It’s the halfway point of Austin series 2, and what have we learned? Not to watch Austin for starters. When an episode begins with Austin (Michael Theo) being told by his publicist that if he wants to sell books to the kids he has to say his favourite singer is Taylor Swift… what the fuck is this?
A hundred taxpayer-funded episodes ago this was a sweet story of a young man trying to connect with his morally flexible father. Now it’s somehow developed into not one but two pissweak media satires. You remember media satire – that’s when the scriptwriters vanish up their own arse. Is there anything audiences care less about than the comedy that arises from a book tour? How about the comedy that arises from putting together a television show?
We joke, of course – there’s no comedy to be found here, just references to Euphoria. And let’s just linger at the scene of this car crash for a moment. Why does Austin – who loves Frank Sinatra, The Goodies and Doctor Who – have the taste of a 55-year-old man? He’s in his late 20s, and the joke is just that he’s an out-of-touch nerd. So why isn’t he a fan of, say, the MCU? We hear that’s daggy now.
But of course, the real point of this scene is to tell the audience of 55-year-olds that they – like Austin – have good taste. All this modern muck? Rubbish. In Austin, either you are a 50-year-old or you think like one. The ABC sure does know its audience.
Which is presumably why this season seems to be turning into a fictionalised version of Love on the Spectrum. You know, the much-loved show that gave Theo his big break. Once, his real-life search for romance won the nation’s heart. Now he’s back looking for love, only this time… it’s scripted. So yeah, a lot less charming.
This romance subplot also features Natalie Abbott, AKA the star of Aftertaste. Does her two-for-two appearance in two of the ABC’s most aimlessly pissweak sitcoms of recent years make her a name you can trust when it comes to comedies you can’t? Seems harsh, but you can’t argue with facts.
As for the other plot thread – which, we should point out, in no real way overlaps with Austin’s search for love and pop cultural relevance – it’s about the dramas of casting a children’s television show. Oh great. This plot somehow manages to be both totally unrealistic and deathly familiar. It’s the kind of thing sitcom writers come up with when their only point of reference is other sitcoms.
It’s not that the wacky comedic premise isn’t a wacky comedy premise. Sure, it’s totally possible* that a TV production company would buy the rights to a series of illustrated kids books, then decide to film them as a live action series with a man in a bear suit, then hire a high profile actor to play the bear and be fine with him cutting a hole in the front of the bear suit so his face would be visible. Possible… just not funny.
Maybe it would get laughs if the comedy was “oh no, we accidentally sold our property to a bunch of complete fuckwits who are totally going to ruin it”. Instead, we’re supposed to treat them as serious professionals, and Julian (Ben Miller), the book’s author, as a meddling chump who’s ruined everything. Which he has, obviously. Just not in a way that’s funny or much of anything beyond a bunch of stale sitcom gestures.
It’s not a new insight to point out that Austin feels very much like a show where the audience is not an active consideration. But increasingly it feels like a show where reality hardly gets a look in either. Why are we getting jokes about book tours and television production when neither feels even remotely authentic or interesting?
Making shit up is fine if it’s funny shit. But Austin exists in a half-baked fantasy world where even situations the audience will never experience – book tours, television sets – don’t feel plausible. And we all know what funny shit without the funny is.
Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction may not be a game-changing chat show, but it’s different enough to be interesting. Many chat shows try to get guests to make startling confessions or to cry over dead relatives, and there’s a bit of that here, but the bigger focus is on relatable, interesting stories. So far, so conventional.
But Eve of Destruction is also what happens when you get a renowned sketch comedian and his writers to make a chat show. Sure, there’s a lot of chat, but there’s also more sketch-style comedy than you might expect. An innovation in this series is that Micallef opens the show pretending to play a tiny keyboard on a concertina stand that keeps collapsing. Hilarity ensues. There are also weird, funny cutaways to single gags, and some amusingly violent ways to undertake the “destruction” part of the show. Andrew Denton never did that.
