The Weekly: what the fuck? Sure, Cyclone Debbie isn’t funny, and you know what comedy shows do with subjects that aren’t funny? They either find a way to be funny about it, or they shut their mouths and move on. You know what they don’t do? They don’t open with a “hope everyone’s keeping safe”... Read More »
Press release time! Twenty sketch comedy teams have been selected as the 2017 recipients of Fresh Blood, the highly successful joint initiative between ABC and Screen Australia designed to unearth a new generation of comedic talent. Each team will receive $15,000 to create 3 x 3-5min sketches that will be released on iview in the... Read More »
So yesterday on Twitter this happened: Love 2 signal boost enormous racists forspicy memes https://t.co/Q5VcxR5MGY — Ben Jenkins (@bencjenkins) March 24, 2017 Which got this reply: @bencjenkins might be hard ben, but listen to the podcast first — Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) March 24, 2017 Cue this snappy comeback: @MarkDiStef pic.twitter.com/Z7ioDJ1qkw — Ben Jenkins (@bencjenkins)... Read More »
Watching Australian television comedy is a thankless task, or it would be if there was any fucking Australian television comedy to watch. Aside from two minutes of Clarke & Dawe actually being funny, what is there? Remember when performing stand-up was a path to getting on television? Seems it still is, only the “path” is... Read More »
Briggswatch! Still in the opening credits of The Weekly, not on the actual Weekly. Then again he did just collect a decent share of $30,000 for winning the Australian Music prize, so he may have better things to do with his time. As did Kitty Flanagan, which is weird because… you know… Tom Gleeson was... Read More »
It’s been a sad weekend for fans of cartooning, as the Antipodes’ greatest exponent of the art recently passed away to a vast outpouring of grief and dismay. We speak, of course, of the death of Murray Ball, creator of Footrot Flats, one of the warmest and funniest newspaper comics of the last thirty years.... Read More »
We knew there were only two ways this story could end. Either Briggs didn’t return to The Weekly this week, turning the show into a laughing stock that couldn’t even accurately predict when core cast members were going to appear, or Briggs showed up and we could all go back to ignoring The Weekly. Almost... Read More »
“Hello and welcome to The Weekly – like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or correspond with us by fax, we’re not really that picky”. Has there ever been a more dispiriting introduction to an Australian comedy show? Even Please Like Me gave you the option of reading the title ironically: this is just... Read More »
Ever since Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper – it’s like a regular newspaper, only shitter – took over sponsorship of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival we’ve been extremely appreciative of the opportunity to run the exact same story every single year: oh look, they’ve got people who know nothing about comedy reviewing comedy and they’ve stuffed... Read More »
Remember when Australian comedy used to appear on networks that weren’t the ABC? The Family Law? Here Come the Habibs? Weren’t they meant to be back on air by now? Eh, they’ll show up eventually: so long as we’ve got the ABC and their rock-solid commitment to Australian television comedy there’s nothing to worry about.... Read More »