Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell

I recently saw the premiere of Shaun Micallef's return to the ABC.

Shaun is in his element in this show. His opening bit was hilarious. I laughed so hard I often had to rewind it to hear the next joke.

I am thrilled to see Francis Greenslade and Roz Hammond return to working with Shaun. I like the new additions to the team as well.

To a degree the show reminded me of 'The Colbert Report'and 'The Daily Show', with fake interviews but more sketches. It works well. I'm a fan of Colbert but as an Australian I often find myself wanting a show lampooning Australian news and politics.

If you liked 'Newstopia' then you'll enjoy this show.

'MAD AS' IS THE SHOW I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! Thank You Shaun and Co.

As the title states, this used to be good satire but i struggled through most of 2019's episodes and i decided to lay it to test with the 2020 ones airing now. the comedy is just too stupid, and i use that word without a justified preceding f-word. its watchable if you skip all the sketch pieces and sketch interviews with terrible comedy acting by all involved and just watch Shaun's solo bits. Aussie comedy really needs to pull itself up in 2020. it's a damn shame.

(Review updated after 2018 season).

If you know Shaun Micallef's previous work - The Micallef Program/Programme/Pogram, Newstopia plus his work on Full Frontal - you'll know what to expect. Clever dialogue-driven comedy, where every word matters and the joke often hinges on a single word. Throw in some Pythonesque left-field randomness and there you have his modus operandi.

Now put that in a fake newscast environment (a la The Colbert Report) and any item of news is a source for comedy.

Very intelligent comedy...with a touch of the absurd throw in.

This was, until about 2016/17. At a point Micallef either got reminded by ABC senior management that the ABC is in the Liberal-bashing business or he himself decided to pander to the average ABC viewer. From then on, instead of being clever, politically-neutral satire the show became clearly left-wing and the originality went out of it, being reduced to empty, tiresome, predictable jibes.

I got through 10 minutes of the 2018 season before giving up.

9/10 for the first 5-6 seasons, 3/10 thereafter.

This show has been getting sharper every season. An update for the sake of the reviewer who thinks the ABC is constantly 'liberal bashing'. It's become as much a tool for the LNP as Murdoch, Seven, Nine and Fairfax. Micalleff is about the only person on here aside from Sammy J who calls out the corruption and awful governing of the party who are going to be voted out this Saturday. A person who claims to value 'balance' would appreciate a jibe at any politician or party, as long as the dig was fair and justified, because what they said or did was actually bad. Satire is meant to poke fun at and condemn awful behaviour and speech from corrupt, inept and nasty politicians, regardless of their 'side.' It's easy to imagine that when Labor is in again, the show will poke fun at them, too, much like how Jon Stewart, after criticising Bush, started criticising Obama after he won the election. Either way, it's not the person criticising the politician who's bad, it's the bad politician. If we don't hold them to account, we aren't participating in our prized democracy.

Micalleff is an intelligent satirist and very enjoyable to watch, much like Sammy J. I would say like The Weekly, but that's lost its way this year.

It's up and down. Not every joke or skit always hits, but when they do they hit a home run.