The point of Eve of Destruction, lest we forget, is that each guest brings on two items they’d save as their home is destroyed (by a war, say, or an act of God), with the potential to sacrifice one of the two things should things get really bad in that whole disaster scenario. This high-concept framing device opens up the personal stories from the guests, but also tells us a bit about who they are deep down in a novel way.
So, if you’re tuning into Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction expecting a conventional chat show, you might be disappointed, but if you’re tuning in expecting a lot of Shaun Micallef comedy, then there’s less than you might be hoping for. Everyone loses!
But that’s how it goes with Micallef these days; his appearances on Dancing with the Stars were a mix of the ‘Shaun Micallef comedy persona’ dancing and, “Hey, he’s actually quite good!” And, also, no one makes either proper chat shows or sketch comedy anymore. Better get down to the Salvos and hope they’ve got some Micallef P(r)ogram(me) or Parkinson DVDs on the shelf if you’re after those kinds of things.
Having said that, someone down at Eve of Destruction clearly thought it would be a better show if more of the guests were comedians. So in news, you, the reader of this blog about comedy, may appreciate, we see Frank Woodley, John Safran, Celeste Barber, Tony Martin and Rhys Nicholson across this series (plus a surprise appearance from a much-loved comic in the first episode) alongside more traditional guests from the worlds of entertainment, the arts, sport and the media. Micallef also tries to get laughs out of the non-comedian guests, such as the fun competition in episode two, where Micallef and Lisa McCune showcase their Shakespearean death scene skills.
And while this isn’t necessarily the Micallef comedy fans want, it’s the best Micallef we’re going to get in 2025 that doesn’t involve him waltzing. Which is a good thing?
Mother and Son returns to ABC this September with more laughs and chaos
The ABC is pleased to announce the highly anticipated second season of Mother and Son returns, lighter and brighter with a fresh injection of fun, on Wednesday 24 September at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
Comedy favourite Denise Scott returns as the delightfully unpredictable Maggie, joined once again by the sharp and charismatic Matt Okine as her long-suffering son Arthur. With Matt also back at the helm as writer and re-creator, this dynamic duo is set to deliver another season packed with heart, hilarity, and the kind of chaos only the Boye family can bring.
Produced by Wooden Horse and directed by Shaun Wilson, known for his work on ABC favourites Rosehaven and Frayed, the all-new Mother and Son returns with more misadventures as mischievous Maggie continues to derail the life of her neurotic son Arthur, who’s still stuck at home and struggling to grow up.
As Arthur flounders through freelance journalism, dating apps, and spicy snacks, Maggie sets out to make her 70s unforgettable—whether it’s joining a rogue knitting group or chaining herself to a fig tree. Meanwhile, their scheming sister Robbie (Angela Nica Sullen) has big plans for Maggie’s nest egg and the family home.
Joining the Boye family as they stumble through chaos, comedy, and community in this hilariously dysfunctional second season are returning favourites Virginia Gay, Zara Tate and Jean Kittson, along with special guest appearances from Heather Mitchell (Love Me), Mark Lee (Gallipoli),David Collins (The Umbilical Brothers) and many more.
“Highly anticipated” you say. Actually no, what you say is “The ABC is pleased to announce the highly anticipated second season of Mother and Son returns, lighter and brighter with a fresh injection of fun”, which makes less sense the longer you look at it.
Anyway, good thing they injected it with fun this time around and not whatever shit they were shooting up in season one. Here’s a trailer, god help us all:
There’s plenty you can say about the Logies – TV Tonight called it “broken” last week, and they’re not wrong. But it’s so much more than a televised evening of backslapping and blatantly handing awards to stars linked to whoever holds the broadcast rights. It’s a show that, this year at least, got it right as far as comedy goes.
