Comedy TV
Whilst updating iTunes last week I noticed that what had been the podcast feed for ABC Local Radio's 2008 comedy talent quest The Comedy Hour has now become the podcast feed for ABC Adelaide's Talkback Gardening, that perennial favourite of my father and many of his friends. If it wasn't for the fact that the ABC are great fans of recycling podcast feeds (do they think they're rationed?), I could probably draw a crap metaphor for the ABC's interest in The Comedy Hour from this – and indeed, there wasn't much interest in it from them - but my main feeling is one of sadness, that The Comedy Hour is yet another comedy writer's competition that's been shut down for good (although that's been pretty clear for a year or so... Read More »
Good comedy is a fragile thing, and there’s no better way to nip it in the bud than with bad editing. Just take a look at the sketch Tony Martin did on last Friday’s 7pm Project (they’re doing sketches now? But more on that later) with the extended version available here on the show’s website.... Read More »
In August last year Tony Martin (yes, him again) wrote a piece for The Scrivener's Fancy called Just While We're Waiting, in which he listed some rejected ideas for his weekly column, one of which was “Whatever happened to Whatever Happened to That Guy??” It was a funny question, and one I feel worth expanding on, so hopefully Tony won't mind me stealing... Read More »
- Comedy TV
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- November 17, 2009
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- Comments Off on Vale Rove
The Tumblie awards are ticking along nicely at the moment, but we figured we should take time out from putting the nominations together to salute the departure from our television screens of one of the funniest men currently working in Australian... Read More »
- Comedy TV
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- October 26, 2009
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- Comments Off on So easy: RIP Don Lane
Maybe it's because to my generation Don Lane was a guy who'd clearly been famous once, but for what we weren't sure. His appearance on The Late Show was fun, and he presented American football on the ABC and turned up in the odd special, but that was it: he was just some old has-been in embarrassing trousers. So why am I about to launch into a heartfelt tribute to the Lanky Yank? Because, to paraphrase his theme song, he made it so... Read More »
- Comedy TV
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- October 25, 2009
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- Comments Off on Respect my Vari-atay
Watching tonight’s episode of Rove – in which he attempted to interview 60 guests in an hour - was always going to be worth a look for comedy... Read More »
Sam Simmons must be kicking himself. If only he’d done The Urban Monkey with Murray Foote in blackface, people might be actually talking about it... Read More »
- Comedy TV
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- October 15, 2009
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- Comments Off on Neither black nor white
Reaction to the Hey Hey blackface incident keeps coming - and not just on this blog. Hungry Beast gave us Blackface for Beginners last night, a two and a half minute history of the genre, which is probably the best thing they've done so far, so kudos for that. Monday night's Media Watch also delivered an interesting insight or two; first they helpfully pointed out which part of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice you might like to mention in your letter of complaint to Channel 9, and secondly they explained why it has to be a letter. Meanwhile, on Wikipedia, the entry for Hey Hey It's Saturday has been edited and re-edited by users wishing to make sure their view on the incident was known, with mixed... Read More »
- Comedy TV
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- October 12, 2009
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- Comments Off on Short Thoughts
This week's Hungry Beast proved to be more of the same: unfunny sketches and stuff we already knew. (Snack bars for kids are packed full of sugar, apparently. What next? They tell us the world's round?!) But at least that netball group sex scandal sketch turned out to be a joke (and I don't say that because I agree with The Daily Telegraph that the sketch was an “outrage” and “poor taste humour” that “raise[s] new questions about the judgement of senior ABC staff” - the only outrage and misjudgements here are that a sketch so unfunny could make it to air), and anyway, as the Hungry Beast team gleefully informed us during the opening to episode 2, the real joke wasn't that netballers would get themselves caught in such a scandal, it was on us. Ha ha – fooled you! You thought we'd actually do a longer version next week! You idiot!... Read More »
Here’s a question: what makes the Hey Hey it’s Saturday blackface controversy different from the controversy over The Chaser’s “Make a Realistic Wish Foundation” sketch, or Hungry Beast’s promo for a fake story about netball rape,... Read More »
