LAUGH IT OFF
Now in its 47th season, legendary skit show SaturdayNightLive leads the hilarious comedy offerings returning to Binge this week
CHARLIE Chaplin famously once said: “All I need to make comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” Comedy has evolved since Chaplin – and later Benny Hill – had audiences in stitches with this simple schtick. Nowadays, there is no set formula, and sometimes the funniest TV can come from people you least expect – such as Kim Kardashian’s recent turn on Saturday Night Live ( SNL).
Usually the butt of SNL’s jokes, Kardashian seemed a surprising choice to host, but she impressed audiences – and silenced the critics – by making fun of her divorce from Kanye West, her copycat siblings, her mother’s much-younger boyfriend and the sex tape that controversially launched her career. And, in true Kardashian style, momager Kris and sister Khloé made cameo appearances.
While the likes of Will &
Grace star Debra Messing argued Kardashian had no place being on the legendary skit show, SNL creator Lorne Michaels knew better. In fact, it was Michaels – the man who gave Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy and Tina Fey their big breaks – who personally courted Kardashian to host.
And with good reason. As Kardashian herself pointed out, she always draws a crowd.
“I’m used to my 360 million followers watching my every move,” she said in her scathing opening monologue.
“How many watch SNL?
Ten million? So tonight is a chill, intimate night for me.”
But it’s not just satire shows like SNL that keep us laughing.
Popular comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, returning for its
11th season, carries on Seinfeld’s tradition of exploring life’s little annoyances. And with little wonder – creator and star Larry David is also the co-creator of Seinfeld [streaming, Netflix].
The final season of the awardwinning Insecure is also about to hit our screens. The show about friendship and love among a young black community in Los Angeles put comedian Issa Rae on the map, garnering her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.
For Australian comedian Harley Breen, the silver lining of the pandemic is that it has provided more time to watch his favourite TV comedies.
“The most recent comedy
I’ve watched is Schitt’s Creek [streaming, Netflix],” he says.
“It’s also hard to go past Seinfeld. It’s pretty perfect.
Super gag-heavy. Comedy was always the focus and it pretty well delivered for nine years. In terms of perfection, Fawlty Towers [streaming, BritBox] is a masterpiece of gags and slapstick.”
The Project’s Peter Helliar, while also a huge Seinfeld fan, is proud he’s been onto hit comedy Ted Lasso [streaming, Apple TV+] since day one.
“It’s a comedy that chooses kindness, which strangely enough makes it the opposite of Seinfeld,” Helliar laughs.
“I judge it on how it makes me feel more than anything else.”
Dave Hughes has been making us laugh for years, most recently with his absurd guesses on The Masked Singer Australia. The droll star says
The D-Generation – an influential Australian comedy troupe that included Magda Szubanski, Rob Sitch and Marg Downey – inspired him to try comedy. These days, he loves watching Family Guy [Apple iTunes] with his 12-year- old son Rafferty.
“He laughs hard. I love that we have the same sense of humour. I’m also a massive fan of Alan Partridge – the middle-aged radio and TV personality [played by] Steve Coogan [who became a breakout star of British comedy in the 1990s, starting with TV series I’m Alan Partridge – streaming, Britbox – in ’ 97]. So relatable for me.”
Hughes’ radio co-host Ed Kavalee shares his tastes, favouring The D-Generation and Australian satire series from the 1990s The Late Show.
“I urge people to YouTube ‘Santo the Magnificent’,”
Kavalee says of one of his favourite Late Show skits featuring Santo Cilauro as a hopeless magician.
And for comedian and The Masked Singer Australia judge Urzila Carlson, there’s nothing funnier than The Golden Girls [Apple TV+].
“And if anyone around my age says any other comedy,
I want to fight that person,” she says with a laugh.
“I do also enjoy a good panel show. I feel like I have to say that because that’s what I appear on most on telly… and I quite enjoy employment.”
New seasons of Insecure and CurbYourEnthusiasm premiere
tomorrow on Binge.