Micallef Tonight

In the glut of Aussie tonight shows, Micallef shines. While Rove Live panders to the masses with its 'nice' humour, all likeability and no edge, Micallef Tonight takes the genre, tears it into pieces and satirises it. It is a parody while still being a significant contribution to the tonight show stable.

While Rove seems to have been watching too many tapes of Conan O'Brien recently (to the point of Rove blatantly copying his cat hisses, "I'm cool baby's" and camera sparring), Micallef has obviously seen Conan and allowed him to influence his show much more indirectly. As a result (like O'Brien) Micallef includes sketches in his show - slotting them between guests and sometimes even during interviews. He has embraced O'Brien's sense of the visual in his comedy (this is TV, after all) - so expect to see many more cartoons, puppets and clay-mation. Like O'Brien, rather than see the real world and pass comment on that (like Letterman does so brilliantly), Micallef creates his own comic world and cuts loose within that. And at last we see a live Australian TV show that has edge - and has the bravery to put their plums on the line and say 'we're now going to commit to this sketch and laugh if you want, but we don't care.' Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien and Letterman have the same philosophy.

I don't understand all these allusions people are making between Shaun's High Horse and '...what the?'. They're both completely different. Let's get one thing straight - all observational humour comes from the same basic premise - 'what's the deal with that?, did you ever notice this/that, etc...different comedians say it differently obviously. Then they riff off their thoughts on why something is so absurd (Seinfeld - parakeets flying into mirrors, Jimeoin - thongs, Micallef - rapid acting Panadol). It can take on many guises - The Late Show (D-Gen) had 'What's All That About' with Tony and Mick, who both later did their radio show with segments called 'Please explain', 'Cocobananas' (ie - that makes me cocobananas) and 'nutbags' (what a nutbag). All of this material could come under the same heading but is presented differently.

Anyway - 'what the...' is NOT observational humour - it's 'Phunny Photos' from Hey Hey It's Saturday, with a few misspellings thrown in for good measure. But that's how you win Gold Logies, apparently. Be nice - don't offend anyone or try anything different so middle Australia will like you. Rove's now in fine company with his other banal friends, Daryl Somers and Bert Newton. Rove Live jumped the shark in the first episode, but I thought the episode in which he interviewed Heidi Fleiss dragged it down to a new level. Tacky. Could you imagine any other tonight show host doing that - Leno, Letterman, O'Brien? It doesn't exactly reek of class to me.

I loved Micallef Tonight - a few dead spots but it showed real spirit and creativity and that's what counts for a show to have legs. Francis Greenslade is still a ham though. Even on the old show. Not funny.

Rove Live is Rove Dead. Micallef: 9/10.

The first episode of micallef tonight, i thought was reasonably funny and more original than anything else that i had seen on australian tv. But you notice by about the third episode that he reuses the same jokes over and over again exept he could sometimes re-word them. and you cant help but to see some similatatery's in the set up of the whole show, compared to Letterman's show.

Letterman has that musical Paul guy and his little orchestra, where as micallef has the unfunny guy with the curly hair on the piano with an orchestra with him, fancy that. The layout of the set is pratically the same as well, Letterman has a desk with a couple of chairs next to him and yes so did micallef.

Shaun Micallef doesnt belong on a tonight show he would be better off in some kind of sit-com. Even though it was broadcast live, if they didnt say it was you could probaly never tell. As the whole cast of the show was un-animated and you could easily see that they had tried to perfect every line that the writers had put down on script for them. They could of at least been a little more spontanious.

The Micallef tonight show, did not communicate properly with the audience and shaun himself has no interviewing skill's what so ever. And of corse if was axed becasue no one really watched it, denton's show may not of pulled in the big names but it did pull in the ratings and out rated the unfunny show of Micallef tonight

of course comparisons between rove [live] and micallef tonite are going to come up but all i can say is that the latter is the clear winner.

are people not sick of rove yet? his won his gold logie, i guess he has done his job. he doesnt seem to be able to get over the fact that he actually WON... which makes his show so lame at times.

Micallef is, in my opinion very orignial. i never watched his ABC show so i cant really compare his ABC humour to his channel 9 humour. I love his special guests such as (i think it was in the first show) the chicken parmisiana, because he couldnt get any of the performers from the casino... and just from tonights opening remarks: "I dont know what you made of the news this week, but this is what i made of it..." then goes to a shot of a paper mache like life-sized model of a man. i could not stop laughing.

this is what makes micallef so good. he is silly, stupid, embarrassed at himself, and seems to be extremely unprofessional. and he pulls it off, unlike rove who doesnt seem genuine.

micallef tonight makes me look forward to my monday night tv lineup and i hope that it lasts.

Oddball, strange humour is oddly clever and strangely endearing. No toilet, low-brow humour here (with the exception of a vomit-Matrix gag, which he was clearly embarrased by and which he asked the audience not to applaude; they did anyway) just clever, clean, odd fun. It's also very, very funny. Micallef Tonight deserves a lot more attention then Micallef Tonight gets.

"If you're like me, then it's probable your a clone with my exact same DNA."

"Worried about dry skin? Concerned about wrinkles? Well, visit a burns unit and get some perspective"

"If you want to get Donald Bradman's hat back in Australia, send money to this address. OR if you want the hat to stay where it is, send your money to this address, and we'll give the money to World Vision" (to people who actually need it; this wasn't said, but it was implied)

To embarassed guests- "Yes, well, a good story, and well told!"

Only 13 episodes and this show was unfairly, unceremoniously canned. It is evident from the support it gets from fans posting to the Internet that Micallef has a loyal following and deservedly so. He is truly the funniest man in Australia, and possibly the funniest in the world (but I have not seen the comedic talents of the Nepalese or Madagasgarians, so I could be jumping to conclusions here). Either way, the show had brilliant moments, but to try and balance satire and the genuine article is a difficult mix. I think Micallef was restrained by the conventional expectations of what he "should" do on a talk show, but was at his best when he just did what he wanted to do. I think it is clear he did not have complete creative control over this show, nor a budget to do it justice. Shaun, please don't stay away from Aussie telly for too long. You are too good and too loved!!!