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Micallef explains Release the Kraken, zany Character Names, EPG Synopsis & those Goldfish.

As the show bows out from ABC, Shaun Micallef reveals the fuzzy logic behind all of the Mad as Hell hallmarks.

EXCLUSIVE:

On Wednesday Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell reaches its last ever episode.

10 years ago, the sketch show would begin looking at the news cycle through sketch -avoiding any cross-over with Media Watch or a Chaser 2012 vehicle, The Hamster Wheel.

Julia Gillard was Prime Minister at the time. The show has continued under the reign of PMs Rudd, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison and now, Albanese.

“We’ve come from Labor to Labor. The circle is complete, like Star Wars,” Micallef tells TV Tonight.

“Originally, for the first couple of episodes, we had real interviews at the end of it. I interviewed the director of Mabo, Rachel Perkins. I also interviewed Masha Gessen who’s a critic of Putin and Robyn Nevin, but that never went to air, because it was so weird. My light approach to interviewing just didn’t really work with the context of the show.

“But the timing’s about the same. I probably have sped up a little bit, but it’s not that different. There’s even some sketches I thought would fit quite easily into this season.

“Maybe people have just now accepted that’s the language, the rhetoric and the grammar of the show.”

Micallef has graciously taken the time to comment on some of the show’s unique hallmarks and why they exist.

The Set:

“The desk is the centrepiece, which I don’t think we’ve looked at for years, but very early on we could see it overhead in a bird’s eye view shot. It’s the Yin Yang symbol, which was supposed to represent balance and harmony. I had a pin on my lapel, the eternity symbol, the Om Shanti symbol, about harmony. I had a glass half full and half empty on the desk. So it was up to people to interpret.

“I’m not sure we honoured that. You tend to throw rocks at who’s in power. There’s more of them, there’s more reason for it as well.”

The set is adorned with former show momentos include a neon sign from 2003 variety Micallef Tonight, a ‘Tyrell Corp’ chair from Talkin’ Bout Your Generation.

“There’s also some stuff on the shelf from the The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) …Groucho Marx, they’re just little things of mine, but we never hide. It’s like doing the show from my room at home.

“People wanted to know whether the goldfish were alive. They were once … we popped down to a Pet Shop Glenhuntly Road and shot some fish with a with a digital camera. No permission, the fish didn’t sign any waivers or anything! We’ve been using the same the same footage for 11 years. The goldfish are there because people have short memories, (so does) the media and history… if we have short memories, we don’t learn from our mistakes.”

Zany Character Names:

“That’s a little signature from each writer. (Writer) Gary McCaffrie for example will pick movie star names just because he thinks it’s funny. He’ll just name a character Liam Gallagher or Dianne Keaton, just for fun. They’ve got nothing to do with the character. Or he’ll pick SANFL football players from history just to amuse himself.

“I’ll tend to just cram together interesting syllables but he does the rude ones. Last night we had a Susan Lay avatar and her name was Lalinda Sassoon. So they have something of the original name in there but we kind of turn it inside out. Some other writers just call them Doorknob Chair…. whatever their eye falls onto.”

Did he have a personal favourite?

“Vomatoria Catchment was always nice -a character played by Roz during the Labor years. She was a bit like Prue MacSween -except I think Vomatoria precedes Prue McSween. Like Draymella Burt preceded Amanda Stoker by about seven years or something like that. A lot of people say ‘That’s clearly Amanda Stoker .’ No, Amanda Stoker is actually Draymella Burt.”

Release the Kraken:

“I think originally when Clash of the Titans came out we must have rederred to it at some point. I think I think Francis (Greenslade) and I played Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson, just for our own amusement. I think the next next time we did it, the Kraken probably did come out from a doorway or something like that.

“We ended those sketches with some contorted, contrived way of getting something that sounds like ‘Release the Kraken!'”

“Mmm, dat’s nice”:

“‘Dat’s nice’ comes from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band used to play in a pre-Python series that Michael Palin and Terry Jones  were in called Do Not Adjust Your Set in the 1960s. I’m The Urban Spaceman is one of their songs. Neil Innes was in the band. It’s a nod to them, as are most things. Gary and I love comedy, so the show, even now, represents a whole bunch of things that we just like.”

Bunnings giveaways:

“Gary stumbled across that during Newstopia (SBS 2007). We had lunatic products, basically. He just likes the form where you just talk nonsense, and then then you throw three lunatic products in.”

The EPG synopsis:

“I’m required to have them submitted about a month before. But of course, it’s a topical show that turns around every week. So really itwould read ‘Shaun and friends make jokes …’ So just to amuse myself, I used to make them all up. Then we’d get the writers to write some each. Now I just cut & paste The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mr. Ed, or the most recent one is Lost in Space. The new version of Lost in Space, not the old version. I think.”

Smooth Operator:

“Malcolm Turnbull, who was then Minister for Communications, was appearing on SKY News with David Speers and being very charming, almost flirting with him. It was sickening to watch just how comfortable they were with each other.”

The Chattanooga Choo Choo:

“Whenever Barnaby Joyce is mentioned, we play Chattanooga Choo Choo. But that’s the song! (Sings) ‘Barnaby Joyce is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?’ It makes sense to us!”

The Michaelia Cash walk:

“We’re obliged to do it. We found two lovely pieces of footage of Michaelia marching insanely. Because (news crews) say ‘Could you just walk for a little bit of overlay?’

“I love the fact that she’s so enthusiastic. She’s probably a lovely person, very accommodating. And then we do that to her.”

Lamentable Puns:

“That’s such a lovely character from Tosh (Greenslade). I love the way that he every time we start the sketch he’s hopeful that it will be a celebration of his work because his character is so optimistic.

