13 schoolyards, Author at Australian Tumbleweeds - Page 10 of 109
Treating the Host with the Contempt he Deserves
After 47 years and thirty five thousand episodes, there’s not a lot left to be said about The Weekly with Charlie Pickering. And even less to be said that’s positive. But in recent weeks we’ve noticed a trend that we can’t help but applaud: more and more often, the guests are treating Pickering like shit.... Read More »
Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe: No Reservations Required
It wasn’t all that long ago that series like Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe were part of the ABC’s regular comedy output. Today? Not so much. After decades of budget cuts and an increasingly tight focus on an audience that’s presumably excited for series like the upcoming Mother & Son reboot, something as relentlessly inventive and... Read More »
Vale Taskmaster Australia
It’s been a long time since local comedy had a future on Australian free-to-air television. Watching comedy – well, the trends in comedy – is a great way to figure out where television is going in general: it’s a niche product on the sharp edge of production, so whatever’s happening there will eventually happen everywhere.... Read More »
And Then I Got High
We don’t often link to profile stories but we think you’ll agree this one is something special: No-one cared who Jason Gann was until he put on the mangy dog suit. For 10 years, Jason played the misanthropic, bong-smoking dog, Wilfred, first in a hit comedy series in Australia on SBS, and then in a... Read More »
When You Get So Down You Can’t Get Up
Australian commercial television’s been putting in the hard yards as far as local comedy goes over the last few weeks, with results that are… look, we’ve already used “comedy” once, those truth in advertising guys aren’t going to let us use it again. Onto The Weekly! Remember when The Weekly used to pretend it was... Read More »
Betooting Their Own Horn
Press release time! The Betoota Advocate is one of those satirical sites you’d think wouldn’t translate all that well to television. A lot of their news story jokes are basically just the headline, and there are a lot of jokes that don’t really work: it’s quantity not quality that gets them over the line, especially... Read More »
This Week’s Homework Assignment
Not content with screening sketch comedy made during this century, Seven has decided to throw a bit more cash Daryl Somers’ way and bless us with The Best of The Russell Gilbert Show. Two hours worth over two big weeks! Yeah, bet you thought you were funny with your “The Best of? So it’ll run... Read More »
Please Don’t Interrupt
For at least this century and possibly longer, Australian sketch comedy has been shithouse. Oh, there’s been good sketches here and there, and even the occasional decent sketch show. But they’ve always been outweighed by the crap. So much crap. And now there’s We Interrupt This Broadcast to… well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.... Read More »
A Golden Land of Opportunity
At the moment, Australia’s free-to-air television networks are currently showing four new locally made comedy (well, light entertainment really, but we’ll take what we can get) programs a week: Would I Lie To You? Australia, Taskmaster Australia, Hard Quiz and The Weekly with Charlie Pickering. If you’ve been wondering why it’s been a bit quiet... Read More »