Tag: Get This

It’s all just so meh

Australian comedy, particularly Australian comedy television, seem to be in one of its many “meh” phases. Angry Boys drags on and on, and newcomer Can of Worms (putting aside all the justly deserved criticism it received for the vast difference between what it promised and what it delivered) is equally dull television. Even Lawrence Leung's Unbelievable, an entertaining and amusing comedy/documentary series looking at magic and the supernatural, is somewhat tainted by being yet another example of an over-used genre which dates back to at least the first half of the '90s and Michael Moore's TV... Read More »

Vale Laid

Yes, Laid finished up a few days ago, but it seemed like a good idea to wait just in case the Fairfax papers – specifically The Age – tried to slip in some more good words for a show they love so much they should just bloody well marry it. During its final week it... Read More »

Truly the Sweetest Plum

It was a pleasant surprise towards the end of last year to see Triple M hire Nick Maxwell and Declan Fay to bring their excellent podcast The Sweetest Plum to radio. Now Maxwell and Fay are doing the drive time shift in Sydney every Monday to Thursday (with Roy & HG on Fridays), and in Melbourne on Fridays (although this appears to be a best-of of the Sydney shows). There's also a best-of podcast of the Sydney shows, with a special podcast-only show each Friday, and based purely on that podcast, The Sweetest Plum is excellent... Read More »

Dead Cat (The) Bounce

What’s that smell in the air? Why, it’s the AFL Finals – and yet, amazingly, when the public’s eyes drop disinterestedly to the TV listings, they find no trace of Peter Helliar and The Bounce. Which is really kind of strange, because when it got the chop back in April, Seven’s Head of Programming and... Read More »

Down Down, Deeper & Down (redux)

Considering the track record of the people behind them, it’s safe to say that both Yes We Canberra! and Gruen Nation have proven to be pleasant surprises to us here at Tumbleweed HQ. For the most part they’ve been smart, funny programs that have done almost everything right as far as getting laughs without selling... Read More »

The Wonderful World of Australian Comedy Online Part 3: Scripted Podcasts

It's hard not to have respect for anyone who's gone to the trouble of making a scripted comedy show, particularly those producing podcasts, who are doing it for love rather than money. And if you listen to such a podcast there's a bonus – a bonus I wasn't really expecting after sitting through hours and hours of almost entirely dreadful chat-based podcasts – some scripted podcasts are actually worth listening... Read More »

It’s not you, it’s the format

I haven't had time to watch much comedy in the past few weeks apart from catching up with LOLZ RANDOMS-magnets Beached Az and The Urban Monkey with Murray Foote - hey, at least they're short! - and fast-forwarding through several weeks worth of Rove to see how Judith Lucy's segment's been going - she's great, but as someone who's always divided audiences I worry how long she'll last...which kinda brings me to what I have had time for: Tony Martin and Tony Wilson filling in for Derek Guille on 774 ABC Melbourne and ABC Victoria's evening... Read More »

Vale TV Burp

So farewell then TV Burp, the bought-in British format that could have worked. Some have argued that TV Burp wasn’t good enough to care about but, while it wasn’t the funniest thing ever, it was getting better. It certainly got more praise than its partner show Double Take (admittedly, not difficult), hence Seven swapping the... Read More »

A Flaming Bag of FM-friendly turds

On JJJ a few weeks back, while talking up his upcoming ABC television series, John Safran described it as being full of pranks and making fun of people – basically, “everything people don’t want in comedy anymore”. And he has a... Read More »

Great Australian Comedy Mysteries of the 21st Century #1: I Love You Too

As recently as this week, MMM in Melbourne were (and for all we know, could still be) running promos for the Pete & Myf breakfast show that proudly announced it as the show "Melbourne wakes up to". As the show was recently dumped after well over a year of falling ratings, we'd like to suggest that Melbourne woke up to Pete and Myf a long, long time... Read More »