“Of course it’s always going to be bagging him but he just can’t quite understand why we’re doing it to him. It’s a really lovely acting job from Tosh.

“It’s funny because the puns have been harder for us to find. We find them over the Christmas break because I guess the sub-editors are off. There’s probably lesser talents at play.

“We never read the articles, just the headlines. But they’re very hard to find now.”

Grammar in general:

“That’s more Gary’s influence because he’s such a pedant but I enjoy as well. He’s better at picking it up than I am because he knows more stuff.

“One of my bugbears is people who say ‘haitch’ instead of ‘aitch’. The whole show is built on pedantry -we don’t deal with big issues at all, only tiny little things that don’t matter.”

Mad as Hell-icopter:

“There’s no advantage of being in a helicopter. (Emily Taheny) can hold the fort on any topic, while flying a chopper.

“She is astonishing. She really does ‘disappear.’ She’s one of our best actors in this country. It’s a curse and a blessing. First of all, it’s great for us because she can disappear but then people don’t say, ‘That’s Emily.’ They say, ‘Who’s that?’ or ‘Is that Roz (Hamond)? Is that a new person?’ She should be the leading actor in this country, she’s that good.

“Even Sarah Ferguson liked her character, because there have been pressures. We have had some complaints from some people who I can’t mention because I’ve already apologised to them.

“Mathias Corman texted me once saying that he likes the show and then in brackets, ‘most of it.’ And then a winking emoji. So I got a wicking emoji emoji from the the former finance minister!”

Kenneth Williams:

“I was never a great fan of the Carry On films to be honest. I always thought they were a bit rude but I did like him.”

Andrew Bolt:

“Andrew supplied us with a lot of stuff in the early days. I don’t really deal with him much now, although he did say a word recently that we latched onto.

“I don’t know whether he’d be delighted by that!:

Curiosity cul-de-sac:

“(Mystery Road: Origin) wrecked our sketch because we don’t have Mark Coles Smith anymore! We were considering getting Aaron Pedersen in to play him. I thought that’d be funny, but he wasn’t available.”

End of Season Musical Numbers:

“We’re doing one this year. It’s all in one take. It’s the most compact and simple finale possible because I don’t want to spend a whole day shooting it!”

Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell concludes 8:30pm Wednesday on ABC.

17 Responses

  1. Fantastic David covering just about everything. That’s what was so funny about it all the things we didn’t understand , the in jokes it’s the way they do it which was hilarious. I’ve gotta say my fave apart from helicopter Emily – she was brilliant – was their fake ads between the show, sometimes the funniest part when there were less funny stories that week. The way they mocked up Vera etc always had me in stitches. My absolute favorite was the genius Curiosity Cul de Sac. When I was lucky enough to see one show taping I told them and asked them to please keep bringing that back. And thank goodness they did. It’s going to be so missed.

  2. What a great interview, very interesting to hear the back story to all the different elements. Really going to miss this show, and it won’t hit me until it doesn’t air next year. He is clearly having fun with this last season, but the way things have happened, he couldn’t have picked a crazier week to bow out.

  3. So so much to love about this program: the character acting is alway excellent….Matthius, Sara Ferguson, Penny Wong etc; silly things like, “the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, ….”; the promos for ridiculous ABC shows. Clearly there is a giant space for this kind of show and realistically, only the ABC (or SBS) can accommodate. Hopefully the ABC can find some form of replacement as a refresh. Shaun ending on his terms and deservedly so.

  4. “Release The Kraken” became a internet meme as soon as the 2010 remake of Clash of The Titans put out it’s trailer. Sheldon used it in TBBT about the time Mad As Hell started.

  5. Absolutely love Tosh’s Caspar Jonquil, his Brian Pegmatite character is appropriately terrifying and of course Tosh Greensland either with or without a wig and glasses.
    Stephen Hall’s Wendell Vestibule is a classic
    I really do miss Emily doing Maggie Bathysphere and Jelly Cannister
    Christine Wheeler Brown’s Chicalydia Rowlands is chef’s kiss
    Anything Francis does is brilliant.
    I do miss Roz
    And the episode where they all swapped characters proved just how talented the entire team is

  6. I wonder what the final episode will be like. The final episode of Newstopia was a full length episode of their Inspector Rex parody sketch “Inspektor Herring”

  7. Two topics:
    (1) Not mentioned in the article is whether the little figurine (doll) standing next to the glass of water was a representation of former PM Mr Scott Morrison? After the May 2022 Election, the figurine was mussing in the September 2022 season.

    (2) under the subheading “the EPG synopsis”, the requirement of a synopsis to be submitted one month in advance of the program’s airing is not true. If you ever watch “The Drum”, the guest list is not updataed until one hour before the show’s airing.

    Thank you,
    Anthony, of exciting Belfield in the land of the Wangal and Darug peoples of the Eora Nation

  8. Magnificent insights, thanks David. I am genuinely very sad to see the back of this jewel of a show, not just because of Shaun (absolutely one of the greatest Aussie comedy talents of all time) but the incredible cast to have brought such life and tartness to the satire. Bravo, Mad As Hell!

  9. My favourite sketches:
    – Early Leo Hatred was hilarious (it was a spot on impersonation of Scott Morrison. Then they changed the character, not sure why).
    – Sir Bobo Gargle’s bottlenose dolphins / fluke bit.
    – One of Roz’s last sketches where she was using paper fans. I can’t find it on Youtube unfortunately.
    – The AFP raiding the set twice during an episode.
    – Caspar Jonquil’s quote – “I called the Civil Aviation Authority but they said it had nothing to do with them.”

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