Question Everything? Don’t Mind If We Do

Question Everything is useless. Every single thing it tries to do, something else does better. And that includes “giving Wil Anderson something to do outside of his stoner podcast”, because it’s not like they’re ever going to stop making Gruen.

Of course, we’re just pissing into the wind here. Now into its fourth season, Question Everything is the last show standing after that brief flurry of activity where the ABC decided it wanted back into the panel chat / quiz show game. You don’t remember that Question Everything used to be a quiz show? And not just one where every single answer was “get this shit off”?

The big problem Question Everything faces is that it is currently the third news clip comedy show of the week on Australian television. Third as in timing, third as in quality: it is not essential viewing. Have You Been Paying Attention? is top shelf. The Cheap Seats soaks up the crumbs. Then you get Question Everything, showing the same clips again only with shittier jokes.

You’d think this would be kind of awkward for the ABC. They hardly make any local comedy as it is: duplicating the commercial networks so blatantly ain’t a good look. So why bother?

The real reason they can get away with it is pretty obvious. ABC viewers only watch the ABC. All the clips you’ve seen used elsewhere? Brand spanking new to them. Unfortunately, this would be somewhat embarrassing for the ABC to admit – they’re supposed to be pulling in new audiences, remember. So there has to be another reason why they’re making a show that just duplicates what we’ve already had two hours of earlier in the week.

Enter “The Next Up Initiative“, which is like The Avengers Initiative only it leads directly to the dole queue:

Most people probably aren’t familiar with ‘The Next Up Initiative’. Can you give us a brief explanation of what it’s about?

One of the broader aims of the show (Question Everything) is to give less experienced comedians a chance to get a start in the industry.

I have always admired the way producers like the team at Good News Week or the legends at Working Dog have tirelessly tried to encourage new and diverse talent.

At Question Everything we have an intern program for emerging writers to give them experience of what it is like to work in a TV writing room, combined with a program to give newer comedians panel experience in a TV studio.

In practical terms what that means is each week, as well as the episode of Question Everything that goes to air, we run another version of the show with different panellists (the only difference being that there is no studio audience).

This gives comedians the chance to be in a studio, making a show, and see how it all works without it being the pressure of their first TV appearance.

We have used that process to bring new guests to the show, but also to hopefully provide comics with studio and writing experience that they can take to other opportunities outside our world.

Which raises the question: why bother broadcasting Question Everything?

Seriously, and putting aside our usual snark and outright hostility for once, but doesn’t this sound like a scheme that doesn’t actually require them to make Question Everything? The new talent isn’t getting a shot on the actual show that goes to air. Oh no: they’re working on a practice show out the back that doesn’t even have a studio audience.

If you just want to train new talent on something you’re not going to air, why not just do the fake show? It’d be a shitload cheaper for starters. And if you want to give new talent real experience, why not get them to work on the real show*? Anderson says he admires the way Working Dog helps new talent. Maybe he could follow their lead and actually employ new talent on his show? You know, give them real credits they can put on their resumes?

Of course, there’s always the chance that the new talent might not be quite as polished as the regular panelists. Which would be a problem for Anderson, because the entire schtick of the show is sneering at other shows for not being as good as the version of Question Everything that exists only in his head. When Working Dog pulls up a clip for a laugh, the laugh is usually because something funny happens. When Question Everything does it, the laugh is usually “look at this shit”.

Which is why having Wil Anderson hosting a new talent showcase makes no sense. He might be a top bloke away from the cameras, but on-camera? His entire comedy persona on the ABC is built around a kind of snarky one-upmanship that means he always has to have the last laugh. Other people get to say things on his shows, but he’s the one who swoops in with the big joke. Is Jan Fran still on this show?

In contrast Shaun Micallef, AKA that other ABC fixture who’s been speaking out recently about the need to nurture new comedians, has put two shows to air in 2024 where he’s played second fiddle to – hang on, this can’t be right – new comedians? The guests on Eve of Destruction and Origin Odyssey may not be complete unknowns, but a lot of them aren’t getting that kind of prime time push anywhere else on free-to-air television. And Micallef, as host and interviewer, is clearly doing what he can to present them in the best light.

Meanwhile, Wil Anderson is hiding them out the back making a show that isn’t going to air. But at a guess, involving the new talent with the real show would suggest that they might actually be able to have a career doing comedy on the ABC.

And that’s a position currently reserved for Wil Anderson.

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*some of the back room talent does graduate to the real show, which is great but doesn’t really answer the question of why a show that’s meant to be a new talent showcase won’t put new talent to air until after they’ve spent a few months in Wil Anderson’s comedy boot camp