Comedy TV

Vale The Weekly 2026

Every time The Weekly tries to act like it’s built up enough goodwill to get self-referential, it’s a reminder that it really is, in more ways than we can express, shithouse. Not every segment, not every joke, but taken as a whole it’s just garbage. Twelve seasons of it! The opening segment of this year’s... Read More »

Hostile Intervention

The thing that stands out with Glenn’s and Mick’s Celebrity Intervention is that it’s not a comedy show for the young. Australian comedy has been skewing older of late, but shows like Taskmaster or Have You Been Paying Attention? keep a few seats free for fresh young faces. Celebrity Intervention? No room on the couch... Read More »

What a croc! Deadloch series 2

If you like your murder mysteries with a side order of comedy, then good news, Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan’s Deadloch is back for a new series on Amazon. And in this second series, Detectives Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) and Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) are in Darwin, trying to solve the mystery of what happened... Read More »

The Piss Weekly

The Weekly‘s weak-as-piss approach to just about everything hardly even registers with us these days. Still, there’s always room for one more at the party: It’s hardly new news, but as far as The Weekly‘s punch-pulling goes here’s our take: On one side there is somebody at The Weekly who wants to tap into the... Read More »

Vale Dog Park

Dog Park, the ABC’s post-Muster Dogs, canine-focused dramedy, about people who’ve become friends because they take their dogs to the same park, has ended. We will not miss it. Because while there’s worse TV out there, it’s hard to like a show which spends more time trying to tug at your heartstrings than it does... Read More »

Every Night is a Good Night for an ABC Panel Show

Tonight at the Museum is yet another ABC panel show where a host and four guests – is there a contractual reason why these shows always have five people? – sit around trying to be entertaining. The twist? In this one, they succeed! Well, sometimes. Mostly due to the props. Filmed inside Tasmania’s main museum... Read More »

More Like Dog Shit

Hey, do you like unlikable characters? We don’t mean grumpy types with a heart of gold, or downbeat loners who just need to be brought out of their shell. We’re talking a real shithead here. Someone who actively goes around making other people’s lives worse. A bitter little turd of a man you’d run into... Read More »

Always Was The Weekly

While we were still working on the 2025 Australian Tumbleweeds Awards, the ABC aired the new one-off, satirical, First Nations-led tonight show Always Was Tonight. And new episodes of The Weekly with Charlie Pickering. The contrast between these two structurally similar, topical comedy shows could not be more stark. The Weekly…, as we’ve long documented,... Read More »

Vale Sam Pang Tonight series 2

Did anyone have a 16-episode tonight show on their comedy bingo card this year? We sure didn’t. But Sam Pang Tonight defied expectations. Firstly, because it stayed on air. Secondly, because it was pretty good. We’re not saying Sam Pang Tonight is charting new areas of comedy – and it’s certainly well aware that it’s... Read More »

The Children Have No Future (in Australian comedy)

A long, long time ago, comedy was for the young. Sketch shows were packed with performers fresh out of uni; everywhere you looked sitcoms were being written by young faces. And now? Uh, yeah. Hey, let’s start off the holiday season with some good news, shall we? Optics is not returning to ABC, ending its... Read More »