Celebration of a nation
The ABC’s 90th-anniversary program ABC 90 Celebrate! was a noble attempt cover nine decades of broadcasting but left some... Read More »
Tag: The Games
Gonna Make Ya Sweat ‘Till Ya Bleed
What’s that you say? The Olympics is nothing but a massive marketing exercise thinly disguised as a sporting event? SAY WHAAAAAAAAAAAohfuckoff. Yes, once again the smug arseholes behind and in front of the camera at the Gruen sweatshop are back to tell us the fucking obvious – and just to warn you up front, this... Read More »
And in overseas news
Remember that story last year about how Britain's Channel 4 were working on a supposed rip-off of The Gruen Transfer called The Mad Bad Ads Show? If you don't, we blogged about it here. Either way, it went to air on Friday night and we've managed to see... 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 »
Just Your Typical Act Of Commercial Bastardry
For those of you wondering why you haven’t been hearing much about the much-anticipated (by us) revival of John Clarke’s The Games, wonder no more: The Nine Network has scrapped plans for a sequel to the Olympic-themed mockumentary The Games. Nine announced plans at the end of 2010 for The Games: London Calling, a follow-up... Read More »
Hating Angry Boys: A Beginner’s Guide
With Angry Boys debuting in the UK this week, the usual gushing waves of praise re: the genius of Chris Lilley have broken on a new shore. In Australia too, the fans have been fighting back against the dwindling ratings and general feel that this time out Lilley's gone off the... Read More »
Vale Laid
Yes, Laid finished up a few days ago, but it seemed like a good idea to wait just in case the Fairfax papers – specifically The Age – tried to slip in some more good words for a show they love so much they should just bloody well marry it. During its final week it... Read More »
The Twenty Twelve Games
One of the biggest stories in comedy in both Australia and Britain in the past week has centred on the allegations made by The Games' writers and creators John Clarke and Ross Stevenson on The Drum... Read More »
King of the Hill
It’s no real shock that we like The Jesters a lot. This behind-the-scenes sitcom about a group of Chaser-style comedians and their grumpy producer stars Mick Molloy and is packed with references to and plots based on Australian television comedy; the only way to make a sitcom more to our liking would be to announce that Tony Martin was going to be a regular on the upcoming series of The... Read More »
Mature Comedy: Don’t Make Us Laugh
One of the more impressive contortion acts on offer at the moment is watching various Australian television columnists and reviewers trying to talk up Laid without using the word “funny”. That’s because, despite its good points – and it does have some – actually being funny is not one of them. By a long, long... Read More »