Comedy Mysteries

Vale Before The Game

This one kind of passed us by, happening as it did during the off season and coming as more of a “hey, guess what’s not coming back in 2014” announcement: Before the Game is no more. The popular and long-running sports… wait, “sports”? Why are we mentioning it? Oh yeah: despite being AFL-focused it featured... Read More »

Women FTW?

Our recent guest post by an anonymous female former comedy writer got us thinking…how well are women doing in comedy in... Read More »

Halloween is When the Dead Spirits Rise

Hey, a guest post! We think it’s an interesting look at a dark-ish corner of the Australian comedy business. As you’ll probably figure out, there’s a reason why it’s anonymous. Many years ago, in 1999, I had a short conversation with a well-known lawyer-turned-comedian. He was in an office in one of the ABC buildings,... Read More »

Conan the Barbarian

Well, it seems the path to success in the United States for Australian comedians is clear: get your arse onto Conan O’Brien’s talk show: “YOU’RE a very strange fellow,” said Conan O’Brien after watching Aussie comedian Sam Simmons perform a stand-up routine on his talk show on Tuesday. The five minute set was an opportunity... Read More »

Tractor Monkeys is Back!

Tractor Monkeys is back! Can’t you feel the excitement in the air? The electricity humming across this great land as in homes and pubs and vacant lots people look up with a thrill in their hearts at the news that Tractor Monkeys is back! Finally life has meaning again. Finally we have cause to go... Read More »

A Gran(d) Legacy

Well, isn’t this a surprising turn of events: Guess which character is coming back in my new show? http://t.co/nTyz38JrRO pic.twitter.com/j6MNUsYt26 — Chris Lilley (@ChrisLilley) September 4, 2013 Hmm… could it be the one that involves Lilley putting on an unlikely costume for a 40-something man then saying “outrageous” things before the music gets all serious... Read More »

Fart from the Past: Get Nicked

Flops on Australian television work one of two ways: they get to air and stink so badly they’re axed, or you read about someone desperately trying to talk up a project that’s clearly never going to happen. What we almost never see is the show that progresses a long way down the track before getting... Read More »

Vale Wednesday Night Fever

Usually when a television show – especially a comedy – goes off the rails, it’s because those rails were faulty from the start. Remember how Randling filmed every single episode of it’s 27 episode run before a single one went to air? Oh how we laughed – not at the show, but at the foolishness... Read More »

When Networks Collide!

For a while there it looked like we were going to be in some serious trouble.  Let’s set the scene: after years of struggling in the wilderness after the fizzle that was Micallef Tonight, followed by a few years of good solid game show hosting on Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation, Shaun Micallef had not one... Read More »

State the Obvious and Win!

From the department of No Shit, Sherlock, comes this startling admission from ABC chief Mark Scott: Scott told Mumbrella’s sister title Encore: “One of the things we did with Randling that we learned from, and this was partly a budget thing, was that we locked all that away. It was all locked away before it... Read More »