Let’s remind ourselves who won the comedy awards last night…
The award for Best Scripted Comedy Program went toFisk, another clear winner in a field which consisted of Austin, Colin From Accounts, Good Cop/Bad Cop, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (what? All of it?), and Optics.
There were also Silver Logies for Fisk cast members Julia Zemiro, Glenn Butcher, Aaron Chen, and Kitty Flanagan. If Fisk doesn’t come back for a fourth season, there’ll be riots in the streets!
What this shows us is that not only do the members of the public who vote for these things enjoy the better comedy shows on air, but so do those who sit on juries for the “Best” awards. Not that anyone at any network will join the dots and wonder if they should make more shows like the ones that people like, of course.
We should also mention host Sam Pang, who did another good job this year. His opening monologue was strong, playing well at home partly because he made so many in the room squirm with embarrassment.
And then there was the Hall of Fame award, which deservedly went to Magda Szubanski. Szubanski, who didn’t attend the ceremony following her recent diagnosis with stage 4 mantle cell lymphoma, gave a moving and defiant speech, tackling head-on the criticism that she was only receiving the award because of her cancer.
The idea that Szubanski doesn’t deserve this award is crap, obviously. She was a stand-out performer in The D-Generation, Fast Forward, Big Girl’s Blouse, Kath & Kim and more, and has been one of this country’s most loved entertainers for decades. It’s hard to think of anyone more deserving from that generation of comedians, apart from Working Dog, who already received the AACTA’s Longford Lyell Award earlier this year.
So, in a world where there seem to be fewer comedy shows each year, at least the country’s best-known television awards ceremony picked the best ones. That’s one thing the Logies doesn’t need to change. We’ll leave the organisers to have a think about what TV Tonight had to say.
Austin is what you get when everybody making a show leaves the entertainment side of things to somebody else. Sure, there’s plenty of moments where it seems like comedy is just around the corner. But if they actually delivered any big laughs, you wouldn’t stick around for the next seven episodes.
It’s not often you see a series that’s so obviously the result of a co-production deal. Well, aside from those shows set in Tasmania where half the set-up is trying to explain why the story is taking place in Tasmania. But here you’re never left in any doubt that this is a production evenly split between Australia and the UK. There is an Australian plot and a UK plot and never (well, hardly never) the twain shall meet.
Half of Austin is about Austin, who this season is now a popular media celebrity due to his having written a book. You’d think this would make for a good crossover with the other half of the series, which is about his (possible) biological father Julian, a successful children’s book author trying to reclaim his media status after accidentally retweeting a racist tweet. But no!
After an opening episode which (to its credit) does figure out a way to have these two characters in the same room, the series splits. Austin has a bunch of wacky hijinx trying to peddle his book, now hilariously titled Game Of Scones: Doing Britain On The Spectrum. Anyone remember How to Stay Married? Remember how that had a bunch of side-splitting gags about the world of book publicity? Same deal here.
Meanwhile, Julian has a bunch of completely separate wacky hijinx around the filming of a live-action TV series based on his Big Bear books. The producers don’t want him involved because of the whole racism thing. Obviously that’s not going to stop him from being a nuisance. Hey, here’s an idea – why not just film another kids book?
Julian’s character arc feels like the kind of thing made up by people who’re living somewhere adjacent to – but not part of – the real world. Him being #cancelled and wanting to use his autistic son to redeem himself made sense (kind of) in season one. But now?
Either he’d have made a hard swerve to embrace the right – after all, Nazi’s have kids too – or he’d be popular enough to have ridden out the controversy. If you’re cancelled and then someone wants to make a TV show based on your books, you’re no longer cancelled. That’s how 2025 works.
Presumably the writers believe if you’ll buy his troubles you’ll buy anything. How else to explain why his illustrated books are being filmed as live-action (with someone in a bear costume) and not animated? Yeah, we know, if it wasn’t live action there’d be no sets for Julian to try and sneak onto. If only any of this stuff was funny.
