They’re Just Taking The Piss Now, Clearly

GRETEL KILLEEN & MATT OKINE

NAMED CO-HOSTS OF NEW ABC ENTERTAINMENT SERIES

 

 

HOW NOT TO BEHAVE

 

Premieres Wednesday, July 15 at 8pm on ABC

 

Gretel Killeen and Matt Okine are set to host the new 15 part comedy entertainment series HOW NOT TO BEHAVE, produced by Screentime, a Banijay Group company, for ABC TV.

In which parts of a change room is it okay to walk around naked? What’s the tooth fairy’s going rate? Is it ever okay to pick up at a funeral? Should you discipline other people’s kids, dump a partner by text, or have the in-laws on Skype while your partner is giving birth?

From dinner parties to supermarkets, the workplace to the gym, Gretel and Matt will escort you through the unwritten rules and necessities of modern society.

Matt Okine said:  “I’ve spent most of my life perfecting the art of not knowing how to behave… Comedians are generally the most socially awkward people on the planet, so you can be sure this show’s in expert hands.”

Gretel Killeen said: “Unlike Matt, I’m taking this hosting role very seriously. I think manners make the world go round and I’m determined to change the world to suit me.”

Each episode tests the boundaries of a familiar theme providing a ‘how-to’ guide for all of us, offering solutions to our social shortcomings once and for all.

“HOW NOT TO BEHAVE is like Seinfeld meets Attenborough,” said Jon Casimir, Head of ABC Entertainment.

“It’s part comedy, part social anthropology… We’re really excited to have the formidably funny pairing of Gretel Killeen and Matt Okine as our tour guides, cutting a path through the jungle of etiquette.”

Screentime’s Head of Non Fiction Jennifer Collins said: “We’re thrilled to bring together Gretel and Matt for this series. Gretel Killeen is an exquisite talent, fiercely intelligent, impeccably stylish, and just plain funny. triple j breakfast radio host Matt Okine is a rising star of the Australian comedy scene known for his clever observations and heart-warming humour. Coming from different generations and backgrounds, it will make for intriguing and surprising chemistry.”

HOW NOT TO BEHAVE is based on an original format by FLX, distributed by Elk Entertainment, and has been renewed for its second series in Sweden.

HOW NOT TO BEHAVE is a Screentime, a Banijay Group company, production for ABC TV, executive produced by Sophia Mogford (Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year) and Screentime’s Jennifer Collins (Stop Laughing…this is serious), with ABC TV executive producer Sophia Zachariou (The Checkout).

 

HOW NOT TO BEHAVE

Hosted by Gretel Killeen & Matt Okine

Premieres Wednesday, July 15 at 8pm on ABC

Hang on, didn’t Laid do all the “is it ever okay to pick up at a funeral” jokes a few years ago? And they weren’t remotely funny then. Mostly because the answer is “no, unless you’re a total shithead”.

Presumably this is what you get when you finally realise that panel shows aren’t working: a format that’s guaranteed to be even less funny, because it’s basically The Agony of Not Being a Shithead only without any actual comedians on board.

That’s not to say they can’t make a show that’s just comedy meets reality TV social experiments, but just because you can do something that screams “at least one of these clips has to go viral each week, dammit” doesn’t mean you should. Does anyone else get vaguely annoyed by shows that seem more interested in attracting an online audience than actually entertaining the audience they already have? Wow, now we know how TV critic Robert Fidgeon felt a decade ago when he used to complain about the commercial networks making shows for young people instead of his wrinkly old arse.

Also, since when did we need television – fucking television – to tell us how to live our lives? “But it’s not meant to be a serious guide, Grumbleweeds”. Then why is it being sold to us as a guide? Oh wait, let us guess: because it’s the laziest possible format? Instead of getting some writers to sit around, think about social issues, write scripts, hire actors and film Seinfeld, you just come up with a concept, get a couple of people to do it in the real world while you film them, and… that’s it.

We’ve said this before but clearly we don’t have anything else to do so we’re saying it again: the problem television currently faces isn’t that it now has to compete with the internet – though clearly it does – it’s that now it has to compete with the internet when it comes to cheap, disposable shit.

High-end quality television is still doing fine: people have decided that they’ll sit down and watch an hour of Game of Thrones no worries. But when you’re in the mood for cheap, disposable crap – the kind of mild distraction variety shows or churned out sketches used to provide – the internet has clearly become the way to go.

So this kind of lazy, churned-out, breakfast-radio-with-pictures kind of show is trying to compete head-on for viewers with the internet (in case the “check out these potentially viral clips” didn’t give it away). How’s being a tiny drop in a very large ocean working out for you?

If your television show has a clip that goes viral, that doesn’t make your television show any more popular. It just means you’ve had a hit in a completely different medium. If the ABC want to go into the business of viral videos – and the amount of hard sell they’re putting behind clips from The Weekly suggests they do – they should come out and admit it.

Then perhaps someone else could take over their facilities and use them to make some television comedy worthy of the name.