The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) - The drunk tilted room sketch.

[Wikipedia]: The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) is an Australian sketch comedy TV series hosted by Shaun Micallef, and written by Micallef and Gary McCaffrie, that ran from 1998 to 2001 on ABC TV. It was known as The Micallef Program in its first series, The Micallef Programme in its second series and The Micallef Pogram in its third series.

The show took the loose guise of a fictional variety show that featured mock interviews, host monologues, audience participation segments and competitions, bookending character-based sketches. The characters of Milo Kerrigan and David McGhan from Micallef's previous sketch series Full Frontal also reappeared in this series. The show was written and produced by Micallef and Gary McCaffrie: the small number of writers and small cast, as well as the different requirements of the ABC, meant that the show was far more surreal and abrupt than Full Frontal - the humour was frequently bizarre (notoriously evidenced by Attentione il est MYRON!, a recurring parody of European claymation programs).

As host, Micallef adopted the persona of an arrogant, thin-skinned, self-obsessed pedant. His monologues featured a large amount of deliberately confusing wordplay (garden path sentences; for example, "As a Chinese person who is bilingual might say, "gute Nacht!"), and his interviews would revolve around him confusing and belittling his guests, both real and fictional: these included John Clarke, Tim Freedman of The Whitlams, Tim Rogers, and Andrew Denton. To balance this out, however, Micallef tended to play shabby and frequently crazy "low status" characters (such as Kerrigan) in the sketches, and was himself frequently humiliated by the other members of the cast.

As the program went on, it became stranger and more surreal. The third series was particularly notable for this, and gained much media coverage from a sketch that never made it to air. The sketch was supposed to show Shaun introducing a segment in which war hero Weary Dunlop would be shown as a transsexual and a few seconds into the sketch it would cut to the ABC switchboard lighting up with complaints. However, the sketch got complaints before it was even shown and subsequently never went to air - the irony of the situation lost on many of those who complained. Micallef made light of this by putting several sketches in his book Smithereens that ended with Dunlop entering in a dress. The sketch is however contained in the DVD release of the third series.

Although the show made frequent use of minor celebrities, it shied away from direct parodies of television or actors, although the David E. McGhan character performed in stereotypical medical and legal dramas in the first two series. Its use of popular culture was better demonstrated in the opening show of the third series, where chanteuse Julie Anthony gave a strange rendition of Mi-Sex's 1979 hit "Computer Games" while a small dog pulled around a plastic cart with a single orange in it.

The show featured the talents of Wayne Hope, Roz Hammond, Francis Greenslade and, in the third series, Daina Reid. Micallef would go on to host a short-lived "real" variety show, Micallef Tonight, for the Nine Network in 2003.

Genre: Satire.
Format: Variety, Sketch.
Presented by: Shaun Micallef.
Country of origin: Australia.
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/abccontentsales/s1168549.htm

Category:

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Tags:

• The_Micallef_P(r)ogram(me)
• Shaun_Micallef
• ABC_TV
• Australia
• 1998
• 2001

[Breatherable]

Brilliant stuff, thanks for the post.

[Rokas84]

@lolwtfd00d

we are all very happy for you...

[lolwtfd00d]

i GOT A BONER