Austin’s side of the story involves book publicity that isn’t merely Austin being told to film some clips for BookTok. So yeah, also implausible. Why isn’t Julian a central part of this book-centric plotline? Why isn’t the entire show about Austin and Julian working together? That way you’d have an actual show, not two largely separate shows side-by-side that occasionally drop in on each other every second or third episode.
The sense of a show made up by people with no experience in anything real extends to the smaller details. Why are football hooligans traveling first class on a train? Why are there only four football hooligans when they almost always travel in big groups? How can an unemployed writer afford a cab from Northampton when it’s a two hour trip by road? How hard is it for the Austin team to open Google Maps?
Adding to the frustration, Ben Miller (as Julian), Sally Phillips (as his illustrator wife, who is allowed on-set) and Michael Theo (as Austin) are all better than many of the scenes they’re in. Whenever things are allowed to get big, Austin gets… well, maybe not good, but better than usual. That’s because these are actors who can go big (or even just a bit sillier) and be funny. It’s the writing that too often holds them back.
The whole thing feels like the result of a contract negotiation. Miller and Phillips are in one show, Theo and his family are in another. Some times the funny scenes are funny. Other times they’re not. Then there’s the dramatic scenes, about which the less said the better. Sometimes they’re in London, other times they’re in Canberra.
Austin is a show held together entirely by the demands of the funding bodies, mashing everything together in some kind of financial teleporter accident. And it’s the longest running scripted comedy the ABC will show this year.
Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction returns for a second season on ABC in August
The ABC is delighted to confirm the return of Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction for another season – six brand-spankingly new episodes of existential angst, heart-rending confession, and unqualified psychoanalysis.
Premiering Wednesday 13 August at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview, this season promises more of the same – one question, two guests, and a barely competent host.
The question remains: If your house was about to be destroyed, what two things would you save?
The guests? Ah, but that would be telling. For example, Lisa McCune is one of them. And there are others as well. A fine series it would be if we only had one guest.
Says Shaun about his return to what he does best, “I’m not doing Mad as Hell, am I? I thought I was doing the interview show again. I am? Oh, I see. Yes, I’m very pleased to be back. Great guests. People who wouldn’t talk to me normally. I’m looking forward to it.”
Join us for another season of unexpected revelations, surprising objects, and impertinent questions. Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction – the only interview show where only the guests have prepared.
Like a lot of Micallef projects, Eve of Destruction got better as it went along. We’d even go so far as to say the Christmas special was worth watching even if you’re not a fan of interview shows. Sure, this will no doubt once again be budgeted on the smell of an oily rag. It’ll probably feature multiple segments that don’t so much click as clunk. We’re still glad to have it back.
After all, we’re talking about the ABC here: it’s not like there are better options on offer.
Remember Thank God It’s Friday (or TGIF)? You know, the Sydney-based, end-of-week topical panel show on ABC radio that’s been running for years? We mentioned it a couple of times, more than a decade ago, and have kind of forgotten its existence since. Until now! This year it got a reboot, with a new host, in a new city and with a new attitude. But is it worth tuning in for or downloading from ABC Listen?
Before we answer that, let’s remind ourselves what the original TGIF was. Hosted by long-time ABC Sydney Drive host Richard Glover, it was developed by Glover as a way “to bring the magic of variety” to the Friday edition of his show (note the word “variety”). Some local comedians would come on, Glover would ask them some questions about that week’s news, and the comedians would deliver a lightly scripted routine in reply. In addition, there was a segment called “The News from Nowhere”, where Glover would deliver a wry, sentimental monologue, musing on something or other (his kids leaving home, becoming a grandfather, memories of his parents, that kind of thing), and there’d be a song or two from some local musicians. Something for everyone, there.
