Tag: Clarke & Dawe

Comedy: What is it Good For?

Australian comedy: what’s the point? Making us laugh, sure – but a fart can manage that. Which puts the collected works of Charlie Pickering in a pretty bad light. On the other hand, there’s this: Which was a timely reminder that, once upon a time, Australian satire used to go beyond just re-stating what was... Read More »

Time for Mark Humphries on 7:30

Looks like Mark Humphries is going to have more time to devote to his fortnightly satirical segment on 7:30… From Mumbrella: CBS’ Network Ten has reportedly cancelled its daily gameshow Pointless… Media commentator Peter Ford told a Hobart radio station that people involved with the show were told the program is finishing. According to TV... Read More »

Sammy J and missing John Clarke

If there’s one tweet which has captured the mood this past week, it’s this from comedian Michael Griffin. Wish John Clarke was doing Barnaby Joyce this week. “It wasn’t wrong to get her the job, because they weren’t in a relationship.” “So why did you get her the job?” “Well their relationship was causing so... Read More »

Thursday’s the Day for Sammy J

Press release time! GRAB A BITE OF SAMMY J EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT! Monday, February 5, 2018 — Welcome aboard Sammy J, a brand-new weekly bite-sized satirical sketch series to broadcast on ABC at 6.55pm starting Thursday 8 February. Sammy J will also be available on ABC iview, ABC iview Facebook and ABC COMEDY YouTube. Multi... Read More »

Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2017 – The Results!

Not long after voting opened for these awards, we were contacted by a cast member from an Australian comedy series we’d recently reviewed. While our review of their show was fairly positive – at least by our standards, but more on that later – this cast member was angry that we had characterised a portion... Read More »

John Clarke, thanks for your time

We honestly thought Clarke & Dawe would never end. Two men, a couple of chairs, a great script – the perfect satirical format. Things were looking a bit shaky for John Clarke and Bryan Dawe towards the end of the Howard years, when Gerard Henderson was banging on about left-wing bias in comedy and shows... Read More »

Satire’s hard problem

Clarke & Dawe returned to our screens last week and once again reminded us how satirists should be doing it: it’s about pointing out where things are going wrong. Satire only achieves what it’s there to do if it leaves the audience laughing, better informed and angry for change. And this is something that’s only... Read More »

Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2016 – The Results!

Australian comedy hit a new low in 2016, though if you’re anything like us you probably didn’t realise it at the time. Why would you? On the surface it seemed business as usual: a handful of standout shows, one or two duds and a whole lot of stuff forgotten before the end credits finished. In... Read More »

Australian Federal Election 2016 Comedy – The results!

The people of this country may have delivered an inconclusive result this election, but one thing was certain: politics provided a lot of inspiration to our comedians. Australian Tumbleweed’s specially assembled panel of top analysts (You mean our usual writers – Ed) take a look at the results… The Chaser were back with another of... Read More »

Australian Tumbleweeds 2014 – The Results!

Australian comedy in 2014 did pretty much what it was expected to do: not all that much. The days of any local comedy connecting with a mass audience seem to have ended with the mass audience realising Chris Lilley only ever had one idea, while the ABC’s other crowd-pleasing mainstays either tossed off a half-arsed... Read More »