"Skithouse" (2003)TV series 2003-2004

Directors:

Nicholas Bufalo
Daina Reid

Writers:

Ben Anderson (writer)
Kynan Barker (writer)

Seasons:

1 | unknown

Release Date:

9 February 2003 (Australia)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Sketch Comedy series featuring some absurd characters, and Australian - oriented humour

Plot Keywords:

Sketch | Fast Bowler | Australian

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

Delta Goodrem	...	Herself (1 episode, 2003)
Chris Truswell	...	Himself (1 episode, 2003)

Also Known As:

Sketchy at Best (Australia) (working title)

Runtime:

25 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Company:

Roving Enterprises

Quotes:

Various Characters: Hi, I'm Scott!
Various Characters: And I'm Tom!
Various Characters, Various Characters: And we've got you between our cheeks!

Movie Connections:

Remade as "Une journée dehouf" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Free the trees

Is this what has happened to Australian Sketch Comedy?

Australians have always had their own brand of comedy, dating back to the days of Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton and Kingswood Country just to name a few. Then flash forward a decade or two to 1987 and we were graced with what can ultimately be described as the beginning of modern sketch comedy in Australia. I'm talking about the DGeneration of course. It was the original team on this show that was responsible for pretty much every other well known Australian sketch comedy show (Fast Forward, Late Show, Comedy Company, hell even The Panel). These shows captured Australian culture and satirised it perfectly.

Unfortunately times change. The shows eventually got cancelled (or in The Panel's case, were created) and we were left with nothing. Totally Full Frontal tried to capture the success it's predecessor had on channel seven, but it didn't work and with that there was no sketch comedy on Australian TV anymore.

So what do today's writers do? They take an original concept from an English television show (short, literal sketches) and turn it around to aim it at an Australian audience. This is the birth of Skithouse.

If sketch comedy shows were Brady sisters, Skithouse would definitely be Jan. Boring, annoying and always trying to out do Marcia (which we will refer to as The Sketch Show). I'll give you an example:

There is a guy in an office, he keeps running into a wall. Someone walks by and notices what he's doing and says, "Hey (insert name here) the door is over there."

Yeah that's top notch writing.

My only question is, why is this still on television? Have we forgotten how funny we can really be? There's only one other sketch show on and that's Comedy Inc. and while it has it's moments, it's not that much better than Skithouse.

A hint of advice to the writers: BE FUNNY! You have some talented people there (Tom Gleeson and Tripod) USE THEM!