In many ways, Glover’s TGIF wasn’t that different from the usual ABC local radio fare (variety, it’s all about variety!). Except, with its guest comedians and its similarity to shows like Good News Week and Gruen, there was a sense that maybe it would be worth tuning in for. Although it wasn’t. Trust us, it wasn’t. While this was a show that gave comedians airtime each week, the comedy they delivered was as easy listening as the musical acts. The audience for ABC local radio drive shows doesn’t want anything challenging or edgy, goes the theory; they want something light-hearted and everyday – and that’s what they got. Variety! Until now?
When Glover retired from the ABC last year, it was fair to assume that TGIF was over. But earlier this year, it came back, with Charlie Pickering as host. And while Pickering has many, many faults, he is a comedian, and not an ex-journalist like Glover, so it was reasonable to expect the new TGIF would be more comedy-oriented. And it is, we guess. The show is now recorded in Melbourne (Australia’s home of comedy!), and it has more of a comedy quiz feel, with the comedians on the show typically being younger than on the Sydney version.
Something about the vibe of this rebooted TGIF tells you it’s no longer your grandad’s TGIF. There have been jokes about golden showers, drug taking and urinating, and the word “anus” has been used on the show multiple times – and nothing is funnier than those things, right?
And yet, a lot of the show’s very much the same. “The News from Nowhere” segment, which you’d think would be the first thing to get the chop in a comedy-focused reboot, is still there. Meaning that every week, Charlie Pickering has to come up with several minutes of whimsy on something we can all relate to (in last Friday’s show, it was about the first time he kissed a girl). These are worth listening to in a “what not to do” sort of way, in that Pickering doesn’t seem 100% comfortable delivering them, and the audience responds with the most muted applause imaginable. So, yeah, they should cut that bit and get to the quiz…
Except the quiz isn’t that great either, despite having had some very good comedians on it, and a seeming commitment to going for laughs by having a points system where funny answers get more points than correct answers. One major problem for the show is that when the comedians are asked to answer a question on a topical news story, they seem to neither know the real answer to the question nor to have prepared a funny fake answer. Meaning, the show comes across more like a rambling, improvisational comedy podcast than a polished panel show. Maybe give the panel the questions ahead of time so they can write something funny?
Another part of the show that grates is that the show’s producer, Matt, has a soundboard of clips and sound effects that he chucks in occasionally, like he’s Hey! Hey! It’s Saturday’s Murray Tregonning. If one of the panel delivers a “hot take” on something, we hear Jim Carrey in The Mask saying “Smokin!”, and if someone happens to mention food, we hear Donald Trump saying “They’re eating the dogs”. We get that they’re trying to make the show more “comedy” and more “youth”, but it seemed pretty daggy in 2025.
What was good on last week’s show was panellist Andrew Hansen also being the musical guest. Usually, TGIF books a local band or has the cast of an upcoming musical on to perform a number from their show, so having an actual comedy song was welcome. Especially as Hansen’s song was pretty funny. If Hansen could come up with a song that good for TGIF every week, it might be worth listening to regularly.
Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to happen. And after about six months on air, the Charlie Pickering-hosted TGIF has found its groove, and it’s a not especially funny one. But that’s how ABC comedy is these days. There’s no institutional memory about how to make a funny show (the ABC radio comedy unit got dismantled due to budget cuts in the 1980s), so the focus is on being cheap and as inoffensive to as many people as possible. Being funny or entertaining is a secondary goal. And who wants a laugh anyway when they’re coming home after a hard week at work? No one, according to the ABC.
Julia Zemiro to host ABC’s new true-crime panel show Crime Night!
The ABC is thrilled to announce that Julia Zemiro will host Crime Night! a comedy true-crime panel show where real-life cases are examined through the lens of criminology and comedy.
Produced by Dreamchaser and Maverick Entertainment, the six-part series will see Julia, alongside a panel of criminologists and comedians dissect famous cases. They will discover the science behind the crimes and use that same science to examine our own lives with hilarious consequences.
Host Julia Zemiro says: “Excellent criminologists and brainy comedians? Check! One very engaged host? (That’s me!) Yes Check!
