The Piss Weekly

The Weekly‘s weak-as-piss approach to just about everything hardly even registers any more. Still, there’s always room for one more at the party:

It’s hardly new news, but as far as The Weekly‘s punch-pulling goes here’s our take:

On one side there is somebody at The Weekly who wants to tap into the growing number of online electoral commentators. The market for snark is wide open: Antony Green has retired and the ABC’s replacement currently has no cred. Getting popular and / or edgy commentators on board might spark conversation and grab headlines, which The Weekly definitely isn’t doing at the moment.

On the other there is ABC management, who won’t let anybody say anything and presumably won’t let anyone from the news dept go near The Weekly. Why throw away your credibility on a show that’s neither funny nor informative?

Having Punters Politics on but not letting him say anything is The Weekly‘s attempt to protest the situation. Only The Weekly is so shit, nobody is going to take their side. C’mon, it’s been a decade of pissweak apolitical “comedy” that hasn’t put a toe out of line and now it’s time for tough talk?

As for why now with their (so-called) protest? Well, you’d think the frustration at The Weekly is mostly the realisation that the ABC is stifling their future career prospects. They must have (finally) realised that The Weekly as it stands is a career dead end for everyone but Charlie Pickering, and Pickering will never have it this good again.

If the staff (which can’t be more than a handful of people) at The Weekly want to improve their lot, they need leverage. The only way to get that is by making a show that has fans and some kind of mainstream interest, which they ain’t getting at the moment.

Partly they’re a victim of their own… let’s say “success”. The Weekly stays on air because it makes no interesting points and causes no disturbances. It’s also cheap – guests provide much of the content, the rest is news footage gags. But you can do edgy, pointed, provocative comedy on a budget. In fact, it usually helps.

The Weekly has chosen for much of its run to be bland shit, sucking up to the boss every chance it gets. Mad as Hell wasn’t a ratings smash, but it did a good job, it had fans, and people were sad to see it go. Will anyone care when The Weekly vanishes?

That’s a better joke than anything out of Pickering’s mouth.