Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2011 – Worst Comedy Personality or Performer
Some comedians you'll watch in anything, whether they're presenting a 300-part documentary on invertebrates or appearing in a panel show about actuarial... Read More »
Tag: Live From Planet Earth
Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2011 – Worst Newcomer
The nominees in this category represent the future of Australian comedy, which means if they don't lift their game we'll be seeing some of them in our other categories in years come...assuming any of them ever work... Read More »
Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2011 – Introduction
2011 was a bad year for Australian comedy – on television at least – but not in the ways we’ve come to expect. Yes, the energy level was down across the board, with old favourites either tanking hard or stuck in a rut while the fresh faces were shunted off to digital channels where they wouldn’t upset the Spicks & Specks... Read More »
The Biggest Story in Australian Comedy This Year…
… seems to have been that “twitter killed Live From Planet Earth“. We’ve read a couple of year-in-review stories now and it has somehow become accepted fact even though it’s complete and utter bullshit. And you know we wouldn’t break out the italics unless we really meant it. For those not in the know, here’s... Read More »
The Home of Variety
Channel 9's push to become the “Home of Comedy” this year hasn't really worked out for them; Live From Planet Earth, the bumping of The Joy of Sets...even Hamish & Andy's Gap Year. Sure, Gap Year made it to the end and managed decent enough ratings, but it wasn't the greatest piece of television ever.... Read More »
Great Comedy Myths of Our Time #1 – Twitter is killing comedy
We've all heard them, people in the media droaning on about how awful it is that decent, honest, talented comedians and shows are being ruthlessly picked-on by bored, unidentifiable people on social media, tweeting and Facebooking their vindictive opinions with the express purpose of KILLING PEOPLE'S... Read More »
Give a dog a bone
As we often point out 'round these parts, we Australians don't make much sketch comedy. Particularly the sort of “pure” sketch comedy shows associated with British television, programs like That Mitchell and Webb Look or The Armstrong and Miller Show, or if you're old enough to remember them, A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Smith & Jones and French and... Read More »
The Ideas Shower overfloweth
The Joy of Sets was always going to be much anticipated by anyone interested in Australian comedy, and in its debut last night it did not... Read More »
Hump’n Dump & the One Pump Chump
More than just about any other form of television, comedy requires feedback. Stand-up comedians hone their act in front of live audiences; even shoddy no-budget Australian comedy films manage to fit in a bunch of test screenings to help guide the editing process. So why, we hope you’re asking yourselves otherwise this post is going... Read More »
Bad news, world
Crikey's Laugh Track blog reported the other day that a promo video for the upcoming sketch show Good News World has been released on Facebook. Good News World, in case you've been trying to block out its existence (and this is something we do advise), is the revamped version of Good News Week, which promises to be “somewhere between The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, and a hostage... Read More »