Good News Week was a satirical news-based comedy quiz show on Australian television which ran from 1996 to 2000. Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (individuals, organizations, states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Hosted by former Doug Anthony All Stars member Paul McDermott, GNW (as the show was sometimes known) had a similar format to the British show Have I Got News For You. The show aired first on the ABC, before a move to Network Ten and the adoption of a more light-entertainment feel. The Doug Anthony All Stars (DAAS) were an Australian musical comedy group comprising Tim Ferguson, Richard Fidler and Paul McDermott. ... Paul McDermott (born May 13, 1962) is an Australian musical comedian and television host. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... The Australian Broadcasting Corporation or ABC is Australias national non-profit public broadcaster. ... Network Ten, or Channel Ten, is one of Australias three commercial television networks, available in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in Australia. ...

Two spinoff series were "Good News Weekend" (1998) and "Good News Week Night Lite" (1999).

Image File history File links Goodnewsweek. ... Julie McCrossin (born 1954, Sydney) is an Australian radio broadcaster, journalist, comedian and campaigner for womens and gay rights. ... Paul McDermott (born May 13, 1962) is an Australian musical comedian and television host. ... Mikey Robins is an Australian media personality. ...

Format

GNW was a game show in name only. Over a series of rounds, the two competing teams would attempt to score "points" by answering questions about the week's news events. One game, for example, would have the teams attempting to identify a picture from a zoomed-in detail, while another game would feature team members conveying news headlines in charades form. Points were awarded, but the emphasis was on banter and satire as well as interaction with the live studio audience. Charades or charade is a word guessing game. ... 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ...

McDermott opened each show with a monologue in the style of an American late-night host. These monologues would begin with the line "Welcome to Good News Week, and the big news?" and would then dissect newsworthy events in a humorous manner. He would end by throwing the cards away, saying "and that's the good news!" A monologue, pronounced monolog, is a speech made by one person speaking his or her thoughts aloud or directly addressing a reader, audience, or character. ...

6 panellists appeared on each show, divided into two teams. Teams were captained by former radio comedian Mikey Robbins (frequently referred to as "The Fatman" for his girth) and humorist Julie McCrossin and consisted of a combination of comedians, media personalities, politicians and "special guests" (often from overseas). The rivalry between Robbins and McCrossin was always played to maximum effect, with each captain objecting vocally to any points McDermott awarded the opposition. Robbins usually sat on the left, and McCrossin on the right. Mikey Robins is an Australian media personality. ... Julie McCrossin (born 1954, Sydney) is an Australian radio broadcaster, journalist, comedian and campaigner for womens and gay rights. ...

At the end of the show, the winners were announced, but no prizes are awarded. A couple of times, McDermott himself won, having given himself the points during a particular round to stop a dispute between the teams.

Good News Week also had a spin-off show in Thursday nights during 1999, entitled GNW Nite Lite. It featured the well-known panellists, as well as different games (the tube game), and of course, Flacco and The Sandman. Flacco is a fictional character played by Paul Livingstone, who is also an author and political cartoonist. ... Stephen Abbott (Steve Abbott) is an Australian comedian and author who is famous for his portrayal of oddball characters, particularly one known as The Sandman. ...

The Good News Week Team also hosted and appeared in several of the annual Comedy Debates held for the Melbourne Comedy festival. These debates were extremely over the top in performance and usually invoved a big performance or stunt by each team captain at the end. The winner was decided by audience applause.

Regular Guests

Adam Spencer

Mathematician, comedian and television personality Adam Spencer was a frequent guest, often teamed with Natasha Stott Despoja and McCrossin. Adam Spencer is an Australian radio DJ and media personality. ...

Natasha Stott Despoja

As the then-youngest Australian federal politician, Natasha Stott Despoja was often called on to lend an air of gravitas to the show. Teamed with Spencer, she rarely achieved this aim. Stott Despoja's appearances are often excerpted on Australian television to demonstrate the youth appeal of the Australian Democrats of the day. Natasha Stott Despoja Natasha Jessica Stott Despoja (born 9 September 1969), Australian politician, has been an Australian Democrats member of the Australian Senate for South Australia since November 1995. ... The Australian Democrats, who are often known simply as The Democrats in Australia, are a progressive social liberal party. ...

