Australian Sketch Comedy/COmedy COmedy

[arandom]

I think australia has had some fantastic comedies over the years>> Frontline, the games, The Adventures of Lano & Woodley (a personal fav) to name a few....

but there's something i dont really like about our sketch comedy. I used to like the Comedy Company as a kid....full frontal or fast forward never did anything to me...

Comedy Inc was just crap. Really unfunny. Who was writing that stuff?

And I really really want to like skithouse....and they have had a few great skits, but overall I still don't think it's a great show when compared to overseas shows like Big Train from england>>

thoughts?

[Laney]

i agree with you completely.
i think everyone will agree with you on the comedy inc comment too

with skithouse, i think most of the skits are pretty crap, and occasionally you get the good one. i stopped watching, but before i stopped, i liked some of their skits and just though, "oh my god, that could have been so much better if they turned the punchline into .....blah"

i love australian humour, but on the whole, i think brittish tops aussie's with sketch shows. The Sketch Show was pretty crap too though. I thought it was just a little bit better than Skithouse.

[Gutter Monkey]

The big problem with most of Australian TV sketch comedy (in my opinion) is that the TV stations put a bunch of requirements on them other than just "be funny". Often it's a case of "be funny, but don't make any jokes that are above the understanding of a 12 year old and don't do anything to offend the over 40 crowd and don't be funny in a political way because our audience doesn't give a stuff about policics and don't make fun of Jesus and don't even think about making a gag about anyone who buys advertising space on our channel etc etc etc.."

And that's a fucked up way of making comedy.

And because they have 'commercial' directors and producers who have to answer to the money men a lot of the wackier "looks strange on paper but works on screen" sketches probably get culled out because they don't want to take a chance on them.

Of course, the missed opportunities with the punchlines and the badly edited/directed/written sketches are all their own fault.

Hey, I'm off to Channel 9 tonight to see a taping of Comedy Inc!! I'll post a review soon.

[Mythor]

Originally Posted by Gutter Monkey

Hey, I'm off to Channel 9 tonight to see a taping of Comedy Inc!! I'll post a review soon.

*rubs temples* I predict the review will contain the word "crap"!
Hey, maybe they improved it since last year, who knows..

I've not been a regular sketch comedy show watcher since the days of Fast Forward/Full Frontal/Comedy Company.. But of the current "Big 3" I like Skithouse the best. It seems to have some funny one off sketches, as well as recognisable characters that regularly make an appearance, like The Australian Fast Bowler.
It is, in my opinion, the closest to being a really good show... But I'm still not a regular watcher.
Big Bite is less funny, and I refuse to watch it anymore due to the ruckus it keeps bringing here.
Comedy Inc is funny because it's not.

With the three commercial channels already having a sketch show, I guess there's not much chance of anything really new in that area this year.

[unfrufru]

Originally Posted by Mythor

*rubs temples* I predict the review will contain the word "crap"!
Hey, maybe they improved it since last year, who knows..

u are wise in the ways of comedy mythy. but i doubt they improved from last year. although it's not hard to improve on crap, when u only have what u've got to work with, doesn't amount to much

[Gutter Monkey]

Okay, I'm back.

They haven't improved. It's not a good sign when the warm up guy gets a hell of a lot more laughs than the sketches do.

All of the sketches were built on fairly solid comedy concepts that should have worked, and one or two of them did (out of the 20 or 30 that I saw) but the rest .... it's like they trying hard *not* to end the sketches on a big laugh. Here's the pattern that most of them followed:
1) premise & set up.
2) sketch develops.
3) small laugh.
4) scene continues and ends.

Often they'd show a pre-recorded sketch and at the very end the audience would go "Oh", or just sit quietly, or wait a second and *then* laugh at nothing in particular - they were waiting for the punchlines at the end of the sketches that hardly ever came.

It's almost as if the Comedy Inc people think they're performing live on stage and need to add segues (the unfunny bits of talking between the gags) at the end of sketches so the material flows properly, but the pace of a sketch show is different. The pace of live stand-up is like a conversation (an unnatural, one-sided, prewritten conversation, but there you go) where concepts follow somewhat naturally from each other. A sketch show is one step further removed from that model, so the sketches don't need any denouement. The pace follows distinct beats rather than a flow, so we don't need segues. End on a laugh, godammit!

One really weird thing is that occasionally they'd do a sketch in the studio and I'd laugh and think "Hey, that was actually pretty good!" and then they'd go "Sorry, messed that up" and they'd reshoot it in their usual unfunny way.
Eg: they did a bunch of 'police lineup' sketches. (Yes, just like Seinfeld. Live with it.) In one they had a pretty regular lineup except that number 4 was dressed as a burglar. Here's the dialogue:

Policeman: Okay, take your time.
Woman: I'm just not sure ...
Policeman: Take as long as you need.
Woman: Um ... number three?
Policeman (exasperated): You idiot!

The timing was nice, the acting was straight and not over the top ... a nice little gag. But then the guy acting the polcieman's part went "Shit, sorry, what's my next line?" and they reshot the scene. The final take wasn't nearly as good as the outtake. It's like the actors *know* how to be funny but have to supress that and follow the script.

I came back through the city on the way home so I dropped by Young & Jacksons to catch the end of the comedy there. I got talking with another comedian who'd been in some Comedy Inc sketches up in Sydney, and this comedian told me about how they'd film the sketch and then the actors would ask to do it over in a different, funny way but weren't allowed to because of time restraints. It's not a good sign when a comedian isn't sure whether to list their first experience with big proper TV sketch comedy on their resume.

Another aspect that annoyed me was the level that they're pitching their gags at. Most TV sketch comedy springs from a certain sense of naivety, but where shows like Skithouse manage to come across as being innocent or even a little cheeky, Comedy Inc usually comes across as being puerile. One of the sketches was something like "Are you gay?" "No way, I'm 100% straight!" "Yeah, but are you *sure* you're not gay?" etc etc etc.

Oh, and they're still hammering Rove fairly hard. They've even dug out some silver logies to decorate their fake Rove set - shouldn't it be a gold logie?? :p