Australian Tumbleweeds
Brothers got Soul Mates
We’ve always been a bit nonplussed about Soul Mates, which returned to the ABC last night. It’s neither especially bad nor especially good comedy, but with its recurring characters and serial structure, it is at least an interesting take on the sketch show.
Returning in series 2 are the Bondi Hipsters, Dom and Adrian, who’ve opened a new café in Bondi called Closed. The deal with Closed is that it looks like it’s closed, and the only people who get served are the ones who get the joke. It’s the kind of comedy concept that sounds reasonably funny on paper, but it turned out to be less funny as actual sketches. (We quite liked Dom and Adrian’s coffee song, though.)
Also returning are the cavemen, Sticks and Rocky, who in this episode start a small business and quickly find that their workers aren’t up to scratch. This evolves into a quite clever, well-observed piece of workplace satire, picking apart the management/worker relationship, but it’s not hugely hilarious. It’s more the sort of comedy that makes you nod sagely rather than guffaw.
At the sillier end of the Soul Mates spectrum are the Kiwi Assassins, secret agents from New Zealand living in 1980’s Australia, tasked with undermining Aussie success. It’s nice to see Francis Greenslade as a mad scientist type, trying to get Phar Lap’s heart beating again, but coming off the back of Mad As Hell, it’s clear which show used Greenslade’s talents best.
But if this all sounds like a re-hash of series 1, don’t worry, there are new characters too. A series of sketches set in ancient Egypt show the royal family instructing slaves to renovate a demi-god’s tomb. With much of the plot and humour revolving around the power play and sexual politics of the ancient Egyptian elite, it reminded us a lot of Tinto Brass’ Caligula – not a film we thought would come to mind when watching Australian sketch comedy!
And perhaps that’s a clue to the problem of this show: all the characters are either hyper-real stereotypes and/or re-workings of characters from pop culture. And while that kind of thing has been the bread and butter of sketch comedy since forever, what makes sketch comedy funny is when comedians add an extra twist to it. There’s something funny in, say, two cavemen inventing – and finding the problems in – workplace culture, but just showing what would happen if that happened isn’t terribly funny. And as different a take on sketch as Soul Mates is, we find it disappointing because all we want from a sketch show is laughs.
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Press release time!
Tom Gleeson presents Hard Quiz
Monday, August 1, 2016 — ABC TV is pleased to announce auditions are underway for Tom Gleeson’s new show, Hard Quiz.
Host Tom Gleeson says “With the audition process, it’s been impressive watching people demonstrating a deep knowledge without resorting to Google. Actually, it’s been impressive just watching adults spending half an hour not glued to their phones.”
With Gleeson at the helm it will obviously be funny, but Tom is a smart guy and has a genuine love of knowledge and information, so contestants will be really tested. The format is Darwinian and highly competitive.
Filming commences later this month in Melbourne and will air on ABC TV later in the year.
G’wan, guess which line made us laugh out loud. Here’s a clue: it wasn’t a happy laugh. Oh no. No, it was more a bitter, caustic choking sound – the kind of sound you’d make upon realising that yes, this is exactly where we are with Australian comedy today and there’s very little chance of things getting better in the short- to medium-term future. Because the only network commissioning new Australian comedy actually believes this shit.
Put another way, we sure weren’t laughing at the “joke” made by host Tom Gleeson.
The Raw and the Cooked
Press release time!
Comedian Anh Do paints Aussie celebs in new ABC series
Friday, July 29, 2016 — Anh Do loves to paint portraits and he loves getting to know people. Premiering Wednesday August 24th at 8pm, the eight-part series, Anh’s Brush with Fame combines the two.
Australians love Anh Do for his comedy, his best-selling books and his work in film and TV, but not many know he’s also a passionate painter. In fact, Anh was a finalist in the 2014 Archibald Prize where he created a memorable and vivid portrait of his father.
In this series Anh gets up close and personal with a number of Australian celebrities as he paints their portrait. Signing up to sit in the chair are Amanda Keller, Jimmy Barnes, Magda Szubanski, Craig McLachlan, Anthony Mundine, Kyle Sandilands, Kate Ceberano and Dr Charlie Teo.
