Generic Antipodean comedy thread

[SteveDave]

Not only is there an Australian series of "Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee" available now on YouTube

A new series of the New Zealand version is about to start airing too. What if they run out of words?

[SteveDave]

Sweet Jesus, there's a round in the fourth (I think) episode that's based on those choose your own adventure books that might be the funniest thing I've seen all year. Aaron Chen (a co-hort of Sam Campbell) is the assistant and steals almost every episode but he's especially great in that bit.

[Famous Mortimer]

Matt Lucas was a guest quizmaster years and years ago, but "Have You Been Paying Attention?" is going one better next week by having David Walliams as one of the panelists. If they're going to be so determined to stop people outside Australia watching anything other than minute-long clips, this seems like a curious hire (although I suppose he's plenty famous in Australia as well, and if Lucas is as big a fan as he claimed, there's a decent chance he's at least seen the show before).

I don't mind this occasional casting of international people as panelists, but it's been a long time since Walliams was funny, so I get the feeling this might be strange watch.

[majava]

Sweet Jesus, there's a round in the fourth (I think) episode that's based on those choose your own adventure books that might be the funniest thing I've seen all year. Aaron Chen (a co-hort of Sam Campbell) is the assistant and steals almost every episode but he's especially great in that bit.

Guy Mont-Spelling Bee is the best thing on TV at the moment as far as I'm concerned. Aside from Taskmaster, there's not too many shows these days where comedians just get to pissfart around.

[13 schoolyards]

Matt Lucas was a guest quizmaster years and years ago, but "Have You Been Paying Attention?" is going one better next week by having David Walliams as one of the panelists. If they're going to be so determined to stop people outside Australia watching anything other than minute-long clips, this seems like a curious hire (although I suppose he's plenty famous in Australia as well, and if Lucas is as big a fan as he claimed, there's a decent chance he's at least seen the show before).

I don't mind this occasional casting of international people as panelists, but it's been a long time since Walliams was funny, so I get the feeling this might be strange watch.

Australian television no longer has any real showcase for international visitors - there's The Project which can be very hit and miss, and you sometimes get interviews with movie or television people on 730, which always seems a bit weird. So I assume for comedy people HYBPA? is really the only place they can go to show their comedy skills (or lack thereof) if they're out here promoting something or other.

Plus Working Dog (especially with TGYH) are clearly very focused on being a safe pair of hands for their guests - you never see a segment or interview or show going off the rails, at worst it's just boring and that's usually down to the guest themselves. They just don't make shows where there's any chance of someone stuffing things up, so I'm guessing international acts are a bit more likely to give it a go

[SteveDave]

Guy Mont-Spelling Bee is the best thing on TV at the moment as far as I'm concerned. Aside from Taskmaster, there's not too many shows these days where comedians just get to pissfart around.

We just finished the Australian series in time to begin the new New Zealand one. I hope they don't run out of words.

[Famous Mortimer]

I've really been enjoying the run of guest hosts of "The Cheap Seats" as well. Kind of a showcase of how good Tim McDonald is at interacting with all sorts of different comedians - I just saw the Julia Zemiro episode, a name I'm vaguely familiar with but don't think I've seen anything she's done (RockKwiz?). She was very good, and I know I've got a Celia Pacquola episode before Mel gets back too.

[SteveDave]

Aaron Chen was playing at the Soho Theatre on Saturday but we didn't know this and it'd sold out but, on the off-chance he'd be there afterwards (like Guy Montgomery and Paul Williams did after their shows there) my drunk wife and I swung by (after we'd drunk a lot of sweet cocktails) and he was! With Paul Williams! Both are charming yet awkward people to chat to.

[13 schoolyards]

Last night's Walliams episode of HYBPA? was a lot more bantery than usual - Walliams even answered someone else's question during one of the later rounds, which is not the done thing. Otherwise he was fine I guess, though I didn't come away with any desire to see him live.

The comedy highlight was probably Walliams saying something like "thanks to my children's books I'm considered a modern Shakespeare", then Kavalee (who was possibly a bit annoyed that Walliams hadn't remembered him from a day-long event they'd done on an earlier tour) jumped in with "is that because someone else writes them?"

[samadriel]

New Aussie Taskmaster soon. Peter Helliar, Mel Buttle, Aaron Chen, Concetta Caristo, and Rhys Nicholson. I've come to like Peter since listening to his movies podcast (You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet), and Aaron Chen is inevitably great.

[Famous Mortimer]

Last night's Walliams episode of HYBPA? was a lot more bantery than usual - Walliams even answered someone else's question during one of the later rounds, which is not the done thing. Otherwise he was fine I guess, though I didn't come away with any desire to see him live.

The comedy highlight was probably Walliams saying something like "thanks to my children's books I'm considered a modern Shakespeare", then Kavalee (who was possibly a bit annoyed that Walliams hadn't remembered him from a day-long event they'd done on an earlier tour) jumped in with "is that because someone else writes them?"

It was an interesting dynamic, for sure. I also had the result of Taskmaster NZ spoiled, my fault for not watching it fast enough I suppose.

[samadriel]

Heard about Videoland on the Screen Queens podcast, a 2-parter on Netflix set in a video store around '98 or so. Sweet and funny, I hope everyone involved does more.

