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Getting a celebrity to appear in your programme may seem like a brilliant way to spice-up a dull script, but unless there's some kind of point to it (like Dave Hughes' cameo on Shaun Micallef's New Year's Rave, where Hughes actually let everyone take the piss out of him properly) or the celebrity you've hired brings something to the role other than their very presence, then you've pretty much wasted everyone's time. That, and our voters really love Tony Martin.
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He won this award last year, and he's joint winner this year...yes, there really is a lot of love for Tony Martin around these parts. Still without a regular paid gig, Martin nevertheless kept busy in 2009 - he launched a website, put a new book out, seemed to be on TV or radio every other week, and even started tweeting - but his win here isn't about what he did do, it's about what he wasn't able to do. The people who voted for him here want someone - anyone - in the Australian entertainment industry to give him a proper TV or radio gig. Even if it's Tony Martin reads out the White Pages on the most obscure Foxtel channel going.
It was around the time that Tonight Live got popular that people started to realise that Steve Vizard wasn't just that funny guy on the telly. Thanks to a variety of comedians and various sections of the news media, it became clear that Vizard was a...how shall we put this? A fairly ruthless businessman who forced extremely hard bargains from some of the people he worked with, and certainly borrowed a few gags and concepts from the top US tonight shows to make his show look a bit better. Since then his credibility has been further reduced by his involvement with a variety of largely shithouse comedies (Wedlocked, Bligh, The Wedge), and his admission a few years back of insider trading. Plenty of stuff for even The Jesters team to stick their teeth into, right? No, apparently. Despite some potentially good scenes where Vizard and Mick Molloy traded insults, no one seemed prepared to take things any further than that...which meant that like the rest of The Jesters, his cameo was pretty much a waste of time.
Also nominated here, but not really able to stand up to the might of our voter's love for Tony Martin and hatred for Steve Vizard, was the concept of comedians awkwardly shoe-horned into roles in their mate's sitcoms. Think John Clarke being given no funny lines whatsoever in Kath & Kim, or Amanda Keller anytime she's ever appeared in a comedy ever. In 2009 there were plenty of celebrity cameos in sitcoms, from Mark Mitchell in The Jesters to the "has beens" who always seemed to up for the same ads as Peter Moon in Whatever Happened To That Guy?. Celebrity cameos can be funny, and indeed many of the ones in the surprisingly good Whatever Happened To That Guy? were, but who needs yet another celebrity playing an arrogant - and far less funny - version of themselves (Mitchell in The Jesters), or to see one of your favourite comedians giving a wooden acting performance in a bit part (The Librarians, episode 6 particularly). If the dialogue's not good to start with, one of your comedy mates probably won't make it any better: just write a better script for heaven's sake!
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The 'Pissing On Their Legacy' Award