Always With the Questions

Press release time!

You won’t believe the outrageous things new comedians say when they stun in Question Everything this October.

Or, less sensationally:

Question Everything returns this October to tackle the news cycle with fresh comedy talent.

Wil Anderson, Jan Fran and an assortment of Australia’s brightest comedic talent are back to share the bad news when Question Everything returns on Wednesday 9 October at 8.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.

Over ten new episodes, our comedians will make you laugh as they break apart the breaking news and give you all the tips that will save you a click.

Host Wil Anderson says: “We’re excited to kick off a fourth season of Question Everything. We would like to thank the ABC for the opportunity, and Seven News for providing plenty of material over the last few months. Fortunately for us, the media landscape is less trustworthy than ever, the concept of truth has been found dead on the side of a highway, and this very statement was most likely generated by ChatGPT.” 

Question Everything is more than your average panel show – it’s a chance for new talent to get their start, both on camera and behind the scenes.  

This season will once again showcase the much-needed training ground for the next generation of Australian comedians, with some of Australia’s most experienced writers and performers providing workshops, internships and in-depth writing tutorials for the latest crop of up and comers. It’s the ultimate chance to get their first credit on the board, in the hopes that one day not every show on the ABC will need to be hosted by Wil Anderson.

Host Jan Fran adds: “Seeing comedians who started out with us on Question Everything go on to incredible success makes the hours of doom scrolling TikTok for conspiracy theories worth it. I can’t wait to laugh along with the breaking news of the week. That is, when I’m not making the headlines myself with my shock split from Ben Affleck.”

Ten episodes of this shit? Guess this is good news for anyone looking for any further evidence that the ABC is completely creatively bankrupt when it comes to comedy programming.

C’mon, what else has the ABC served up in the back half of this year? A remake of a NZ show, a talk show, and now this – a series that burned through what little potential it had two years ago but continues to stagger on simply because the ABC just can’t get enough of middle-aged japester Wil Anderson?

And you can tell that even the ABC PR department know they’ve been handed a dead fish with this one thanks to the “hey, it’s actually a training ground for new talent, back off” angle they’re wheeling out. You know, just in case someone pointed out that The Cheap Seats and Have You Been Paying Attention? have the whole “break apart the breaking news” area well and truly covered and maybe the ABC should be trying to do things the commercial networks aren’t already doing a shitload better.

But what about the new talent, we hear you ask halfheartedly. Oh, you want to help new talent? Make new shows. That’s it. That’s all you have to do. Not provide endless training programs for jobs that don’t actually exist because the only comedy series you make are “training grounds” for new talent that will never have a career in comedy because you don’t actually hire any new talent. You just keep renewing shows hosted by Wil Anderson.

A line like –

Host Jan Fran adds: “Seeing comedians who started out with us on Question Everything go on to incredible success makes the hours of doom scrolling TikTok for conspiracy theories worth it.”

-should stick in the craw of the publicist who came up with it, because you know what? That “incredible success” she’s talking about sure as shit isn’t coming from the ABC. Or anywhere else on television in Australia, because the ABC is the only place outside of the Working Dog social club that makes comedy – only all the comedy the ABC makes now is just a training ground for new talent rather than anything you can build a career on so presumably the “incredible success” she’s talking about is in advertising or car sales or one of those driveway powerwash companies.

Everybody knows Australian comedy, on television at least, is on the ropes. It’s an area that desperately needs new talent, new investment and new vision. Question Everything isn’t that. Pretending that a gig on a weekly news panel show – literally the only genre of television comedy in Australia that’s actually doing well and hiring people* – is a “much-needed training ground for the next generation of Australian comedians” is…

Oh wait, isn’t all this just what Wil Anderson said a couple years ago when he was trying to promote his book? Five points to us for saying this about his proposal for a new talent showcase (run by him, natch) way back in 2022:

(and if Anderson did host, chances are it’d just be another version of Question Everything, where the occasional fresh face is given the chance to show they can fit in seamlessly with a bunch of comedians twice their age so the audience isn’t startled by any jokes that aren’t old enough to drive)

Fuck, we’re tired.

.

*though as those people are in Melbourne working on The Cheap Seats and Have You Been Paying Attention?, presumably they don’t count