Online Comedy

The one where we finally get around to reviewing Almost Midnight

Released on iView at the same time as Goober was romcom Almost Midnight, a six-part series about Dave, a shy entomology student looking to kiss a girl before the end of the year. Described on IMDb as a “black comedy”, it wasn’t really either, which was sort of a relief. When we meet Dave (Stephen Banham) in episode... Read More »

The one where we finally get around to reviewing Goober

If like us, you were too busy last Christmas/New Year to watch TV, you might have forgotten about the three series of comedy shorts launched on iView at the end of December. Goober, Almost Midnight and Lost in Pronunciation are all 6 x 5-minute narrative comedies funded by the ABC and the South Australian Film... Read More »

Why Are Articles On The Death Of Australian Comedy Such An Easy Sell?

The end of SBS Comedy’s online branch has sent shockwaves through… well, mostly SBS Comedy. We’ve already mentioned Jazz Twemlow’s hard-hitting take on why satire sucks – short version, it keeps firing Jazz Twemlow – and now we’ve been pointed towards Alice Frazer’s fairly despairing overview of Australian comedy as a whole: Maybe Australia’s just... Read More »

Burning Down the House

If you’re a fan of Australian online humour then you know by now that SBS is shuttering their comedy site The Backburner next week: here's some news: the backburner will be finishing up a week from today. thank you for letting it clog your newsfeed for so long — Colley (@JamColley) June 6, 2017 In... Read More »

Radio with Pictures

Press release time! Santo, Sam and Ed’s Total Football Podcast is now on ABC iview to watch Thursday, May 11, 2017 — In an ABC Podcast first, the popular Santo, Sam and Ed’s Total Football Podcast is now also available to watch on ABC iview. Following the huge success of the podcast, the trio are... Read More »

The Internet Giveth, and the Internet Taketh Away

First the good news – for a fairly low value of good: Junkee Media launches first Junkee Original Series ‘Life Lessons’ Please, do go on. Publisher Junkee Media has launched its first Junkee original webisode series Life Lessons, based on the modern millennial and everything they should not do. Okay, you can stop now. Though... Read More »

Ripper, Donna!

Sketch group Aunty Donna have been releasing episodes of their new web series Ripper Aussie Summer every Friday for the past seven weeks, and it’s quite good. The trio play various characters, gathered together in a backyard for a barbecue, except, this being Aunty Donna, this backyard is very much its own universe. One of... Read More »

Mychonny, Yourchonny, Everybodychonny!

Does broadcast TV have a future beyond the things that only it can do best: news, live coverage of sport and big budget “event TV”? With Netflix, Amazon, Stan and other streaming services offering drama, documentary, and films to watch anytime you want, should broadcasters like the ABC even bother? When it comes to comedy,... Read More »

Comedy blap on the radar

Even in the risk averse comedy climate that is Australia’s, you’d think a show featuring Gina Reilly and Hamish Blake could get funding. But no, Ryan Shelton’s new web series How To Life has been funded by Britain’s Channel 4 and is currently available online as part of Comedy Blaps. Comedy Blaps is Channel 4’s... Read More »

Dumb deal = dumb satire – We analyse the parodies of Trump and Turnbull’s phone call

It’s been almost impossible not to stumble across a parody transcript of the Donald Trump/Malcolm Turnbull phone call in the past couple of... Read More »