For Anh to do his best work as a portrait painter, he needs to find the soul of the person, so while painting, he digs deep into their psyche and discovers what makes them tick. As he talks through their life, childhood and formative years, along with the humour, Anh unearths their deepest darkest secrets. Our celebrities also share private and rare archival material, such as personal photos and videos, which further paints a very different picture of them.
It’s a journey for both the artist and his subject. As Anh chats to them and discovers more about their past, this affects the way he paints their portrait. He also bonds with them as they find they have shared experiences and hardships. It’s a cathartic, emotional ride between the two of them as they share laughter, tears and exclusive stories.
The emotional journey that Anh and his subject are on, leads to the final big reveal – when the celebrity finally gets to see their completed portrait. Will they like Anh’s version of them? It’s a dramatic moment of truth each time.
Anh’s Brush with Fame screens Wednesday 24 August at 8pm and on iview.
*sigh*
Ok, yeah, this at least has some vague reason for existing, as Do actually is a halfway decent painter. But c’mon, what the fuck’s next? Bob Downe explores celebrities shoe collections to find out the truth behind the showbiz facade? The Sandman carries us through the psychologically profound world of famous folks’ bathmats? Plucka Duck takes your favourite television personalities back to the nightclub toilets where they did their first line of gak?
Meanwhile in actual comedy, The Katering Show team are answering foodie questions over at goodfood.com here and here. Yep, you know times are tough when we’re directing you to actual words on a screen in the hope you’ll laugh at them.
Lord knows that never happens here…
Vale Mad as Hell season 6
What is there to say as we wave goodbye to another year of Mad as Hell that we haven’t said at least four times before? Much as we’d prefer to have Micallef end each season with a Charlie Pickering-like threat of a guaranteed return, the fact that each series of Mad as Hell could be our last reminds us that all joy in this life is fleeting… especially if you’re expecting to find that joy in Australian comedy.
Sure, this season was consistent; they’re all consistent. So was Newstopia in its own, live-audience-free way before that. While Micallef is a man of many talents and interests – we hope you’ve already booked your ticket to see him and Francis Greenslade on stage in The Odd Couple in Melbourne later this year, because last time we checked they were all but sold out – it seems that desk-bound news comedy (with the occasional sketch thrown in) is the groove he’s most comfortably settled into. Especially after the first season of The Ex PM took more time to click than a six part series can afford.
It’s also a format that allows him to do his style of comedy while seemingly making a show that fans of The Project can get on board with. A lot of Micallef and his team’s comedy is weird in a way that can be alienating if you don’t get the reference (seriously, though, if you’ve the slightest interest in pop culture, you’ll get the reference): presenting it in a format that anyone who’s ever looked at a television set is completely comfortable with goes a long way towards explaining why we’ve been able to have five seasons of a show featuring a Kraken trapped inside a high school locker.
Still, one of the complaints we heard a few times during this season of Mad as Hell was that Micallef and company were falling back on in-jokes and old references just a little bit too often. Surely bringing back Milo Kerrigan, even in cameo form, is going to be confusing to anyone not intimately familiar with the ins and out of Micallef’s long television career? And what’s with dusting off the old Micallef Tonight sign?
We have two replies, so feel free to pick the one you like best. Is it:
A): Mad as Hell is by its very nature a show jam-packed with pop culture references. It’s a lot more likely that audiences in 2016 are going to get a reference to a much-loved Micallef comedy character from the 90s than they are, say, the Manchurian Candidate (1963 version) reference from last episode.
or,
B): Television in the 21st century is a medium struggling with dwindling audiences. In a world where more people remember Milo Kerrigan than are actually watching Mad as Hell now, doesn’t it make sense for Micallef to reference his past as much as possible? Nostalgia is what keeps people watching Australian television; the ratings that doomed Micallef Tonight are higher than what Mad as Hell pulls in now.
Personally? We love Mad as Hell not just because it contains jokes – and there we go again with our insane pro-joke stance, when are we finally going to realise that the future of comedy lies with shows that are basically just shit drama series – but because it’s a show that manages to be both traditional (sketches! Reoccurring characters!) and the future of comedy television.
