mitchables
06-02-2009, 11:39 PM
Shaun Micallef, for all you international sorts, is, IMO, easily one of the most under-rated personalities on Australian TV. He rose to prominence on the much-loved, long-gone but never forgotten sketch show Full Frontal, playing characters like one-too-many-punches-to-the-head heavyweight champ Milo Kerrigan, Fabio - "the most beautiful man in the world" - and, of course, sweet Nobby Doldrums.
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(watching that one just brought back a flood of memories - "Root me!" used to be a popular catchphrase amongst THE YOUTH :'()
Also, David McGahan's World:
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Might have posted about David McGahan's World before, which was one of his more hilarious segments on FF. In fact, might have posted about Shaun Micallef before. But it's kind of pertinent again. He had a couple of short-lived variety/talk show type deals on the ABC here (and one on Channel Nine), which is a government funded station so naturally it produces a lot of the best local content here but they're also horrendously underfunded.
Compare that to a private company like Channel Ten, which is regarded as probably the major controlling force in Australian TV along with Seven and Nine, and the ABC can't really compete on production values (although their content is like 31859365835x better). Anyway, Channel Ten has, for a number of years, had a complete douchebag called Rove McManus behind the desk for its flagship talk show, Rove Live. I don't know how long he's been on. Maybe eight years? Nine? Whatever. He's mediocre. To the point where most talk show hosts start out with people on the couch helping them interview guests and then spread their wings and fly solo, while Rove has done the reverse and recruited a rotating cast of funnier people than him to sit on his couch and help him interview people.
Micallef has recently started hosting a game show on Channel Ten called Talkin' About Your Generation, which pits contestants from Gen Y against Gen X against Baby Boomers in an all out generational general knowledge test. Hilarity ensues, naturally.
Anyway, I was watching this show last night, and it was my first chance to do so since I usually work on Tuesdays, and it dawned on me that Micallef was making me laugh more in the space of 43 minutes plus ads than Rove has made me laugh in nine years.
This was a really roundabout way to get to the point, but I never know who knows what about whom on these forums so I have to try and bring everyone to the same level. Anyway, the point is that it made me realise Micallef should be given his own talk show on Channel Ten, because with the backing of a monstrous television corporation, he would easily wipe the floor with McManus. It would be like if Conan replaced Jimmy Fallon instead of the other way around. And I just wanted to appreciate him here. Because he is hilarious, intelligent, irreverent, and everything that a comedic television personality should be. And you see, a lot of Australian comedy is really hit and miss because it's bogged down in these theories of needing to be an antipodean degree of "Australian" in nature, which is just fucked. But not Micallef :heart:
In conclusion (for those who don't want to read the thread):
http://bbcentral.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/micallef_narrowweb__300x4370.jpg > http://blogs.news.com.au/images/uploads/Rove.jpg
<EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/MeTkHT8ALFU&hl=en&fs=1 width=425 height=344 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></EMBED>
<EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/ryW29CNO_jw&hl=en&fs=1 width=425 height=344 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></EMBED>
<EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/olhib2U2TqE&hl=en&fs=1 width=425 height=344 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></EMBED>
(watching that one just brought back a flood of memories - "Root me!" used to be a popular catchphrase amongst THE YOUTH :'()
Also, David McGahan's World:
<EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/mfKYNsR7W4A&hl=en&fs=1 width=425 height=344 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></EMBED>
Might have posted about David McGahan's World before, which was one of his more hilarious segments on FF. In fact, might have posted about Shaun Micallef before. But it's kind of pertinent again. He had a couple of short-lived variety/talk show type deals on the ABC here (and one on Channel Nine), which is a government funded station so naturally it produces a lot of the best local content here but they're also horrendously underfunded.
Compare that to a private company like Channel Ten, which is regarded as probably the major controlling force in Australian TV along with Seven and Nine, and the ABC can't really compete on production values (although their content is like 31859365835x better). Anyway, Channel Ten has, for a number of years, had a complete douchebag called Rove McManus behind the desk for its flagship talk show, Rove Live. I don't know how long he's been on. Maybe eight years? Nine? Whatever. He's mediocre. To the point where most talk show hosts start out with people on the couch helping them interview guests and then spread their wings and fly solo, while Rove has done the reverse and recruited a rotating cast of funnier people than him to sit on his couch and help him interview people.
Micallef has recently started hosting a game show on Channel Ten called Talkin' About Your Generation, which pits contestants from Gen Y against Gen X against Baby Boomers in an all out generational general knowledge test. Hilarity ensues, naturally.
Anyway, I was watching this show last night, and it was my first chance to do so since I usually work on Tuesdays, and it dawned on me that Micallef was making me laugh more in the space of 43 minutes plus ads than Rove has made me laugh in nine years.
This was a really roundabout way to get to the point, but I never know who knows what about whom on these forums so I have to try and bring everyone to the same level. Anyway, the point is that it made me realise Micallef should be given his own talk show on Channel Ten, because with the backing of a monstrous television corporation, he would easily wipe the floor with McManus. It would be like if Conan replaced Jimmy Fallon instead of the other way around. And I just wanted to appreciate him here. Because he is hilarious, intelligent, irreverent, and everything that a comedic television personality should be. And you see, a lot of Australian comedy is really hit and miss because it's bogged down in these theories of needing to be an antipodean degree of "Australian" in nature, which is just fucked. But not Micallef :heart:
In conclusion (for those who don't want to read the thread):
http://bbcentral.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/micallef_narrowweb__300x4370.jpg > http://blogs.news.com.au/images/uploads/Rove.jpg