Welcome to the Australian Tumbleweeds Awards. People from around Australia have been voting for their best and worst of Australian comedies of last year. But before we get to the results, let’s remind ourselves of what went wrong (and right) with Australian comedy in 2024… We can usually tell what kind of a year Australian... Read More »
The ABC’s 2025 upfronts announcement last week says a lot about why the ABC makes the scripted comedies it does. And it’s all about where comedy programming sits within the ABC’s corporate structure. A couple of years ago the ABC restructured and split its operations into two areas: Content and News. Content oversees comedy, drama,... Read More »
Okay, we’re a week late with our Fisk review. But c’mon: if you need us to tell you to watch what is easily the best Australian sitcom this decade, you might as well send us your bank details and be done with it. There are a lot of things Fisk isn’t. For one, it isn’t... Read More »
Press release time! The key to all this is “now also around the world”. But hey, no complaints here if the Netflix effect is working to make an Australian comedy internationally popular for once. Later in 2024 can’t come fast... Read More »
It’s been well over a year since the incoming federal Labor government promised a new cashed up world for the ABC. Okay, so 2023 was always going to be business as usual. But surely 2024 was going to present us with the fruits of that momentous electoral decision? Mo’ money, mo’ programming and all that.... Read More »
Press release time! And this one’s a classic: Let’s just take a moment to let that sink in. “ABC is the undisputed home of exciting, new, original Australian comedy”. New? Original? Exciting? Maybe not words we’d use to describe Utopia, a show now into its fifth season. Maybe they mean the reboot of Mother and... Read More »
We announce the winner and losers of the Australian Tumbleweeds Awards 2022, honouring the best and worst of Australian... Read More »
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Fisk is the funniest Australian sitcom for years. It also rates incredibly... Read More »
Okay, yes, the ABC are going to be showing a Wil Anderson comedy special next Wednesday night, but it’s hardly like that invalidates the premise of this blog post. Zing? At least with an Anderson stand-up special there’ll be a lot less of Anderson actually laughing. Which to be fair, was often understandable during Question... Read More »
So we waited an extra week just to make sure we weren’t imagining it but yes, it seems that season two of Fisk is just as good – if not better – than the first. Phew. Some things have changed: the downstairs coffee shop is now an even more infuriating “blended beverage” venue. Roz (Julia... Read More »