Margaret Scott

Tasmanian author Margaret Scott was an audience favourite, frequently appearing on Robbins' team and remaining silent for most of the show. At a key moment, however, she would reveal a depth of knowledge on the subject and leave McDermott comically annoyed that the correct answer had been reached and no more jokes could be made. Robbins often made light of this, at one point commenting that "We could have saved five minutes if we'd just asked Margaret". Capital Hobart Government Constitutional monarchy Governor William Cox Premier Paul Lennon (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 5  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $16,114 (7th)  - Product per capita  $33,243/person (8th) Population (End of September 2006)  - Population  489,600 (6th)  - Density  7. ... Margaret Scott (1934 - August 29, 2005) was a Tasmanian author and poet. ...

• Other regular guests included Peter Berner, Amanda Keller, Tanya Bulmer, Anthony Morgan, Rod Quantock, Rove McManus, Johanna Griggs, Kate Fischer and Mark Trevorrow.

Peter Berner, Australian comedian. ... Amanda Keller (born 1962) is the name of the host of ABC (Australia)s Mondo Thingo. ... Rod Quantock (born 19??) is an Australian stand-up comedian and writer. ... John Rove McManus (born January 21, 1974) is a Gold Logie Award winning Australian variety show host, comedian and owner of the production company Roving Enterprises. ... Johanna Griggs (born 1973) is a former Australian swimmer who represented Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand in 1990, winning a bronze medal. ... Kate Fischer, Australian model and actress, one of the stars of the movie Sirens. ... Mark Trevorrow is an Australian comedian, television host and media personality. ...

Non-Guests

Bronwyn Bishop

The Federal politician Bronwyn Bishop is possibly the show's most notable non-guest, in that while frequently invited she never appeared on the show. Of course, other notable figures share this honour, but Bishop is the only one known to have accepted an invitation, only to pull out at the last minute, forcing producers to find a new guest at short notice. The following week, one of the articles in Paul's monologue referred to a new type of camouflage suit, and Paul mentioned that "in fact, Bronwyn Bishop was wearing one on last week's show". Hon Bronwyn Bishop Bronwyn Kathleen Bishop (born 19 October 1942), Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since February 1994, representing the Division of Mackellar, New South Wales. ... Countershaded Ibex are almost invisible in the Israeli desert. ...

Games

The games played during the course of the show included the following:

Bad Street Theatre

The Charades game featured one team member attempting to convey a convoluted news story in charades form, generally to gales of laughter from the audience. One famous topic involved Dolly the cloned sheep and resulted in a charades version of in vitro fertilisation being performed. While the game nominally adhered to the rules of charades, there were exceptions. For example - during the show's 1998 appearance at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Irish comedian Ed Byrne was called up to perform for his team (captained by McCrossin). He noted that they were "getting the guy with the best accent to do mime". Mikey Robbins, as ever jumping on the opposition, announced to the crowd, "As for the accent, he's from Geelong." Byrne then assisted Julie McRossin's team by giving verbal clues. Mikey Robbins complained that, "He's talking!", but the tables were turned by Byrne's teammate, Rod Quantock, who responded, "Yes, but he's doing it in an accent!" Once, Anthony Morgan requested (and was allowed) to make "arf-arf" noises to show his eye being gouged out by a dog. When the opposing team's mime-artist had to mime artificial insemination in males through the use of blood transfusions, Morgan offered him the advice, "You can make arf-arf noises." Look up dolly in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see clone. ... Ed Byrne Ed Byrne (born April 10, 1972 in Swords, Dublin) is a stand up comedian from Ireland and is probably best known as being the voice of the Carphone Warehouse adverts. ... Rod Quantock (born 19??) is an Australian stand-up comedian and writer. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Who Wants to Sit Down the Front...In A Chair?

Near the end of the show's run, this game was created as a parody of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire concept. Molly Ringwald did once participate in the game, however, and was asked the question, "Which of the following four films did Molly Ringwald not appear in?" She used her phone-a-friend, which was meant to ring a phone on team-mate McCrossin's table. However, it rang instead on Robbins', who simply said, "Molly, it's over, stop calling." Logo from the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers very large cash prizes for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions. ...

