Here’s a thought: does it mean anything that the Melbourne International Comedy Festival – supposedly one of the world’s greatest live comedy festivals, at least according to their own publicity – is happening at a point in time when there is literally no long-form Australian comedy being shown on mainstream television? Sure, there are a... Read More »
Yes. Yes it is. So we figured we’d give The Weekly yet another shot on the off chance that it had somehow improved. It has not. Oh, how it has not. Ok, that last bit about thinking The Weekly might have improved was bullshit: we knew it hadn’t improved because it’s been going for what,... Read More »
No one expected the first sitcom from Channel 9 for a billion years to be amazing, which Here Come the Habibs duly wasn’t. But it wasn’t totally awful either and perhaps we should feel grateful for that? It’s arguable that the show deserves a second series, but, for the most part, it was just… competent?... Read More »
Look on your works, ABC budget cuts, and despair. That’s our big take away from Luke Warm Sex, the ABC’s latest effort at conjuring television out of thin air using nothing but the idea that if it happens in front of a camera then it’s worth broadcasting to the nation. Yeah, as they say, nah.... Read More »
It’s unusual to hear a TV executive say anything like what we’ve been saying about Australian comedy for years, so we wanted to note this interview for TV Tonight with Foxtel’s Brian Walsh: Last year Foxtel rolled a big gamble on its sketch comedy series Open Slather produced by Laura Waters and Rick McKenna. Despite... Read More »
As Black Comedy vanishes in the rear vision mirror it’s increasingly clear – well, it was pretty obvious from the start, but sometimes it takes a while for these things to sink in – that of the two words in the title, only one is surprising to see on the ABC. Okay, we’re exaggerating for... Read More »
Yesterday, TV Tonight reported that Channel 9 sitcom Here Come the Habibs, now two-thirds the way through its first series has been renewed: Nine has renewed its new sitcom Here Come the Habibs! for a second series. The series launched to 1.25m in overnight metro viewers, although Nine cites almost 3 million nationally including repeats... Read More »
We shouldn’t have to rely on our ex-pats (or fair-chunk-of-the-year-ex-pats) to “nail it” satire-wise, but here’s a comedy song you’re probably more than familiar with by now, and boy does much-of-the-year London resident Tim Minchin “nail it”. It’s not just the sentiment of Come Home (Cardinal Pell) that we like, it’s that this delivers on pretty... Read More »
Wow, how about that segment on The Weekly about dodgy campaign donations! Shocking! Scandalous! Hilarious! … oh wait, no it wasn’t. It was a bland intro-level current affairs story of the kind 7.30 wouldn’t touch because there’s no story there. Well, there is, but the story is so big and unfocused – “political donations: we... Read More »
What made the first series of Black Comedy refreshing wasn’t that it was an “all black” or “mostly Aboriginal” show (although because that kinda thing is still so rare in this country, it’s not hard to see why a bunch of people got hung up on it). What made Black Comedy refreshing was that it... Read More »