Comedy TV

Spin Cycle

Dirty Laundry Live is a show that came up the old-fashioned way: a panel show focusing on celebrity gossip on the ABC’s second network, it was basically a low-key time-filler until it turned out to be surprisingly watchable and so swiftly – well, swiftly by the standards of the ABC – moved up to the... Read More »

OAM? OMG! Plus Fresh Blood

They say you’re only cynical of honours and medals until you or someone you like gets one, and yes, we’re cynical about this kinda thing. But it’s worth noting that amongst this year’s recipients of a Medal of the Order of Australia (or OAM) is comedy legend Rod Quantock, “for service to the performing arts, and to conservation and... Read More »

Spread the Good News Around

Ahh, memories: There’s something reassuring about seeing Gina Riley, Marg Downey, Jane Turner and Magda Szubanski on telly on Sunday nights. The women of our collective sketch comedy consciousness get better with age, and they never disappoint. Presumably Ruth Ritchie never saw Madga’s Funny Bits. Still, there’s no denying that – going by the collective... Read More »

Unsuccessful delivery

Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery, now in its third series, seems to have run out of funny people to take back to their childhood and interview.... Read More »

The State of Play in the World Today

Looks like someone at Fairfax has noticed there isn't much Australian comedy on the commercial networks these... Read More »

The Weekly Week Six: The End.

This was the week where The Weekly finally decided it was time to stop carving out that rut it’s been so proud of and just settle back into it. No more tinkering with the format: everything we saw this week was old news. More importantly, the tone of the show – which is probably the... Read More »

The Weekly Week Five – argle bargle or foofaraw?

Hey, remember this? Don’t worry if you don’t recall that classic segment from 2013’s This Week Live, as Tom Gleeson kindly brought it back on this week’s episode of The Weekly rebranded as “Hard Chat”. Yep, This Week Live might have been axed due to low ratings and general disinterest, but that doesn’t mean its... Read More »

The Agony of Vale

The present series of The Agony of… ended this evening, but don’t expect an exciting new series to replace it next week. Oh... Read More »

The Weekly Week Four: Yeah, We’re Not Going To Do This Every Week

This was the week it took the ABC’s top topical news satire program less than two minutes before breaking out the Mark “Jacko” Jackson jokes. You remember, that guy from before Charlie Pickering hit puberty? C’mon, we know the average age of an Australian comedy writer is “I used to work for Max Gillies”, but... Read More »

Wait, What? Can You Say That Again?

Remember when people used to complain that Have You Been Paying Attention? was too scripted? Yeah, because actually writing jokes is a bad thing when you’re trying to be funny. But after the opening segment of their first episode for 2015 it’s time to throw those complaints in the bin, as the combination of actual... Read More »