WARREN

The WARREN game was named after the Warren Commission that investigated the JFK assassination in the US, where the Secret Service made numerous modifications to their security procedures. Arguably the favourite game of the audience, Warren involved the teams being given three newspaper headlines with the same name in them. The name had been blanked out and replaced with the name Warren and the aim of the game was to guess what name had previously existed. The introduction of this game evolved to have McDermott announce, "And now, it's time for our favourite game..." to which the audience would respond "WARREN!" McDermott would then explain the rationale behind the game, ending with the line "And the name has been replaced with..." eliciting the same response from the audience as before. This opening resulted in one guest commenting that, "We don't want a rabbit warren here", after a particularly raucous welcome for the game. A headline is text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it. ...

The humour of the game was also contained in the choice of headlines, often along the lines of "Warren gives birth to twins" or other impossibilities for someone named Warren. As a result, the suggestions as to who Warren may be were often well off track.

Scattegories

Another game invented for the Channel 10 incarnation of the show, Scattegories saw players climb into the cylindrical sound-proof booth (which was no such thing, but did allow McDermott to pretend he couldn't hear the contestant). 26 pieces of A4 paper were circulated with letters on them, which the player had to catch one of, and then answer questions, always beginning their answer with that letter. Ross Noble played the most famous game of Scattegories ever (on the legendary "Springy Ninja" episode), and asked at the beginning of the game, "After the show can I fill this up with oil, put on luminous clothing and pretend I'm a lava lamp?" Ross Noble, born 6 June 1976 an English stand-up comedian, raised in Cramlington, Northumberland. ...

Buzzers of Death

Buzzers of Death was a quiz segment which had McDermott holding two exposed and "dangerous" wires, connected to buzzers on each team's table. When a buzzer was pressed, the appropriate side of McDermott's wires would explode in a shower of sparks. At its heart it was simply a multiple-choice game, with the teams given three options and having to pick the correct answer, and buzz in first. It was a very strict rule that you were not allowed to buzz in until the question had been asked, however, neither team held to this often. On the 1998 New Year's Eve episode (which proved to be the last episode ever on the ABC), McDermott "crossed the wires", making the set explode. This was simply an excuse for a break in the show where he and Fiona Horne could sing their duet "Shut Up/Kiss Me". Later, on Channel 10, the crossing of wires would be used frequently as an excuse to destroy the set. Fiona Horne is an Australian singer, rock musician and Wiccan. ...

Strange But True

Strange But True was the closing game of nearly every episode of the show. At the beginning of the show each team were given three clues to a recent "strange, but true" news story - for example, Mikey's team were once given a frozen turkey, a packet of ANZAC biscuits, and a 'nuclear warhead'. The link, which the team had to put together at the end of the show, was that the turkey represented the nation Turkey (which Doug Mulray kept trying to "invade" with the warhead), the ANZAC biscuits represented ANZAC troops and the warhead represented a submarine. The story was that a recent revelation showed that an attempted attack on Turkey by ANZACs in a submarine during WW1 was an unmitigated disaster.

Odd One Out

Odd One Out was based on the children's game of the same name. Four identities (people, things, shows) were shown and one of them did not belong, and the teams had to work out which one. One of the more famous games of this was when the Pope, Reverend Fred Nile, Japanese whalers and the Doug Anthony All Stars (referred to as 'an obscure comedy trio') appeared as the options. After the contestants harangued Paul for how he looked in the picture for a good five or six minutes, Poppy King finally announced she had the answer, which was this - "The Pope is closely associated with someone who walked on water. Fred Nile has a thing about Noah, who has a thing about water. The Japanese fishermen fish in water, and 'that obscure comedy trio' sank without a trace." McDermott promptly threw the game to the other team. The Doug Anthony All Stars (DAAS) were an Australian musical comedy group comprising Tim Ferguson, Richard Fidler and Paul McDermott. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ...

Seven Days In Seven Seconds

Seven Days In Seven Seconds was a game in which seven one-second video clips were played from news shows in the previous week. Points were awarded for correctly identifying the story related to each clip.

See also

• List of Australian television series

This is a list of Australian television series and television programs. ...

References

Good News Week : Unseen and obscene (video), 1998. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

External link

• Good News Week at the Internet Movie Database