With Taboo making its debut later this week on Ten, we now have the unusual situation where one commercial network all on their ownsome is showing roughly double the amount of Australian comedy than the ABC. Yeah yeah, we know: is Mr. Black really comedy? Let’s put it this way: it may not be all... Read More »
Press release time! We’ve seen some press releases that made no sense over the years – the ones that suggested Randling might be something people would want to watch come to mind – but this one is a real head-scratcher. For starters, who quits a steady job hosting a quiz show to do more stand... Read More »
Press release time! Spicks and Specks reuniting to celebrate ABC’s Ausmusic Month Hands on buzzers, it’s time to play Spicks and Specks! ABC is thrilled to announce that Australia’s favourite music quiz show is coming back for a one off, one night, hour special. Kicking off ABC’s Ausmusic Month in November, Adam Hills, Myf Warhurst... Read More »
As the only sitcom of Pilot Week, Dave O’Neil’s Dave looked like a breath of fresh air. Until we started watching it. Dave is about one day in the life of Dave O’Neil, suburban comedian and family man. He takes his kids to school, hangs out with his mates, has to find a famous friend... Read More »
Having Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation and Have You Been Paying Attention? on back-to-back (there was even time this week to go from one to the other without missing anything out) is both a great way to get two-and-a-bit hours worth of something close to actual entertainment from the commercial networks, and a handy way to... Read More »
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with a show that’s just a jumble of unrelated parts, but there is definitely something wrong with The Weekly. No, we’re not talking about the way its listed as a comedy yet features straight news segments asking why isn’t dentistry covered by Medicare (hilarious!), or the fact it was allowed to... Read More »
For years now we’ve argued that we need more Australian comedy in general if we’re ever going to get more of the good stuff. Guess what? We were wrong. Our theory was that Australian television needed to make a lot of bad television before anything good would come along as the bottom 90% of anything... Read More »
One of the things Australian sketch comedy used to be known for is taking a swipe at other television shows. Whether it was Fast Forward mocking Derryn Hinch or however many times Paul McCarthy wasted our time with his sub-par Kochie impression, mocking other shows was part and parcel of the sketch comedy scene here.... Read More »
Despite our amazingly persistent reputation for “shitting on” just about everything, we’re not intentionally cruel people at Tumbleweeds HQ (also: we are people, plural – there really is more than one person writing this stuff, honest). When a show comes along like Hard Quiz, we know why the ABC has made it and we sympathise... Read More »
A comedy game show pitched as “A show where we attempt to find out why we do the weird things that we do” is doomed to fail. Digging down into people’s weird behaviour is a great way to find comedy. A game show is, nine times out of ten, not. And so it proves to... Read More »