Oceania Not happy, Channel 9.

They were all on last year, just before AOTC came out as I recall.

 

He speaks the truth. They were all on last year, though I didn't watch them, figuring that the three tapes I have sitting next to the TV make it a bit pointless to endure the ads.

My tapes are degrading though. I keep saying that I need to buy new copies, but never do. I'm pining for 2005 and the DVD release, just like everyone else.

 

the boy is right. remember all the ep 2 previews that were shown after each one?

 

Here's something I'm not happy with channel 9 about.

Does anybody watch the Dead Zone?
I just discovered that the season finale that aired last week was actually the second episode of season 2.

That explains why the cliffhanger was three episodes back and for the last two eps everyone has had new haircuts

 

Freaky...

Also, Comedy Inc has got to be perhaps the least funny TV show I've ever seen in 19 years of being subjected to un-funny TV shows. When you watch an aledged comedy, but don't even smile, let along laugh, you knwo it's bad. So that's another strike against channel 9, for lowering the average IQ of the entire nation by a good 5 points.

 

That is the most cringe-worthy show I have ever seen. Not only are the jokes so fundementaly unfunny but the delivery and timing is the worst I have ever seen. I have never seen an ep all the way through but the ads are enough to have me reaching for the bucket, the Lord of the Rings spoof looked like it was filmed by the dregs of a Year 11 Film and TV class!

I'm convinced JP could make a better sketch comedy show!

 

Maybe you should edit that post before JP sees it, or he might take you up on that.

But you're right. The LOTR sketches were more horrible than most. For some reason, my little brother actually watches this show, which is the only reason I've been subjected to it. I think it's the Train Wreck Phenomenon: It's horrible and disgusting, yet somehow you can't look away...

 

Comedy Inc for the most part is God-awful. There was a sketch last week that was vaguely funny when some guy did a groin while doing a boardroom presentation and the trainers ran to to treat him and sent another guy from the interchage to replace him.

Comedy Inc relies too heavily on parody, which they do rather badly.

Skithouse on the other hand, has had some quite funny stuff - maybe 'cos they don't rely on parody so much. They've had some quite funny running gags like with Peter Helliar being constantly beaten up by a wrestler and the Tripod guys playing Guess Who. It's certainly not champagne comedy, but it beats the bejesus out of Comedy Inc.

 

The people on Comedy Inc do passable impersonations of famous people. It's a pity that those impersonations are never actually funny. And the timing, as luigi said, is absolutely terrible; sometimes a skit goes on for an extra 10 seconds despite the fact that the "joke" is long over.

Seriously, it's been three weeks, why is it still on?? Heck, Nine scrapped the Mick Molloy show quicker than this and at least that had a few redeemable qualities.

 

I've only seen a very tiny amount of Skithouse (about 3 minutes) and that was funnier than every single moment Comedy Inc that I've been unfortunate enough to witness. The only thing that annoys me about Skithouse is how they took the admitidly clever title and proceeded to flog the joke to death, so that by the time you'd seen the "coming soon" ad 3 times it made you want to kill someone.

Wil Anderson on the Triple J breakfast show was talking about the good things about Comedy Inc, such as: "It's like hitting yourself in the genitals with a brick: it feels really good when you stop."

 

As much as I hate to admit it, it seems the golden age of Aussie TV comedy has passed. There is real comedic talent out there, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) none of it gets put on prime-time commercial station. Comedy Inc is sometimes so bad you can't even laugh at it for being so bad. Skithouse has a few good segments (admittedly the SW skit was slightly lame in parts) but even that doesn't measure up to what Aussie comedy used to be.

*Mourns the loss of champagne comedy*

 

I love Skithouse, when I remember to watch it. I agree with the fact that Comedy Inc pretty much sucks... The only thing that pisses me off about Skithouse is the episode I watched they repeated a gag in it three times. That was one of the things that really shat me about Comedy Inc so I was really disappointed to see Skithouse stoop to doing that as well. But always remember, at least the people in Skithouse are funny.

 

Channel Seven should show repeats of Full Frontal, from the good old days when Eric Bana was still around. They may be about 10 years old, but they're still just as funny.

 

Full Frontal was the beginning of the end for Australian comedy. It was ok, but it was a pale imitation of the vastly superior Fast Forward.

 

Totally Full Frontal (the Channel 10 version) was THE nail in the coffin of Aussie Comedy. It had some good characters in it's first season, but the second season was pitiful.

 

A few good people have come from Fast Forward/Full Frontal (Eric Bana, Shaun Micallef) but they were mostly awful.

the Late Show was the pinnacle of Australian sketch comedy and the Shaun Micallef program/progamm/pogram was very good (his new show is pretty damn funny but it's not sketch comedy)

 

And what about the golden days of Good News Week, before it moved to channel 10? That was great stuff. 10 killed it though, surprise surprise.

As far as I'm concerned, sketch comedy begins and ends with Monty Python's Flying Circus.

 

there will never be a sletch comedy show as good as Flying Circus but we're talking about Australian shows.

 

For some reason I don't mind what I've seen of Comedy Inc. I hate Steve Liebman so anything taking the piss out of him has to be half decent. That Skithouse though isn't worth the time. "Mr Geographyhead" on the ad last week should've sent a clear message to Australia to not watch it.

And the Cricket World Cup gets precedence over the 50th repeat of the Star Wars trilogy. There's a shock.

If we're going to whinge about 9, what about their West Wing and Sopranos treatment over the Summer? They plugged new episodes of Sopranos for weeks leading up to the non-ratings period and ended up showing us an encore of last season. That's treating an audience like crap.

 

We could also whinge about their poor treatment of Star Trek (or any sci-fi for that matter) I'm just thankful I don't have to rely on crappy Australian commercial tv to watch my favorite shows (abc and sbs are still the best).

Oh and Nine played 1 season 2 ep of Dead Zone not 2, my mistake (still pisses me off though).

 

Don't get me started on 9's treatment of Enterprise, shifting it all over the schedule, different days, different times etc etc...

I think the best Aussie commedy of the last few years is quite easily CNNNN. Not sketch comedy, but brilliantly written parody/farce.

 

and surprisingly it's on the ABC, does anyone else see a pattern here?

 

Yeah, funny that.

I've always been a big ABC watcher, like the rest of my family. There are too many people who only watch comercial TV and miss out on heaps and heaps of great shows.

 

And let's add another grievance against channel 9: I just discovered that the new series of Enterprise started last week, unbeknownst to me with no fanfare at all, and hence, I've missed the conclusion to the cliffhanger ending of season one.

 

He got back to his own time thus restoring History.