Look, no-one in television has any money, least of all for comedy, even more least of all for comedy that can’t be sold overseas. And as has been obvious for the last decade or so, when you don’t have enough money to make a proper television show you make a show that involves people sitting around talking. Which is what around 70% of Mad as Hell is – and more than half of that 70% on an average episode is just Micallef talking to camera.
So why does it work when The Weekly doesn’t? Because it has a funny host – and by “host” we mean “skilled comedic performer playing the role of host” – and writers willing to revel in a joke. Rather than bringing in a big team of writers to punch out a whole bunch of snappy gags, Mad as Hell will occasionally let a bit run and run before getting to a punchline. A lot of Micallef’s speeches wander all over the place and expect you to keep up to get the laugh, and then there’ll be a bunch of quick photo gags or an observation that could have come from The Chaser or The Weekly. Only it wouldn’t have worked as well on those shows, because that’s the only note those shows offer while Mad as Hell is hitting all eight and the half notes in between.
It might be using a tried-and-true-and-cheap format, but Mad as Hell mixes things up. It doesn’t fall into the trap of making the exact same kinds of jokes over and over for half an hour. That’s the only way you can make a show that’s largely a man behind a desk talking to camera consistently fresh and funny. That’s why Mad as Hell is the most important comedy on Australian television: it’s the only one doing this kind of thing right.
Over-funded and on your YouTube
Last week we looked at Screen Australia’s latest round of funding approvals and wondered if these upcoming productions would make us laugh. Many of the productions, we’ve since discovered, are intended for online release, through platforms such as iView or YouTube, with most being new ideas.
One which isn’t is These New South Whales, which has received funding for both Production and Story Development for its second season. Having seen its first season, help with story development is something this series desperately needs.
In the first season, we met Sydney-based punk band These New South Whales, consisting of four guys in their 20s who live in a share house in the Inner West and cover their nipples with black gaffer tape when they’re performing. These New South Whales are a pretty ropey outfit, not highly thought of by their peers, and somewhat full of themselves about what they can achieve. The series follows them as they play gigs and launch their new film clip, which they hope will precede the announcement that they’ve been chosen to play support for Black Lips’ upcoming tour. [SPOILER ALERT!] You can guess how that all goes…
If this all sounds a bit like This Is Spinal Tap or The Comic Strip Presents… Bad News Tour, you’re right: all the rock mockumentary tropes are present and correct here. Except the laughs. Part of the problem is that the band members are largely characterless, spouting bland musician clichés and interacting awkwardly with each other on camera. Many of the laughs in This Is Spinal Tap or Bad News Tour came from the band members’ try-hard rock star on-camera behavior, whereas in These New South Whales the band members are just sort of…there. And/or possibly trying to effect a sort of awkward The Office-style dynamic.
Interestingly, one of the Executive Producers behind These New South Whales is Laura Waters, Chris Lilley’s key collaborator since We Can Be Heroes. So, if you’re not a fan of the meandering/cringey mockumentary style she’s perfected over the years, avoid These New South Whales.
Oh wait, it seems people have been… When we went into researching this series, we assumed that it had received funding for its second season based on the reaction its first season got. After all, other Screen Australia-funded productions which had been released online have done well:
- The second season of Plonk, which received funding from Screen Australia last year, consistently got around 7,000-8,000 views for each episode on YouTube, a dip on the five-figure viewing figures its first seasons got, but still respectable
- Versus, a series based around the world of gaming, got millions of views per episode
- Paul Fenech’s Dumb Criminals Motorcyclists Club got between 34,000 and 100,000+ per episode
So what did These New South Whales season one get? Well…the first episode was viewed around 10,000 times, and then subsequent episodes got between 2,500 and 4,500 times. Oh.
And while it’s nice to hear that viewing figures aren’t the only thing Screen Australia take into consideration, none of this adds up to These New South Whales getting funding. We mean, it’s not like anyone who watched episode one and thought “this is crap, I won’t watch anymore” got it wrong, or anything.
Gina Minehart Has Risen From Her Grave
If you thought the Australian television comedy scene was dead at the moment, well, sometimes dead is better:
Get patriotic on the Aussie comedy day with Open Slather (Seasons 1 & 2), Just for Laughs Australia 2015, Best of the Sydney Comedy Fest 2016, and Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Big Three-Oh! 2016.
