A load of balls
New Australian comedy was back on the box this week, with the debut of Santo, Sam and Ed's Sports Fever! and the return of a few shows including Balls of Steel Australia and Clarke &... Read More »
Comedy TV
Monday Night Fever
We’re pretty quick to sink the boots in whenever an Australian television network screws up – what, you mean you haven’t seen the results of the 2011 Australian Tumbleweed Awards yet? – so it seems only fair that we be equally as prompt to give them the thumbs up when they get something right. In... Read More »
Project Budget Defict
In what passes for television news at this time of year, may we present this Channel Ten press release someone slid under our clubhouse door: Kicking off on Sunday January 22, The Project will take up permanent residence at 6pm, six days a week. This move returns Ten News at Five to its traditional one... Read More »
The Biggest Story in Australian Comedy This Year…
… seems to have been that “twitter killed Live From Planet Earth“. We’ve read a couple of year-in-review stories now and it has somehow become accepted fact even though it’s complete and utter bullshit. And you know we wouldn’t break out the italics unless we really meant it. For those not in the know, here’s... Read More »
Just Your Typical Act Of Commercial Bastardry
For those of you wondering why you haven’t been hearing much about the much-anticipated (by us) revival of John Clarke’s The Games, wonder no more: The Nine Network has scrapped plans for a sequel to the Olympic-themed mockumentary The Games. Nine announced plans at the end of 2010 for The Games: London Calling, a follow-up... Read More »
Do They Know It’s Christmas Time At All?
Well, they sure do over at the ABC: as a couple of our readers have already pointed out, the ABC just plum forgot to nominate Chris Lilley’s Angry Boys for any of those highly regarded Logie Awards for 2011. All together now: Ahhahahahahahahahahaha *deep breath* hahahahahahah *heavy sigh* heh. This story alone is funnier than... Read More »
Vale The Hamster Wheel
Yeah, sorry about the delay with this one. But hey, it’s not like The Chaser really need anyone rushing to judgment at this point in their career. Their position at the ABC is about as secure as it gets at this stage of the game: if there hasn’t been a mention of what they’ll be... Read More »
Cause for cheer?
Last week's ABC 2012 launch and other recent announcements have made us feel pretty positive about Australian comedy, which is somewhat of a strange sensation. Here's the list of what's coming up next year, tell us what you think about it in the... Read More »
Vale Spicks & Specks
Tonight Spicks & Specks died the way it lived: as a bland, largely forgettable chunk of televisual muzak that actively repelled any attempt to engage with it beyond the occasional glance at the screen. Of course it was a massive hit watched by millions: how could it have possibly failed? Just to make things very... Read More »
What Happens When You Don’t Explain the Joke
There’s a proper Vale Hamster Wheel post on its way, but we wanted to bring this up first: it seems Age TV critic Jim Schembri either can’t take a joke, or simply doesn’t get it: For me – and this will come as no surprise – the biggest laugh came when their awards for outrageous... Read More »