Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2011 – Worst Sketches

Sketch comedy, like radio comedy, is a writer’s medium. Performers are important too, but unless the writing is sharp a sketch show is sunk.

Balls of Steel Australia, being a pranks show, didn’t really have writers, just some obscure attention-seekers who’d been assigned an annoying character or quirk. On one level it was better than Good News World – the level where it didn’t have aspirations to be anything other than a pointless time-filler, and can therefore be said to have not failed.

The now axed Hungry Beast focused a bit more on the serious side of its remit in 2011. Much of their comedy output seemed to be sub-Chaser street interviews or sketches which assumed hilarity would ensue if serious topics were expressed through hip hop. See “I’m A Climate Scientist“ if you want an example of the latter.

Many of us would like to see a revival of good, topical sketch comedy on Australian television, but this year’s winner did little other than prove once again that this will not be possible without a Year Zero approach. Good News World had a very experienced cast and writing team, many of whom have written for some decent and notable shows, so…what went wrong? Did an entire world of news not provide enough scope for them? Given the number of times Akmal turned up as Colonel Gaddafi that is a distinct possibility. Or was it more that those involved just aren’t very good at their jobs?

THE RESULTS OF THE NEXT CATEGORY, WORST FILM COMEDY, WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT 1:30PM EDT.