“I am so excited to be back at the ABC steering a panel show about modern day criminology. This new team of writers and producers are a breath of fresh air to work with, as we delve into the science behind the crimes. The how, the what and the why. The curious, the serious and ultimately very human side of crime.”
Rachel Millar, ABC Head of Entertainment, said: “Australians can’t get enough of True Crime, and we’re excited to join forces with Dreamchaser and Maverick to bring this innovative and original format to ABC screens. For anyone who loves bingeing the latest true crime podcast, or playing detective in the group chat, this is the show for you. Led by the inimitable Julia Zemiro, this is a show that will make your spine tingle with intrigue, whilst making you laugh at the same time.”
Carl Fennessy and Monique Keller, Dreamchaser Executive Producers, said: “Crime Night! is the first commission under our Maverick Entertainment and Dreamchaser producing partnership. We’re thrilled to be launching this brand-new comedy true-crime panel show in partnership with the ABC. The combined talents of Executive Producers David Forster, Frank Bruzzese and Julia Zemiro are exceptional, working alongside a brilliant panel of criminologists and comedians to examine the fascinating real-life cases we’re all obsessed with in the funniest possible way.”
Where to start with this nightmare? Oh sorry, we mean “comedy true-crime panel show”? If you ever for even the briefest second doubted that all ABC panel shows – yes, even that one you like – are seen by the ABC as “pandering shit for our dimwit audience”, our condolences on your loss of innocence.
Also getting our condolences: anyone affected by a crime made fun of on this show. The only possible way this utterly confused format – comedians and true crime? What, they couldn’t get Daryl Somers to host a show on race relations? – can work is if the true crime cases being discussed are so cold Ned Kelly is one of the suspects. At which point, what’s the point?
Okay, it’s just a press release. We’re probably jumping the gun here. We all know the vaguely gossipy vibe they’re going to want to go for. We also know that at the ABC “comedian” pretty much means anyone wandering the corridors who doesn’t work for 4 Corners. It’s perfectly possible that this will not, in fact, be the worst idea for a television show in recent memory – just a lot of blather about forensics with some shit observations from radio hosts mixed in.
On the other hand, it’s aimed at people “playing detective in the group chat”, and those people are the worst. And there’s an exclamation mark in the title! Have we learned nothing from the failure of Cram!?
The Back Side of Television is, well, back. If you’ve been looking for a chance to laugh at the weird shit Australian television has served up over the last 70-odd years, then this third season is everything you could ask for and more. Best comedy show of the year? Hang on, we haven’t seen the second season of Mother & Son yet.
It’s the “and more” that’s important. When it comes to local TV, who wouldn’t love a smart, funny look at the lowlights of yesteryear? It does seem a bit weird that we haven’t had one of those nostalgia clip shows in a while. Presumably hiring someone to go through the archives costs money whereas reality TV pays for itself. Put another way, The Back Side of Television isn’t exactly a one man operation, but host Mitch McTaggart’s name does show up over and over in the credits.
No, what makes The Back Side of Television more than just a snarky nostalgia-fest – though c’mon, that 70’s science fiction episode of The Evil Touch with the sex robot sells itself – is the way McTaggart has actually put some thought into what he’s talking about. This, you may have gathered over the years, is not par for the course on Australian television.
So while this week’s two-part episode wasn’t exactly wall-to-wall laughs, it was extremely interesting. Okay, some parts were funny too, if often in a “that’s a bit fucked up” way. But as a look at how Australian television worked (and works) hand-in-glove with various police forces – in a very much “you scratch our back with technical help and we’ll scratch yours by helping gloss over your many, many failings” fashion – it exposed how this country’s media really works in a way you’re not going to get from Question Everything.
Look, we’re suckers for this kind of thing. Insider info about Australian television? Count us 100% in. Snarky digs at pretty much everything? You know we love that. Let Loose Live even got a mention in week one. We figured we were the only people left alive who remembered that 2005 shocker.