If you missed Open Slather the first time around you’re… well, 99.9% of the Australian population for starters. Advertised as a return to the “good old days” of sketch comedy, it was neither good nor old, though each hour-long episode did seem to run for days thanks to an endless supply of Downton Abbey sketches.
Slightly more interesting was the fact that it employed every single comedy writer in Australia – its wikipedia page lists at least 60 writers – and yet somehow seemed to be written almost entirely by the cast. Oh, and also that the final few episodes were only half an hour long because they ran out of money. And it wasn’t very funny.
Actually, that last one isn’t really that notable for an Australian sketch comedy.
Basically, this is the kind of car crash sketch show that’ll never be released on DVD and no-one bothered torrenting in the first place, so if you’d like to consider yourself a fully rounded connoisseur of Australian comedy you should probably find a mate with Foxtel and invite yourself over.
Make sure to bring a lot of snacks with you though – they’re not going to be happy with you once it starts.
Line? Line?
For those of you eagerly anticipating the Australian version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, big news!
New Foxtel series Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia announces its ensemble cast of seven exciting and talented performers. Comedy superstar Rhys Darby is joined by comedy festival favourites Cal Wilson, Tegan Higginbotham and Susie Youssef, along with world-class improviser Steen Raskopoulos, and newcomers Bridie Connell and Tom Walker.
It’s no Thank God You’re Here, is it?
Still, unlike that overly controlled exercise in celebrity hand-holding, Whose Line Is It Anyway? has – in the US version at least – always been much more about actual improv. It’s a format that allows those who’re skilled at improv comedy to really shine, while providing not a whole lot in terms of a safety net for those who aren’t up to scratch.
But still, improv comedy? Part of the success of Thank God You’re Here was down to it smoothing out the bumps – you rarely got something insanely funny (Bob Franklin aside), but there weren’t all that many segments that were a dead loss either (Rebel Wilson aside). No doubt some decent editing could manage a similar result with “real” improv. Eventually. If they spent days filming it.
Improv appeals to people who like the “anything can happen” element. Unfortunately, once you record something for television you’re adding in a whole bunch of layers where “anything can happen” turns into “enjoy this processed product”. Which is great when those layers are used to add in more comedy: when you’re working with improv nothing is funnier than the version shown live. And often that’s not very funny at all.
The US version worked for so long because they had really, really really funny people on a show that felt throw away enough that anything really could happen. Hopefully the Australian version will be taking similar risks.
An Obscure Reference to the Song “Simply Irresistible”
It’s the start of a new financial year, and we all know what that means: Australia’s various film and television funding bodies reveal where the money went!
Considering how often we’re told that funding is essential to the development and production of film and television in this country you’d figure these lists would be a rock-solid guide to the laughs we can expect to be getting in the months and year to come. And yet, year after year, at least 90% of these projects come to nothing – and we’re not just talking about the ones with Marieke Hardy’s name attached. It’s almost as if the funding system was akin to a giant rort funneling money to pushy chancers, people with the right contacts, everybody’s mates and The Usual Suspects rather than something designed to help the best ideas get in front of the most people.
Of course, we could just be being cynical [who, us? – ed]. So let’s just take a look through who’s been lucky enough to score a slice of government pie.
