NZ On Screen: Kiwi Comedy On TV

1st April 2010

Kiwi Comedy On TV

To kick off April and the upcoming New Zealand Comedy Festival, NZ On Screen has launched a rib-tickling, borax-poking collection celebrating homegrown humour on NZ TV.

This collection highlights the caricatures, piss-takes, and sitcoms that have cracked us up, and pulled the wool over our eyes for over five decades. From turkeys in gumboots and Fred Dagg, to Billy T, bro’Town and Jaquie Brown. As critic Diana Wichtel reflects, watching the evolution of native telly laughs is, “a rich and ridiculous, if often painful, pleasure.”

30 full-length programmes and excerpts showcase classic comedy moments: Dagg, Barry Crump, Country Calendar spoofs, Flight of the Conchords, A Week of It, McPhail and Gadsby, Letter to Blanchy, a best of Billy T James’ skit selection, Pete and Pio, the Topp Twins, Gliding On, Lyn of Tawa, Funny Business, Back of the Y, Eating Media Lunch, Forgotten Silver, and more.

Accompanying the collection are written pieces from Listener TV critic Diana Wichtel and writer Roger Hall. Wichtel’s essay - The Idiot Box - surveys 50 years of NZ comedy on telly and attempts to answer the vexing question: “what’s great television comedy?”; and Hall goes back to the black and white beginning and considers on the search for the confidence to laugh at ourselves on screen.

Wichtel notes that “Television is off its head, out of its mind, erratic and ego-driven, just like the rest of us.”

So take a look in the mirror, get off your head and enjoy a sampler pack of Kiwi TV comedy.

Here’s an end thought from farm philosopher Fred Dagg as we approach the end of Daylight Saving: “You can’t play around with nature like that David, it just can’t be done.”

Fully funded by NZ On Air, NZ On Screen was established in 2008 to showcase New Zealand television, film, and music video. The Comedy Collection, and over 900 other titles, can all be seen free of charge on www.nzonscreen.com

ENDS

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