Hey Hey Its Yet Another Bloody Clip Show

Probably the best way to look at Hey Hey It’s Saturday in 2022 is to not look at it at all. The second best way is to look at it as a shed out the back of Daryl Somers’ place full of dubious old crap he just can’t let go of. If he wants to spend his days rummaging around in there trying to find something of value under the porno mags, fine; the rest of us have television to watch.

Hey Hey It’s 100 Years is a clip show hosted by Daryl Somers. Does he walk on stage saying “thank you, thank you” to pre-recorded applause from a non-existent audience? Of course he does, and it’s all downhill from there.

Supposedly the reason why we’re getting a 100 year anniversary special of Hey Hey only a few years since the 40 year anniversary is because, as Daryl puts it “I want to be a part of this show and enjoy it with everybody else”. Let’s reflect on that a moment: Daryl thinks that in 2077 there will definitely be a Hey Hey anniversary special so he wants to get in early and join in on the fun. There are lot of things wrong with that sentence, and “fun” is only the beginning.

Despite an early montage of mostly annoyed or confused looking celebrities, this is not really a “night with the stars”. Again, this shouldn’t be a surprise: Hey Hey‘s celebrity guests were usually just wheeled out to be used as befuddled props or handed a gold record while Plucka Duck gyrated around in the background.

It’s a shame there weren’t more celebrity moments – not because these segments ever revealed anything interesting at all about the celebrities beyond their high tolerance for pain, but because they’re a great reminder of the way Daryl’s TV persona was always that of the bully: arrogant and self-serving around those he saw as inferior, blatantly grovelling and sucking up to those who had greater status. Fun times!

To be fair, a large chunk of this “special” involves Daryl being fairly generous to the cast members who provide most of the content here – Lavinia Nixon, Russell Gilbert, cartoonist Andrew Fyfe, and so on. Of course he is: without them, there would be no show. Ninety minutes of Daryl introducing acts and laughing at everyone else’s jokes was probably too much to swallow even for Channel Seven over Easter.

There’s also salutes to recently deceased Hey Hey greats like The Amazing Johnathan – you know, the American comedian who wasn’t the one with the puppets – and that great Hey Hey icon… Shane Warne? Plus the occasional current talking head (if you could call the lead singer of Pseudo Echo “current”) pops in to wish Daryl all the best on this non-existent anniversary. Stick around until the end to hear Delta Goodrem sing a Ricky May song about how much she wants to be on Hey Hey… or maybe don’t.

Are any of the segments any good? Do you really have to ask? Hey Hey It’s Saturday was always only ever disposable entertainment, a show that skated by on live energy and little else. A greatest hits collection only makes sense as an extension of Daryl’s ego. There were never any classic moments to revisit.

Unlike far funnier shows and series – which would be pretty much all of them – Hey Hey It’s Saturday is privately owned. That means Daryl can repackage it any way he likes and sell it to networks at rock bottom prices in an attempt to maintain his relevance. There’s literally no other reason why this crap is still being shown in 2022 when much better and more interesting programs – again, pretty much all of them – are seemingly lost for good.

Despite the occasional glimpse of the always entertaining Trevor Marmalade, this special was a waste of time. If you tune into the two (for fucks’ sake – ed) Red Faces specials due later this year, you only have yourself to blame.