If you’ve ever wanted to break into American late night TV, but were worried it would never happen because you’re not American, then there’s some good news: not being American doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore. The very British John Oliver is all over HBO with his investigative news comedy show Last Week Tonight,... Read More »
If you gave a video camera to a student revue and asked them to make a news parody The Roast is probably what you’d get. Indeed, if you look at the biographies of the show’s cast and writers it’s notable that many of them are barely out of... Read More »
First, the bad news: Channel Seven, home of commercial sketch comedy in Australia for close to two decades, now thinks this is a good idea: From Kylie and Dannii to Warney and Thorpey, the celebs come out to play for a new series of Kath & Kim specials coming to Seven. A galaxy of Australia’s... Read More »
Last week's ABC 2012 launch and other recent announcements have made us feel pretty positive about Australian comedy, which is somewhat of a strange sensation. Here's the list of what's coming up next year, tell us what you think about it in the... Read More »
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 »
Satire in this country has historically been mostly piss-poor, and neither the upcoming revamp of Good News Week, called Good News World, or upcoming sitcom At Home with Julia, which explores the personal and professional lives of Julia Gillard and Tim Mathieson, look set to change... Read More »
Hamish & Andy's new TV show Gap Year gets started in a couple of weeks. It'll be interesting to see what the nice guy radio favourites will come up with. Information is fairly sparse but judging by the videos they've been posting to their website Gap Yearwill be the duo's usual mix of pranks, stunts and special... Read More »
Earlier this month I argued that it's quantity, not quality that seems to be the watchword at the offices of GNW TV Productions, makers of Good News Week. Now TV Tonight has brought us the news that over-extending each episode by an hour isn't the only way GNW saves on production costs - they film two episodes in one session, saving them money on studio hire and staff fees - at the expense of... Read More »
We've argued before on this blog that The Gillies Report deserves a DVD release. It was enormously popular at the time, it won a Logie in 1986 for Best Light Entertainment Series, it's fondly remembered by those who saw it, many of the sketches still stand up (there are plenty on YouTube), it's a significant series in the history of Australian comedy, and now it seems a future Prime Minister once sat in its audience. What more could you... Read More »