Bean Is A Carrot, Author at Australian Tumbleweeds - Page 26 of 52
Dumb deal = dumb satire – We analyse the parodies of Trump and Turnbull’s phone call
It’s been almost impossible not to stumble across a parody transcript of the Donald Trump/Malcolm Turnbull phone call in the past couple of... Read More »
Stop Laughing… we certainly did
The first series of Stop Laughing…this is serious was a worthy if largely unsuccessful attempt to cover the entire history of Australian comedy in three 1-hour programs. Now it’s back for a second series, and in the first episode, the topic was characters. At the start of the episode, the following theory was posited: Barry... Read More »
It comes but once a year
In word terms, 2016 was the year of “democracy sausage” and “post-truth”, but if the world of comedy had its say it’d probably go for “banter”, a term rightly mocked in The Yearly with Charlie Pickering for describing conversation that sounds funny but actually isn’t. Oh, the irony. But as joke after half-arsed observation died... Read More »
Whoa, Fancy Boy (wham-ba-lam)
We’ve heard more exciting comedy announcements than the one about Fresh Blood alumni Fancy Boy and Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am getting series. But when we tuned into ABC2 last night and discovered that only one of them was terrible, we found ourselves feeling slightly less Scrooge and a little more Tiny Tim. It’s a... Read More »
Cheap Laughs and a 30 Year Growth
Back in the mid-80’s, some people in the UK came up with an idea for an improvised comedy radio show called Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which was a sort of mash-up of theatre sports and stand-up, inspired by a regular improv night at London club The Comedy Store. Following the radio series, it was... Read More »
For the fourth series, will you Please Like Me?
Please Like Me is back! And here we are again, having to review a series that almost no one in this country watches and that’s only on our screens once more thanks to American money. Not that this stops Fairfax’s finest saying this kind of thing about it… Perhaps there is indeed a limit to... Read More »
Little Lunch’s Halloween Tell Not Show
Keeping kids entertained isn’t an easy task – especially when there’s scary costumes to be worn and pumpkin-shaped lollies to be eaten – but the Halloween special of Gristmill’s primary school sitcom Little Lunch (which aired earlier today on ABC Me) did a pretty good job of it. Like any Gristmill production, Little Lunch has... Read More »
New Beginnings in Rosehaven and Upper Middle Bogan-land
You can see the logic in sandwiching Rosehaven between Upper Middle Bogan and The Last Laugh – established, popular favourites help launch the newcomer – problem is, unfamiliar, slow-paced Rosehaven’s such a contrast to the well-established characters and fast-moving storylines of Upper Middle Bogan that it looks less good than it possibly is. Or maybe... Read More »
Sketch comedy? You’re Skitting Me!
There’s an argument that mass-appeal TV comedy is dead, and that broadcasters and streaming content providers should focus their attention on niche audiences. It would probably be a good thing for comedy if that happened; people who like edgy material can enjoy it, while its makers don’t have to have to worry about offending people... Read More »