First we have Screen Australia’s most recent round of approvals:
Q-SCHOOL
One Stone Pictures Pty Ltd
Genre Comedy, Crime
Producer Georgie Lewin
Executive Producer Nathan Earl
Writers Veronica Milsom, Nicholas McDougall, Nathan Earl
Synopsis Before you’re a golf sensation, you have to make it through Q-School. Every golfer has a Q-School story. This series is about the class of 2017 – a killer year.THESE NEW SOUTH WHALES SEASON TWO
Born In The Sauce Pty Ltd
Genre Comedy
Producers Todd Andrews, Ben Timony, Jamie Timony
Executive Producers Jeffery Walker, Laura Waters
Directors Ben Timony, Jamie Timony
Writers Todd Andrews, Ben Timony, Jamie Timony
Synopsis Four even cockier underdogs from Newcastle become the bonafide lords of the road they always aspired to be.Z-BULB
Studio Moshi Productions Pty Ltd
Genre Action adventure, Comedy
Producer Andrew Davies
Director Christien Clegg
Writer Scott Edgar
Synopsis Waking from a coma into a modern world of celebrity heroes and villains, Z-Bulb must regain his rightful place while putting history right to expose the truth of his former greatness.HEAVEN INC
Crankyfish Pty Ltd, Monkeystack & Cameralla
Genre Animated Comedy
Producers Julian Vincent Costanzo, Jonathon Dutton, Justin Wight
Director Alex Brett Graham
Writer Carl J. Sorheim
Synopsis God is having a hell of a time. He hardly believes in himself anymore and has outsourced the afterlife to the celestial company DestaCorp, leaving him twiddling his thumbs and pondering the meaning of life. Meanwhile, outspoken atheist Michelle meets an oddly well-timed death – and the last place she expects to end up is Heaven.RUPERT
Goalpost Pictures Australia Pty Ltd
Genre Comedy, Drama
Producers Andrew Spaulding, Rosemary Blight, Doug Mankoff, Mike Marcus
Writer David Williamson
Synopsis Based on David Williamson’s bitingly satirical stage-play, Rupert will chart the rise of global media’s most powerful player: Rupert Murdoch, the arch-manipulator of public opinion, dynastic warlord and Mama’s boy.
And then under Gender Matters: Brilliant Stories funding recipients we found these guys:
THE ELEMENTALS
8 x 30 min
Snap Pants Productions
Genre Action adventure, Comedy
Producers Diana Glenn, Katherine Stewart, Jane Harber, Andrew Walker
Director Sian Davies
Writers Diana Glenn, Katherine Stewart, Jane Harber
Synopsis Three washed up, co-dependent ex Superheroes living in a share house wrestle with their responsibilities to save the planet and their desire to do very little. Things heat up with the emergence of a new uber villain and news that they are about to lose their government super hero payouts.HOLY COW
6 x 1 hr
See Pictures, Bliss Bomb, Jungle FTV
Genre Comedy, Drama
Producers Ester Harding, Radha Mitchell, Chloe Rickard
Directors Alethea Jones, Daina Reid
Writers Liz Doran, Lally Katz, Greg Waters
Synopsis When media commentator Sarah runs to foreign correspondent Jonathan’s New Delhi doorstep, she keeps her reasons secret. A romantic adventure through India’s extremes is not what she expects, but it may turn out to be what she needs.JUMPER
6 x 30 min
Porchlight Films
Genre Comedy
Producers Tanya Phegan, Sylvia Warmer
Executive Producers Anita Sheehan, Vincent Sheehan, Liz Watts
Writer/Director Kacie Anning
Synopsis A big-hearted comedic underdog sports series where a working class university student forms a jump rope team to protest the repeal of free tertiary education in 1980’s Australia.PUBLIC RELATIONS
6 x 30 min
Revlover Films
Genre Comedy
Producer Martha Coleman
Director Sarah Bishop
Writers Claire Phillips, Sarah Bishop, Ainslie Clouston
Synopsis An outrageously funny and biting satirical ensemble comedy set in a PR firm that struggles to keep its clients out of the papers and their dick pics offline.SEX IN THE WEST (SITW)
6 x 1 hr
Entertainment One Films
Genre Comedy, Drama
Producers Troy Lum, Jude Troy
Executive Producer Fadia Abboud
Writers Fadia Abboud, Lina Kastoumis, Gillian Stein, Amal Awad
Synopsis A sharp, warm and celebratory story of three Arab, Muslim and Christian female friends living in contemporary Western Sydney. Their friendships and loyalties are tested as they balance community and family expectations with their own desires and ambitions.SILVER LINING
8 x 30 min
Carver Films
Genre Comedy, Drama
Producers Anna McLeish, Sarah Shaw
Director Mirrah Foulkes
Writers Mirrah Foulkes, Luke Davies
Synopsis Rose returns from her life overseas to convince her eccentric ageing parents to move into assisted living. As they dig their heels in, she suddenly finds herself parenting them and having to face the dysfunctional family dynamics that bubble to the surface.SWEET JANE
10 x 1 hr
Cordell Jigsaw Productions
Genre Drama, Romantic comedy
Producer Paul Bennett
Director Jennifer Leacy
Writers Samantha Strauss, Ally Burnham, Paul Bennett
Synopsis A contemporary workplace comedy set against the dramatic highs and lows of the book publishing industry.
