March 2010 - Australian Tumbleweeds
The wonderful world of Australian comedy online – Part 2
The majority of comedy podcasts have a “sitting around having a chat” format, and almost all of them shit. Listening to these shows is a bit like having no choice but to overhear an increasingly obnoxious pub conversation in which a small group of blokes in their early 20s are loudly making each other laugh with their stupid, and not really that jokey, views on politics, society, sex and... Read More »
There’s nothing funny about Hey Dad..!
Go on, admit it: you’ve been making jokes about the Hey Dad..! sex abuse scandal – AKA the “Hey Dad Predator” or “the Hey Dad House of Horrors”, depending on which episode of A Current Affair you saw – ever since you first heard about it. Don’t look so scared: we’ve all been doing... Read More »
Never Can Say Goodbye
There's been a slight twist in the open question of The 7pm Project's eventual fate - you seriously didn't think it'd continue at 7pm with the ratings it's been getting, did... Read More »
False Economies
ADbc is back on SBS, and can’t you just feel the excitement in the air? Ok, maybe not: as merely the latest in a long, long, long line of failed comedy panel shows, the return of ADbc means only one... Read More »
The Gervais Delusion
As part of my ongoing examination of Australian comedy online (see my last blog) I've been working my way through every Australian comedy podcast I can find. I'll write more fully about more of them in the future, but one thing I've been struck by is how few of them contain scripted... Read More »
Thank you Charlie
Am I mistaken, or did I actually see Charlie Pickering laugh so hard he put his head down on the podium and thump it with his fist during a recent episode of Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation? It’s a well-established fact that Charlie is perhaps the most appreciative fan of Shaun Micallef’s one-liners ever, but even... Read More »
A Plea for Preservation (pt 1)
If you’re anything like us, you’re constantly in awe at the vast collection of Australian television comedy that’s been released on DVD. Seriously, there’s a best-of collection of Graham Kennedy’s Coast to Coast: who ever expected... Read More »
Sam Simmons scores a duck
It’s time for a shocking admission: I have close friends who are fans of Sam Simmons. It’s safe to say that we agree to disagree on the quality of his work. But the relevant point here is that my Simmons-loving friends are big fans of live comedy, and they base their love (okay, enjoyment) of... Read More »
The wonderful world of Australian comedy online – Part 1
A week or so ago a reader commented on one of our recent blogs: “The networks are useless, dying and clueless. I really hope that Australian comedy can find it's way online. There are some excellent US comedy websites with loads of little web series on them.” And because we take your feedback seriously down here at Australian Tumbleweeds - well, that and there's almost no Australian comedy on that isn't a panel game - I've decided to dip my toe into the wonderful world of Australian comedy content online, starting with... Read More »