The Weekly: Mass Debate Edition

The Weekly did a special post-election debate episode and you know what? Tom Gleeson was the funniest thing on it. Yeah, we know you can read that two ways, this isn’t our first rodeo.

Exactly why they bothered is a bit of a mystery. No doubt being bumped back to 9.30pm by the election debate had something to do with it. The Weekly isn’t exactly known for it’s searing topical satire. This was no exception. The few debate jokes they served up were very much reheated goods, pulled out of a sack of generic gags they could deploy if Dutton talked about, say, nuclear power. Or even if he didn’t.

And then it was back to the usual pointless news recap. Blah blah blah, same old same old, at least Rhys Nicholson was funny God the ABC needs to give him his own show.

Thankfully Margaret Pomeranz was nowhere to be seen. Don’t worry, the bottomless pit of hilarity that is little old ladies was still plumbed for a segment about stories supposedly sent in by Pickering’s mum. Was there also a mention of Albo’s dog? You know it! They’d be taken off air for stalking if that dog were human.

Back to Gleeson. He was given the brief chance to remind us all that he was a comedian before he became a snarky host and he grabbed it with both hands. The idea of him taking on a new career as a Dutton impersonator if the LNP wins wasn’t exactly original. Every aggressively bald man in the country has been pitching for that gig. Too bad that Australia hasn’t put an actual political impression* to air since the Rudd era.

But we’re always going to laugh at a deliberately shit impression, and Gleeson delivered a good (by which we mean bad) one. We’re not going to jump on the Gleeson bandwagon any time soon. Or ever, if he keeps on with the “hey, I’m a dick, deal with it” persona and honestly, why would he give it up now? But it was still nice to actually get a laugh out of one of the handful of presenters who seemingly have a stranglehold on comedy in this country.

Oh look, Gruen is back in a fortnight for three straight months of Wil Anderson. Yay.

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*all those characters on Mad as Hell went way beyond what you used to get on The Gillies Report