And we’re not going to go through all the online ones but these did stand out thanks to the people involved:
SHEILAS
Giant Dwarf
Genre Comedy
Producer Nikita Agzarian
Executive Producer Julian Morrow
Writers/Directors Eliza Reilly, Hannah Reilly
Synopsis A playful celebration of the forgotten and most badass women in Australian History.GOOD GRIEF
Genre Comedy, Drama
Producer Amanda Reedy
Executive Producer Nicole Minchin
Director Amanda Jane
Writers Natalie Harris, Jess Harris
Synopsis A funny and touching series on grief. Whether it’s mourning a loved one, your youth, or last night’s bottle(s) of pinot, grief is inevitable and never convenient.
Anything there to get excited about? Anything there you can say with any confidence “sounds funny”? Is it merely enough to describe a project as “outrageously funny” or should there be traces of humour in the log line itself?
Pretty much the only pre-tested material seems to be the adaptation of the David Williamson play Rupert, which many reviews referred to as being somewhat “resume-like”. Considering Williamson’s last foray into television comedy was the astonishingly shithouse Dog’s Head Bay twenty years ago (“We suggest you don’t bother”, 2.8 out of 10 – IMDb), Rupert might have some vague car-crash fascination. Anyone else think they’ll try to cast Max Gillies? He’s still the go-to guy for shit “serious” satire of this ilk, right?
But otherwise… Okay, to be fair some of these are the kind of generic set-up you’d expect for a comedy where the laughs are going to come from performances and dialogue. And some – well, all the ones involving superheroes for starters – seem like the producers are trying to throw an otherwise bog standard comedy onto a bandwagon that left five years ago.
Still, there’s an awful lot of names here that we don’t recognise for good or ill. Have we missed anything? Is there anything here we should be optimistic about? Anything? C’mon guys, we’re drowning…
The Firth Estate
There’s been a bit of talk in the past year about whether this country’s political journalists are doing a good job or not…
From New Matilda:
ABC journalist Annabel Crabb last night began her sickeningly sweet profile of former Immigration Minister and current Treasurer Scott Morrison like this: “People describe Scott Morrison as ambitious, hard-line, even arrogant. But I’ve also heard compassionate, devout and a rabid Tina Arena fan. Clearly the man requires some further investigation.”
Well, yes, he does require further investigation, but probably not on his infatuation with outdated popstars (no offence to Tina, of course).
And more recently, there’s been the Leigh Sales controversy. From Medium:
The frustration that many consumers of political journalism — citizens — feel about everyday political journalism can often be traced to a sense that journalists are working from an understanding of what the job entails, one that is fundamentally different to their own.
If you’ve ever watched a bunch of people yelling at a television while a journalist asks a politician questions, you will know what I mean. “Don’t ask that! Don’t let him get away with that! Make him answer! Can’t you see that you are being played!” You know the sort of thing. People can become incredibly angry that, in their opinion, the journalist isn’t doing his or her job properly, where “properly” is to do with their unspoken presumptions about what the role of journalism is.
That anger, about journalists not doing their job properly, about them not holding politicians to account, about them not asking the sort of piercing questions we’d like to ask them if we got the chance? We think that applies to political comedy too. Political comedy should ridicule politicians and rip their idiocy to shreds, as well as make us laugh. Shouldn’t it?
Interestingly, we learnt during the election campaign, this isn’t a view shared by some comedians whose job it is to produce political comedy…
Charles Firth, who returned to The Chaser a while back and was a writer for The Chaser’s Election Desk, appeared on the ABC’s The Party Room podcast during the election campaign to talk about comedy and politics, and he had a few interesting things to say about how The Chaser operate these days.
Firstly, he reckons The Chaser are wasting their time watching hours and hours of 24-hour news channels, looking for short clips they can make fun of. In his view, they should just go through the papers every morning and look for ways they can build gags which involve them handing Malcolm Turnbull an oversize prop.
