Money

Here’s a blast from the past: while watching the final episode of Growing Up Gracefully, the ABC’s latest not-quite-comedy to combine interviews with relationship experts with somewhat pointless sketches demonstrating not very sexy sex stuff, we noticed Marieke Hardy listed in the end credits as script supervisor. Script supervisor is a job that, as far... Read More »

Shock Twist: Garbage Comedian is Garbage Human

Remember when Chris Lilley was funny? Yeah, us neither. Yet there’s always room to fall further, as he’s revealed with his latest “release”: Days after man who ran down Aboriginal teen was sentenced to 3 yrs, @ChrisLilley posts blackface vid "squashed n-": https://t.co/tgL3WuP18M pic.twitter.com/lVn2hrfG2t — Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) July 29, 2017 It seems that for... Read More »

Laying Down the Law

You may have noticed we’re three weeks into the second season of The Family Law and we still haven’t managed to review it. But more likely you haven’t: while even high profile Australian television struggles to get attention these days, The Family Law, AKA the only Australian comedy SBS will be broadcasting this year, has... Read More »