Comedy Mysteries

Devil With a Blue Dress On

In these days of a thousand digital channel flowers blooming, repeating your programs as often as possible during the week of release is a sign of commitment. “This is a show we’re standing behind,” a repeat says, “this is a show we want to be seen by as many people as possible”. Whether it’s a... Read More »

The Host With The Most

Showing the hard-nosed journalistic skills that have put them in the fore-front of “who’s wearing what at fashion launches” coverage, today the Melbourne Herald-Sun‘s “Confidential” put two and two together then wheeled out a giant multicoloured symbol that just might be a four. Or a squiggle: SHAUN Micallef’s bid for a variety show on Channel... Read More »

Give A Dog A Bone

With Angry Boys turning out to be the stinker we’ve been predicting since 2009, the nation’s focus has started to shift to… – sorry, you though this was another Angry Boys gripe-session? Don’t worry, we’ll let you know when we start our serious “hate to say I told you so” singalong for Lilley’s latest effort.... Read More »

The Strauchanie That Broke The Camel’s Back

We all know how hard it is to make a living in comedy. We all know how much harder it is to make a living in comedy when you don’t actually make comedy. Even then, seeing Peter Helliar dust off pointless, annoying, Ricky Gervais-knock-off one-joke character Bryan “Strauchanie” Strauchan this week for a seemingly regular... Read More »

Things You Learn From Talking to Someone Who’s Seen Boytown Confidential

*It’s pretty darn funny. *It’s about 90 minutes long, which probably means it would’ve only fitted on a 2-disc DVD release (considering there’s all that sing-along stuff taking up space on the current one-disc release) *It’s mostly interviews with the (in character) cast. There aren’t a lot of visual gags, it’s not full of snappy... Read More »

Autopsy Ambulance

It’s already become established wisdom that the failure of Live From Planet Earth comes down to one man: Ben Elton. (ok, and twitter, but let’s come back to that later) LFPE stunk on ice not because of Elton’s actual stand-up – generally acknowledged to be the best thing about the show and the only thing... Read More »

Executive Decision

Now that the chorus of voices calling for Live From Planet Earth have faded, their unholy bloodlust sated, a new round of voices can be heard. “They pulled it too soon”, these voices say, “They didn’t give it a chance to find its feet”. And who’s to say they don’t have a point? Well, us... Read More »

Laid: I Like It Both Ways

One of the many fun ways to pass the time while waiting to laugh watching Laid is to spot the various lines and scenes lifted from other shows. Sometimes they’re too generic to seriously attribute to a single source: for example, no-one actually invented the term “ass-clown”, but it’s not exactly in common usage in... Read More »

Dead Cat (The) Bounce

What’s that smell in the air? Why, it’s the AFL Finals – and yet, amazingly, when the public’s eyes drop disinterestedly to the TV listings, they find no trace of Peter Helliar and The Bounce. Which is really kind of strange, because when it got the chop back in April, Seven’s Head of Programming and... Read More »

It Was Just Flat-Out The Worst Of Times

Ahh, Julia Morris – you might not crack a smile at anything she’s ever said or done, but you can’t deny that she keeps on saying and doing things. In fact, so good is she at saying and doing things – from purchasing a title so she can call herself “Lady Julia Morris” to pulling... Read More »