He was possibly being facetious about that, but there were an awful lot of prop and prank sketches in the show that were basically:
- Take something a politician has done
- Turn that into a wacky challenge
- Ta-da! We’ve nailed it!
- Shot of politician in question laughing along and/or security escorting Chaser member off the premises
- A growing realisation in the audience that this isn’t achieving anything politically or comically.
More interestingly in the context of the Sales controversy, Firth argued during his appearance on The Party Room that he feels The Chaser writing team go wrong sometimes because they’re part of the same “echo chamber” as the party machines and the Canberra press gallery. Ordinary members of the public, he thinks, dip in and out of political coverage occasionally and don’t know who many of the major figures are. The Chaser’s mistake, he says, is to make jokes about people like Antony Green, a figure he feels is too obscure.
Really? The sense we get is that the population at large are more engaged in politics than ever, and turning to the ABC to find out what people like Antony Green are saying. The era of a bland two-party system, where it doesn’t matter who you vote for because they’re all the same, is over. People want politics with substance and politicians that stand for something and are taking to social media, news website comments sections and other forums to demand it. Haven’t The Chaser noticed the increase in people voting for fringe parties, nutbags and extremists, instead of the centre-ground approach of Liberal and Labor? And shouldn’t their comedy reflect this?
Instead, their comedy reflects the bland consensus that we’re seeing fall apart across the western world. Their approach to politics is that none of it really means anything (when you’re wealthy enough to survive outside the system) so why not have a good laugh at it all? But for the last decade or so that approach has increasingly fallen out of favour, as shown by the rise of The Daily Show and its offspring. Politics is no longer two warring sides in Parliament: it’s the right-wing neo-liberal consensus behind both parties versus the public they’ve been screwing over. If your comedy doesn’t reflect that, you’re just another part of the problem.
But there is one thing Charles Firth said on The Party Room that we can agree with: his criticism of The Chaser’s creative process. According to Firth, writers for the Election Desk would post their ideas on the team collaboration website Trello, read everyone’s suggestions, then hold meetings to select the best ones. Except, he says, anyone who criticised other people’s ideas got shot down because there isn’t a culture of criticism in the group. The result, he felt, was that lesser quality material got on air.
It’s hard not to agree with Firth that a culture which discourages constructive criticism in a writer’s room is a bad one. Sketches which appeared on Monty Python’s Flying Circus, considered by many to be one of the greatest sketch shows of all time, underwent extensive criticism in the writer’s room and the result was a very funny show. Perhaps The Chaser’s Election Desk would have been funnier if a higher standard had been demanded?
But, it’s unlikely that a higher standard of show would have come about had Election Desk featured even more props gags and pranks and less trawled footage or gags about political commentators – they were the best bits!
And why must the audience necessarily be in the know anyway? It doesn’t matter if the public hasn’t already seen the footage or the people being mocked. In fact, that’s an advantage. In an era when any event in politics has the piss ripped out of it on Twitter within seconds of happening, television comedians need to work harder to not look like they’re re-hashing the best of the funny tweets from the past week.
Frankly, trawling through hours of footage and getting stuck into the minutiae of politics are the only options for TV satire right now. At a time of niche politics, we need niche comedy.
Australian Federal Election 2016 Comedy – The results!
The people of this country may have delivered an inconclusive result this election, but one thing was certain: politics provided a lot of inspiration to our comedians. Australian Tumbleweed’s specially assembled panel of top analysts (You mean our usual writers – Ed) take a look at the results…
The Chaser were back with another of their trademark election series, the twist being that they expanded their on- and off-air teams to include some of the new-ish faces they’ve been working with on The Checkout. But while Chas and Andrew’s “Under the Desk” segments focusing on how the media have been calling the campaign were as good as ever, most of the pranks looked stale and pointless. It seems security guards and receptionists across the land have cottoned on to the possibility that The Chaser might come a-calling, meaning the team could rarely get near their targets to deliver their pre-planned zingers. Not that their zingers contained much zing this time around. Smuggling toy boats into Peter Dutton’s election night party? If that’s really the best you can do, why bother?
