13 schoolyards, Author at Australian Tumbleweeds - Page 72 of 112
Bob’s House of Horrors
It’s a sad state of affairs when we have to stop and think about whether we’re going to have to explain who Bob Franklin is to a comedy crowd. But let’s be honest: it’s been a fair while since he was a deadpan regular on Australian comedy TV. At a guess, we’re going to say... Read More »
Lined Up For the Chop
The trick with parodies is to make sure there’s more going on than just the parody. Those classic Mad Magazine movie spoofs had great art; Get Smart had a whole lot of jokes that had nothing to do with the “spy-fi” craze of the 60s. And the other end of the scale, SBS’s recent action... Read More »
You Have To Wonder Who Commissions This Stuff
SBS has delayed its launch of upcoming Paul McDermott chat show, Room 101. The series sees McDermott’s return to television chatting to celebrities such as Ray Martin, Julia Zemiro, HG Nelson, Julia Morris, Matt Preston, Noni Hazlehurst, about their pet hates. Originally due to premiere next Monday at 9:30pm, it has been held by SBS... Read More »
Mad as Hell in a Cell
Mad as Hell is back! And, uh, yeah… ok, it’s taken us a couple of days to get around to mentioning it because we don’t really have all that much new to say. Shaun Micallef and his skilled team have created a finely honed satirical machine and by now they’re capable of hitting any target... Read More »
Rebel Sports
When we heard (thanks sdf) that Rebel Wilson was on an American scriptwriting podcast talking about Australia’s dreaded “Tall Poppy Syndrome”, well… you knew we couldn’t stay away. The good stuff in Scriptnotes episode 182; The One with Dan Savage and Rebel Wilson starts around the 39 and a half minute mark, and when you... Read More »
Short and to the Point
It’s a bit of a backhanded comment to say the less we see of Ryan Shelton the funnier he is, but let’s be honest: the highpoint of his solo work to date has been the short segments he did on Rove Live. Ok, that’s mainly because that’s pretty much been all of his solo work... Read More »
Vale A Whole Bunch Of Shows
As is the way of things, the ABC likes to backload their comedy output for the year, piling on the shows through October and November then bringing things to a screeching halt the first week of December when the ratings period ends. With so much going on and our desks still looking pretty cluttered –... Read More »
Vale Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell (series four)
Surprisingly – or not, depending on how closely you’ve been paying attention – for a news satire the final episode of Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell contained a lot of swipes at other comedy shows. And well deserved swipes at that, whether the targets were lazy ABC “comedy” panel shows (the ‘Blather’ sketch even contained... Read More »
I Said Hey Hey, What’s Going On?
We were going to talk a little about the surprise revelation that Fairafx’s chief TV writer thinks Australia is crap at comedy – What shows like Black Comedy and Mad as Hell do, however, is demonstrate that despite the persistent belief that Australia cannot “do” comedy, our funny bone is actually in pretty good shape,... Read More »