BEYOND THE CRINGE

Leapster injects the penicillin into the arse of Australian TV comedy, suggesting that we were too hasty in ditching the cultural cringe and would benefit from its re-introduction:

A SHORTER HISTORY OF DISMAL AUSTRALIAN COMEDY

A rock critic once made an observation, re progressive rock and/or fusion music, which went something along the lines of: To rock out in 11/8 time isn’t so much impressive or difficult as it is impossible.

I feel the shows under discussion, when considered individually, or all together (now), achieve much the same effect. Watching any of them, it’s easy to get the impression that producing comedy isn’t so much impressive or difficult, as it is impossible.

Comments

[TimT]

He's right about Jon English and John Farnham, but missed out on Angry Anderson's amusing appearance on Frontline.

What do you think of UK comedy Dead Ringers? It's most obvious running gag is obviously the old 'he looks so much like (______ insert name here ______)!' joke, though they have good variations on that joke. (Michael Parkie interviewing old ladies in bus stops). And the skits in between it are clever too.

[Tony T]

Haven't seen it.

The blurb on Wiki suggests it's might not be the worst skit show.

[Professor Rosseforp]

I'm old enough to remember absolute clangers like "Barley Charlie". "My name's McGooley, what's yours?" is often cited as great comic work, because it featured the theatrical greats Gordon Chater and John Meillon. It was unusual Australian comedy in that it took a "Steptoe and Son" or "Til death us do part" approach, which looked at the tragedy of everyday life to bring out the humour -- but often moved into the area of bathos and overdone sentimentality. "Kingswood country" managed the same approach (bloke with beer in the fridge) but wisely skipped out on details like tragedy, clever plots, and comedy.
"Mavis Bramston", "Bert Newton/Graham Kennedy" have all aged well because they are no longer seen, and are known only by a few heavily-recycled skits -- which are not funny anyway, e.g. peeing dogs and exploding desks. The absolute tedium of crap which filled both shows has been forgotten -- but not by the wise old Professor. Mavis set a bad example of sketch comedy, which has been the bane of Aus comedy ever since. Usually a couple of good skits per episode.
I rate "Mother and Son" as very poor but can understand why people like it. "Kath and Kim" has clever scripts, unlike "Kingswood country".
"Summer Heights High" showed Chris Lilley in top form, with a telegenic face only matched by Benny Hill. One overseas visitor who raised the standard of local comedy was Dave Allen, whose Australian stint showed that you could treat the audience as intelligent and sentient human beings.
I also loved the much-bagged "Funky Squad", which had clever scripts and heavy irony -- maybe this is why I still see the best current TV comedy as "City Homicide", whose obscure and irrelevant unravellings in the last 5 minutes of the show never fail to provoke a chuckle or two.

[Nabakov]

Given the way the real world's going, the fact brilliant comedy by complete amateurs (sometimes on purpose) is just a you tube away and how broadcast TV is now pretty much complete crap, I'd say we're now living in a meta-comedy world.

Can you think of anything with a laugh track that could possibly gather ratings now?

I'm thinking now about a fly on the wall observational character-driven comedy series about the making of a fly on the wall observational character-driven comedy series.

"We could make it a fly on the wall observational character-driven comedy series about a fly on the wall observational character-driven comedy series about a a fly on the wall observational character-driven comedy series."
"Already being done. Look over your shoulder."

About the only two TV comedy series I'd bother taking out on DVD are Frontline and the Larry Saunders Show. Well OK, the best of the Simpsons and Futurama too.

As Queen used to boast - No synths!

[m0nty]

Leapster didn't seem to want to talk about many of the newer comedies. Pizza should be given its due. The Chaser ones, of course. Micallef, naturally. That Lano & Woodley one deserved a mention. The most egregious omission, however, was the collected works of A. Denton.

[Pevva]

What Monty said. Would also be interested in his (L's) thoughts on Chris Lilley's work.

[Tony T.]

Speaking as a old fart, most modern Aussie comedians are cleverer than they are funny.

I include Denton, Lano, Woodley, the Chasers (prank humour is most definitely not my thing) as comedians who are sharp/quick witted, but who rarely make me laugh. I haven't seen enough Lilley, haven't see any Pizza, but Micallef does make me chuckle.

Aussie comedians also reference other comedians at the drop of a banana skin.

It's one thing to know what's funny, it's another thing entirely to be funny.

[Ann oDyne]

'Good' is the stuff one can recall 20 years after seeing it.

I used to enthuse to people "you must catch The Tracy Ullman Show because it has this cartoon in it about a crazy family The Simpsons."

And yes to Montys Denton nomination. Zapruders Other Film indeed.

and NABAKOV dahling I love you and the fly-on-the-wall was done in Canadas MANIAC MANSIONS series
about a guy whose brother WAS A FLY on the wall, and you are right, it was hysterical, and it played man
and where the family showed The Zapruder Film as a home movie of their picnic, while ignoring the assassination totally -
"we found this nice grassy knoll ..."

[Professor Rosseforp]

Speaking of unfunny comedy, did anyone see Lawrence Leung's new show? I'll give it one more go, but the signs are not looking propitious.

[Tony T]

The bits I saw on the ads made me run a mile.

Anne. Just noticed that the Zapruder fillum is on IMDb. It has spoiler alerts and a ranking of 8.4/10, which it's "Down 30% in popularity this week".