But McTaggart knows how to sell an insightful look at television to an audience that’s come for wacky clips from yesteryear. (and if the reports of an upcoming expose on Man O Man are correct, that’s what they’ll get). Yes, the depth of research on offer is impressive. Linking various real-life police scandals to TV episodes that tried to whitewash them couldn’t have been easy.* But McTaggart’s skill as a host, and his ability to keep things light until it’s time to drop the hammer, are what makes this great television.
And there’s still two more episodes to go!
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*the more cynical amongst us might suggest that an example of the Victorian Police shooting an unarmed person might not have been all that tricky to dig up
While watching Shaun Micallef on the current season of Dancing With The Stars, it was hard not to think: has it really come to this? Or that’s we would have thought if we’d actually been watching the show and not just a clip of Micallef on social media.
But why would we expect anything better of Australian comedy? The whole point now is clearly to make something that’s as disposable and forgettable as possible. And then edit that into tiny chunks so it doesn’t matter if your attention span is measured in seconds.
That doesn’t mean the end product isn’t funny. Working Dog have got this kind of thing down to a fine art. The Cheap Seats and Have You Been Paying Attention? are stone cold comedy classics week in week out. But if you missed an episode, you wouldn’t feel compelled to catch up when there’s a new one just around the corner. It’s hard to imagine even the show’s biggest fans watching an episode more than once.
Which is the whole point. The free-to-air networks want their comedy to be exactly like reality TV, or game shows, or sport, or news. That is, something that must be consumed immediately. If you don’t watch it live, what’s the point? Which explains why so much comedy now is basically competitions or game shows.
While these formats can often be funny, they’re also completely disposable. And not just for the folks at home. Being good on a panel show or a game show is like being good on radio. The best case scenario is that it gets you another job on radio. You go around for a few years doing the same thing, then you’re no longer an exciting new face. If you’re lucky the music stops when you’re a regular on a show that isn’t axed the following week.
People hate on sketch comedy and rightly so. But back when Australia made sketch comedy, if you made a sketch that was good enough, it could give you a career. People would talk about it, they’d rewatch it, you could bring the characters back and do it all over again. Which just doesn’t happen with even the funniest moments on a panel show.
Micallef has done almost everything you can do as a comedian in this country. The reason why he’s been able to do that is because first he did a bunch of sketches people loved. People still share online the sketches he made for Full Frontal and The Micallef P(r)ogram(me). That documentary he did on the evils of the demon drink, not so much.
Likewise with Working Dog. They made their name with The Late Show, Frontline, The Castle – if you want to go back further, there’s the D-Generation sketch shows. People might tell you they fondly remember The Panel. Good luck getting them to actually quote anything from it. Well, unless they remember the time Rob Sitch said he thought a car commercial looked great and Mick Molloy laughed at him.
It’s a bit simplistic to say that sketch comedy (or sitcoms or just character-based comedy) are the foundation of a television career. But it’s that kind of comedy – something with a bit of narrative, a bit of character – that makes fans out of people. Con the Fruiterer and Kylie Mole were mainstream figures; pretty much everyone on HYBPA? is funnier, but nobody’s making a board game about them.
On the flipside, the two shittiest TV comedians Australian television has produced in the 21st century are also the ones with the most devoted fanbases: Chris Lilley and Paul Fenech. They built a rusted on fanbase that enabled them to spend a decade churning out crap while actually funny people struggled. And they did it because they did character comedy. People might laugh at comedians, but they become fans of comedy characters.
But because the ABC are shit and the commercial networks gave away everything to streaming, we don’t do comedy characters any more. Decades of television built around comedy characters – pretty much every comedy-related ratings hit – and the industry just decided “nah, we’re not doing that any more”.
At least for a few minutes on Dancing With The Stars we get to see the comedy antics of that much-loved character “Shaun Micallef”. Sure, he’s no Milo Kerrigan. But who is?
