Hannah Gadsby is Something Special
Hannah Gadsby’s Something Special, now on Netflix, is the feel-good follow-up to their previous stand-up shows Nanette and Douglas.... Read More »
Comedy Reviews
Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe: No Reservations Required
It wasn’t all that long ago that series like Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe were part of the ABC’s regular comedy output. Today? Not so much. After decades of budget cuts and an increasingly tight focus on an audience that’s presumably excited for series like the upcoming Mother & Son reboot, something as relentlessly inventive and... Read More »
So We’re Just a Mad as Hell Fanblog Now, Huh
The good news is, Australian television comedy continues today exactly as it would have if a lethal pandemic wasn’t killing thousands across the globe. The bad news is, Australian television comedy continues today exactly as it would have if a… you get where we’re going. Unlike live comedy, there’s been no wave of cancellations across... Read More »
The Sounds of Silence
Mad as Hell without an audience? How’s that going to work? As it turned out, pretty well. Which should have come as no real surprise considering Shaun Micallef did roughly the same show without an audience for years (that’d be Newstopia, by the way). Obviously the situation wasn’t ideal, but these days what is? (also,... Read More »
Choose Me For Me
It’s taken us a while to get around to talking about Josh Thomas’ new series Everything’s Gonna Be Okay because… well, for a lot of reasons really. For one thing, the disconnect between what we see when we watch Thomas on television and what everyone else is telling us they see is currently so great... Read More »
Back to the Front(line)
Is Frontline Australia’s all-time best comedy? Of course not: why would you even suggest such a crazy thing? Oh wait: The critics have spoken. Frontline is Australia’s all-time best TV comedy. TV Tonight has asked some of the nation’s top TV critics to choose their favourite Australian comedies* -either sitcoms or sketch- with Working Dog’s... Read More »
When Things Get Too Serious For Laughter, There’s Always Nanette
Hannah Gadsby’s live show Nanette has been receiving a second round of rave reviews now that it’s available on Netflix, many of them repeating the same few points over and over again because yes, it’s a show that really is shocking and powerful and deeply moving. The sharper of these new round of reviews usually... Read More »
Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush
So this happened: TV STAR Tim Ferguson carried out a vile and obscene campaign of bullying when at the height of his fame. Ferguson, along with Richard Fidler and Paul McDermott, were the original members of comedy group the Doug Anthony Allstars (DAAS) at the time the offensive letters were sent. The letters were signed... Read More »
A Triumph of Towering Unambition
Remember when we used to slag off other critics for lazily praising clearly substandard Australian comedy? Yeah, it’s been a while. But thanks to the local newsagent mistakenly throwing a copy of Saturday’s Fairfax rag over one of the team’s front fence, it’s back! Among the many truisms of television is that the best results... Read More »
Vale The Ex-PM season 2
It’s difficult to pin down exactly why season 2 of The Ex-PM didn’t explode like a comedy bouncing bomb, unleashing a tidal wave of comedy that swept away all before it. It really should have: Shaun Micallef is Shaun Micallef, the rest of the cast weren’t too shabby either, the set-up was a lot tighter... Read More »