American actor and stand-up comedian Robin Williams has died today, aged 63. Barack Obama posted a statement about his death and noted, in a rather odd turn of phrase, that “he arrived in our lives as…
The cast and crew of transgender comedy The Switch want to see more inclusive representation of transgender people on TV.
We Love The Switch
The Canadian production company Trembling Void has just successfully crowdfunded a new television series called The Switch. The project is a comedy tracing the lives of an ensemble of trans characters…
With Python, audience members are primarily laughing for their own memories of laughing.
Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
The Monty Python crew have put many caveats on their upcoming reunion shows, which starts in London today and will be simulcast live around the world. Perhaps this quote from John Cleese rings truest of…
The original 20th Century Coyote line-up in 1977: (l-r) Lloyd Peters, Mark Dewison, Ade Edmondson, Mike Redfern, Rik Mayall.
Lloyd Peters
The untimely death of me old mucker Rik Mayall last week has prompted a plethora of obituaries in the press and on television and radio. However, as someone who “nearly” grew up with Rik at Manchester…
In the cult 1980s sitcom The Young Ones, lefty sociology student Rick, threatens to commit suicide and berates his fellow housemates: I feel sorry for you, you zeroes, you nobodies. What’s going to live…
UK comedian and actor Rick Mayall, who died yesterday aged 56.
Steve Vas/ Shutterstock
Rik Mayall is putrid – absolutely vile. He thinks nose-picking is funny and farting and all that. He is the arsehole of British comedy. Spike Milligan made this rather pithy statement some time ago (the…
‘Who do you think you’re kidding, Mr Hitler?’
EPA/Claudio Onorati
News that a feature film of the BBC TV comedy series Dad’s Army is to be made – starring Bill Nighy and Toby Jones – has garnered a mixed response. The Daily Telegraph has questioned whether the film is…
Back in 2003 as Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott was already providing comedy gold.
AAP/ Alan Porritt
Spoiler alert: This article is not very funny. At first glance, Australian PM Tony Abbott is God’s gift to political comedy. Like George Bush Jr he gives at the personal level: his swimmers and his vocal…
The topic of “women in comedy” is endlessly controversial – as Adrienne Truscott seems to know.
MICF
Two performance artists in this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) – the UK’s Bryony Kimmings and American Adrienne Truscott – have a certain flavour of humour: it’s the knowing, self-deprecating…
We’re primed first to see women as objects of desire and to listen to their voices second.
Anne Edmonds, Melbourne International Comedy Festival
What is it about stand-up comedy that makes it a more difficult space for a funny woman to conquer? A bunch of seasoned female stand-ups return to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) this…
Mary Beard dreads the idea of a fixed quota of women on television panels.
John Stillwell/PA
Mary Beard, talking to the Radio Times, has been the latest to jump into the debate triggered by BBC head of television Danny Cohen’s decree that there should be no more all-male gatherings on the corporation’s…
Comedic duo Roy and HG simultaneously celebrate and critique the place of sport in Australian culture.
Network Ten
The Sochi Winter Olympics has seen the return to Australian television screens of sport parodists extraordinaire “Rampaging” Roy Slaven and HG Nelson. Roy and HG’s Russian Revolution presents the familiar…
God may not play dice, but Dieudonne does.
Michel Euler/AP
French comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala has been acquitted over a video in which he called for the release of a man who tortured and murdered a Jew in 2006. The court ruled it could not prove he was behind…
The world of advertising hits the small screen – again – in the new series The Crazy Ones.
CBS
Move over Mad Men – there’s a new group of advertising executives hitting the small screen. The Crazy Ones, a TV series set in a Chicago advertising agency, is currently the top-ranked show in the new…
Is the suffering of the Holocaust ever fair game for comedians?
EPA/Jacek Bednarczy
“Too soon” is a phrase that gets bandied about in response to jokes about tragedy or misfortune. The implication is that a certain amount of time needs to pass before we can poke fun at loss or grief…
Julia Gillard is portrayed sympathetically in the new ABC satire.
ABC Television publicity
Does the ABC’s new hit series At Home With Julia demonstrate an unreconstructed sexism in Australian political satire? Should we be cringing at our cultural immaturity again? If the 2010 Election (or subsequent…
Chris Lilley’s Gran character is written too large to be ignored.
ABC Television publicity
Last night’s premiere of Chris Lilley’s third mockumentary series, Angry Boys, was a reminder that television comedy in Australia as we once knew it has changed forever. In the wake of the popular successes…