After their hilarious skewering of the cooking show in 'The Katering Show' the Kates (McLennan & McCartney) have turned their satirical eyes towards Breakfast TV. More specifically, Breakfast TV hosted by plucky women who "speak for all ladies" and cram their near-misandry feminist ideals down the gullet of their audience.
The Kates are the two hosts of a show so bad it's been given a 3 AM time-slot. They are polar opposites of each other. McLennan is full of vim, vigour, and likely an unhealthy dose of caffeine, with a giant smile on her face at (almost) all times. McCartney is tired, bored, and looks like she wants out of this show as soon as possible. Yet they both endure to create a show, probably just so they can get their pay-cheques. In both their characterization and their dialogue, they portray self-aware, satirically over-the-top versions of themselves, lampooning the falsity of the typical hosts of this kind of show, and they consistently bring up "girl power" ideals at inappropriate moments, much like the shows they're parodying.
Not only is this show funny because of the hosts and the satire, but the actual gags are top-notch absurdist humour. Firstly, the ridiculous obstacle course of a set, the amount of segments they seem to try and cram into each episode, the bizarre guests ranging from normal people with strange jobs to just weird people in general, and the people outside the street view window (once again, at 3 AM). Not to mention the constant goofs from the people behind the camera, from the camera mistakes, to the editing/vision mixing mistakes, graphics, timing, and just generally a crew who has no idea what they're doing, especially their unassuming intern.
This is a show where both the subtleties and the not-so-subtleties work to their advantage. The two Kates know what they're doing in terms of absurd satirical humour. I look forward to watching the rest of the series.
