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It's hard to know when to quit. It's even harder to go out on a high note. Common decency and a shared sense of humanity demands that we acknowledge the all-too-human failings of our entertainment figures and forgive them when they try to stay in the spotlight after their time has passed. Oh wait, no it doesn't.
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Usually when Working Dog appear in this category it's because they have so very far to fall from. The Late Show, Frontline, The Castle...back in the 90s they were the titans of Australian comedy, largely because they knew what was funny and they made shows that put being funny first. And then...well, not so much, but that was kind of to be expected: tastes change, people get older, being funny all the time is hard work - hey, it happens. But in 2008 they went back to flat-out comedy and made The Hollowmen, a series that started rough but by the end was firing on enough cylinders to make comparisons with Frontline not entirely out of the question. So in 2009 they gave up on that and went back to the increasingly tired Thank God You're Here, where a bigger budget and a new network couldn't hide the fact that everyone knew where this was going and they'd already been there before.
A GENERIC BLONDE FEMALE PRESENTER-TYPE STICKS HER HEAD INTO THE CORNER OF FRAME.BLONDE
Hey Daryl, as your current female sidekick, any chance I could actually do something before the show's over?
JOHN BLACKMAN
Wasn't getting Daryl's coffee enough for you? Where's the gratitude! That's how Jo-Beth Taylor got her start and look at her now!
SOMERS
No John, she has a point. Here, read out the next paragraph - that'll give the guys in the band time to come up with some vaguely sexist remarks so they can get their heads on camera.
BLONDE
It's a good two decades too late for Hey Hey it's Saturday to be nominated here: Hey Hey... died as anything more than a vehicle for Somers' massive all-consuming ego the day Ossie quit, and even then the true golden age was a good half decade in the past. But coming back for a pair of reunion specials could have maybe been a chance to remind people of the glory days - right up until the moment that Daryl started talking up the massive groundswell of public demand that had brought him back to our screens. Really? It was the Facebook campaign that brought the show back right at that moment, and not the fact that former Hey Hey... kingpin Gavan Disney had been cleared of long-standing rape charges only a few weeks earlier? Gee, it'd ruin the feel-good public support narrative if it turned out that Hey Hey...'s return was held up waiting to find out if various sordid tales about its long-time producer were true, wouldn't it?
BLONDE
How'd I do?
SOMERS
Is Jeannie Little free for next week? Here, give me that!
DARYL GRABS BACK THE SCRIPT.And my coffee was cold.
Paul Hogan used to be funny, now doesn't care about being funny, then made a movie where he's funny just enough of the time to remind you that he could still be funny. But he doesn't want to be funny. Yep, that's pretty disappointing.
Next category!
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Most Disappointing Comedian(s)