[famethrowa]

Shaun Micallef really looks like Father Ted these days. Possible remake, set in Bass Strait? Father Jack Thompson? just sayin

[13 schoolyards]

He's got that SBS series coming up next week where he takes various comedians back to their homelands and leaves them there they talk about their culture and so on. Probably more light viewing than hilarious comedy but who knows, he might get bored by episode three and bring back Milo Kerrigan

[Art Bear]

'Ghosts' to be remade in Australia

https://10play.com.au/10-play-trending/articles/network-10-and-paramount-announce-new-local-comedy-series-ghosts-australia/tpa240916hgqkc

It'll be...interesting to see how they deal with not-quite 250 years of white historical characters and 20,000 years of indigenous people. My money is on them ignoring the latter.

[Art Bear]

exhibit a:

'the house is haunted by a collection of needy spirits who carked it in Ramshead Manor over the past 200 years.'

[dontpaintyourteeth]

exhibit a:

'the house is haunted by a collection of needy spirits who carked it on Ramsay Street over the past 200 years.'

[famethrowa]

I find it hard to believe there would be an Australian comedy show that isn't just the same 10 comedians sitting behind desks and cracking wise at each other.

[13 schoolyards]

I suspect there'll be one indigenous spirit (probably not played by Ernie Dingo), but they'll have been a servant or a jackeroo or something menial so they won't just be in body paint but will be able to make the occasional joke about colonialism.

There's not a lot of comedy actors left in this country - or comedians or any stripe that aren't stand-ups - but I guess the Ghosts format really just requires regular actors willing to overact, which rules out absolutely nobody.

[majava]

😐

[holyzombiejesus]

The Australian kids shows my son watches are really funny. Obviously there's Bluey but I have no idea why Beep & Mort isn't more popular here. It's such a brilliant programne.

Then there's Little Lunch and, to a lesser extent, Inbestigators. Genuinely funny.

[Art Bear]

Little Lunch is funnier than Fisk or Rosehaven or any of the other tedious auscomedies people bang on about. I do like a bit of HYBPA? on occasion though.

[Art Bear]

the Ghosts format really just requires regular actors willing to overact, which rules out absolutely nobody.

Julia Zemiro's ears perk up.

[neveragain]

😐

Staggeringly pointless.

[13 schoolyards]

Fisk s3 announced for Oct 20 - clearly now too good for the ABC's usual Wednesday night comedy burial ground

[Famous Mortimer]

Cheap Seats continues to be excellent, and I just found out Mel Tracina is going to be the host of Big Brother. I presume it's a bigger deal than a segment on Cheap Seats, even now, and I've thought for a while she's a bit too good for her current job (even though I hope she continues doing it). She'd be great on something like an Australian version of "The Soup", I think.

[13 schoolyards]

I saw Mel hosting a movie preview not so long ago (one of those screenings presented by a radio station because they've been giving away tickets for weeks) - I was surprised because I'd have figured she would have risen above that kind of crap gig ages ago. Guess now she has.

It's a sign of how good she is at her job that The Cheap Seats still hasn't been able to find a decent sports reporter to replace Titus O'Reily, so hopefully Big Brother won't take up all her time (thinking about it, it'll probably be on during the first half of the year so there'll be no clash)

[Famous Mortimer]

It's a sign of how good she is at her job that The Cheap Seats still hasn't been able to find a decent sports reporter to replace Titus O'Reily, so hopefully Big Brother won't take up all her time (thinking about it, it'll probably be on during the first half of the year so there'll be no clash)

Fingers crossed. She also held her own on "Have You Being Paying Attention?" too. Weirdly, I loved Ray O'Leary's guest slot as cultural correspondent, it's the one time I think his shtick really worked.

I love his podcast with Mick Molloy (although I tend to skip the animal episodes), but unless he's writing a new book or something like that, his current workload wouldn't prevent him returning to the Cheap Seats. Or maybe he just didn't like it all that much, or wasn't being paid a lot. Please come back, Titus (I notice the Wikipedia page is still listing the sports desk people as "replacing Titus O'Reily", every episode. Perhaps the page editor doesn't want to let go either).

I don't know what he's like outside the sports desk, but I really don't like Adam Rozenbachs, which is a pisser as he's easily the most common guest. He feels like he's performing a script and has little-to-no natural banter with Tim or Mel. I've liked a few of the other guest hosts, though, but it's a shame they only get one crack at it.

[samadriel]

😐

I would've loved to give that a try, but Christ does that look dull. Gender-swapping the Gareth/Dwight archetype is one of those "interesting" ideas I don't actually want to see, Felicity Ward's boss character has said nothing funny yet (imagine a trailer for the US Office without Michael Scott doing anything funny!) , and the rest of the cast are just droning blobs. Anything would be better - a Jim/Pam dyad would be unoriginal, but The Office is better with it than without it. It's good that it doesn't seem to be ripping off gags from the UK/US like I'm told a bunch of international versions have, but you actually have to write new jokes too. This looks so shit it's like those Dick Tracy clips Warren Beatty puts out every few years so he can retain the rights in perpetuity.

Who will join me in dream casting a proper AU Office? Bonus points if your choices were active over a decade ago when they should have made the show.
The boss: Shaun Micallef. Already sounding better, isn't it!
The Jim/Pam: Cameron James and Becky Lucas.
The HR guy (Toby): Francis Greenslade
The Kelly Kapoor: Bec Charlwood
The IT guy: Alexei Toliololous. Not an actor, but I reckon he could do it, he's a funny guy.
Chuck Urzila Carlson and Emma Holland in there.
The warehouse boss: Briggs,

Can't think of a Dwight/Gareth, that's gonna bug me.

[Famous Mortimer]

Can't think of a Dwight/Gareth, that's gonna bug me.

Tosh Greenslade?