The underlying problem – and it seemed more noticeable than usual this time around – is that for The Chaser politics is just a bunch of semi-famous people being covered on various news shows most people don’t watch. You could make a near-identical show about football players, or actors, or any other group that does a lot of things in the public eye. There’s nothing in The Chaser’s work that provides any real reason as to why we should give a fuck about politics – after all, they clearly don’t. There’s no anger, no insight into how personalities shape things, not even any really decent skewering of the way the political process forces people to behave in unusual ways. Find a technical flub or bungled quote, point it out, move along.
But Malcolm Turnbull took 23 words to answer a one word question on Q&A! Did anyone come away from that bit not realising that Turnbull actually had given a one word answer – “yes” – surrounded by some very human fumbles and false starts? Unlike other ABC shows that have to labour under the concept of “balance” (*cough* Mad as Hell *cough*) where they balance things out by actually making decent critical points about both sides of politics, The Chaser seem to think that by making each individual bit completely toothless the overall result will offend nobody. Replace “offend” with “entertain” and you’re getting closer to the mark.
Whether this is because their real interests lie elsewhere – as we’ve mentioned numerous times before, Chas and Andrew’s bits that directly tackle the media are often excellent – or the result of an actual policy to avoid any real consideration of what politics means, the result is a show that is often close to insulting in its superficiality. Maybe The Chaser need to follow the lead of one-time receptionist and security guard botherer Michael Moore, who in his latest film Where to Invade Next just went around interviewing people and letting them and his research tell the story. With a lot more success than anything The Chaser’s Election Desk managed.
The law of diminishing returns also applied to Jungle Production’s The Member, a mockumentary about Senate candidate Miles Holbeck. 10-15 years ago, the Holbeck character approaching members of the public and trying to get their votes with no policies would have been funny, or at least a fresher-seeming idea. But in 2016, we’re over that kind of thing. Especially when it’s this crap. Oh, and the title of the show doesn’t work. He’d only have been trying to be a member if he’d been running for the House of Reps, which he wasn’t. Although calling it The Senator would have been a less successful dick pun.
Mad As Hell, which probably wasn’t expecting to be doing anything election-themed this year, rose to the challenge with its usual aplomb and provided some of the funniest election comedy of the campaign. Part of its success is that, to coin a phrase, it plays the ball as much as the man or woman (though we do appreciate the way this week they took up our suggestion to take a swing at Annabel Crabb’s twee persona). Whereas The Chaser and The Member seem to be very much making fun of individuals, Mad As Hell went after the system and the circumstances as well.
It didn’t hurt that much of Mad as Hell‘s humour is based on first making an observation – something The Chaser does almost as well – but then running with it down various very funny corridors (sometimes literally). Making a “stop the boats” joke about Malcolm Turnbull’s promise that gay marriage legislation will “sail” through parliament is one thing; having Micallef put on a sailor’s cap, realise Rear Vice Admiral Sir Bobo Gargle is there for no good reason, then have him leave and take The Kraken with him is another level entirely.
Overall, it was the shows which went after the system that won the satire war this election. Clarke & Dawe had plenty of fun with the dullness of the campaign, while the episode of Sammy J’s Playground Politics Roll of the Dice is the kind of thing that people should be shouting “He fucking nailed it!” about but didn’t. Which is a shame, because Playground Politics is for us the best new comedy we’ve seen all year. A simple concept, executed flawlessly, that really packed a punch. We hope it’s back for more soon.
As for the future, who knows what it holds for us? A Mad Max style future for sure, but is it the original film’s version with a religious extremist dealing out justice on the highways, or the one where Angry Anderson is in a position of power and influence? And while we’re asking the tough questions, where was Charlie Pickering in all this? Surely he should have been out there nailing it left right and center. Maybe someone nailed his door shut? One can only hope.
But one election result seems likely: in the fictional world of Rake Cleaver Greene might just become a Senator, with his sister Jane and his old enemy David sitting on the benches beside him. We don’t normally talk about dramedy on this blog, but what a great series this has been. Especially the alliance of Jane with Cal McGregor. Was it opportunism, a chance to kick Cleaver or a genuine romance that drew them together? And how quickly will it all unravel – and what great satire will it unleash – when the Rake crew move, as seems likely, to Canberra?