Comedy TV

Woah Woah Woah, The Tide Is Turning

From Rowan Dean, on the ABC website The Drum: …the new Chis Lilley show (zzz zzz zzz go the teeth of my saw slicing into the flesh of the branch) called Angry Boys (zzz zzzzz zzzz – I can feel the bough starting to give way under my weight already) which screened for the second... Read More »

[Insert Topical Sporting Reference Here]

About five seconds into Behind the Lines – the latest in a never-ending procession of sports-themed quiz shows – it suddenly becomes clear why Peter Helliar’s The Trophy Room – the second-to-latest in a never-ending procession of sports-themed quiz shows – tanked: the set!  With typical ABC logic, The Trophy Room‘s set was designed to... Read More »

At least you can say you’ve seen it

So, episode 1 of the much-hyped Angry Boys has finally made it to air. For a show so keen to get laughs through realism it's sure done a great job of proving that the exact opposite technique might have been the way to go. The more absurd moments in the show are the closest it gets to funny, and with so few of them on offer Angry Boys is just scene after boring, unfunny... Read More »

Australian Television’s Nightmare of Nights

Ahh, the Logies; remember when they used to get comedians to host? Probably not – and if you do, chances are what you actually remember is the stock-standard chorus of “wasn’t that shit” the following day. Not because the comedians were actually all that shit – even the much maligned Wendy Harmer Experiment would probably... Read More »

I Did But See Hilarity Passing By…

So it looks like Colin Vickery’s dream has finally come true: The Chaser won’t be providing commentary for the upcoming royal wedding after all: Just two days before Prince William and Kate Middleton are due to tie the knot, ABC TV has been forced to cancel The Chaser’s one-off live coverage of the event due... Read More »

It Has Begun

When it comes to being first with the news, it’s hard to top News Limited. Especially when they’re reporting on controversies that haven’t even happened yet: CHRIS Lilley is set to spark controversy in his new comedy show Angry Boys, with characters defecating on cars and racist slurs rife. But the star makes no apologies... Read More »

Yeah, I’ll Be Your Pimp

It’s difficult to know which is more unsettling: that the ABC is currently running ads in prime time asking people to vote for Adam Hills in the Gold Logie race, or that the ad claims that “a vote for Adam is a vote for fantastic comedy and entertainment on the ABC”. [yes, there are days... Read More »

Reasons to listen to the podcast of Triple M Melbourne’s The Hot Breakfast

If you saw the title of this post and expected it to consist of the following seven words - “There are none, sorry to trouble you” - then you're wrong. Well, sorta... Read More »

Based On Factual Events

Not everyone loves The Jesters. We understand that. After all, after a decade where most Australian sitcoms were filmed in odour-rama stuck on “shit” coupled with a solid push claiming that ye olde sitcom format – that is, people on cheap sets telling obvious (if funny) jokes – was clearly inferior to a show filmed... Read More »

Making Up For Teenage Crime

When we haven’t been having a chuckle at Hey Hey it’s Saturday being nominated for a “Most Popular Light Entertainment Program” Logie (what, they’re handing out Logies just for turning up now?), we’ve been having a semi-serious discussion here at Tumbleweed Central: why doesn’t Australian television make more comedy for teenagers? Put another way, when... Read More »