Beloved comedian Mark Humphries hosts satirical 7NEWS segment, in commercial TV news revival in Australia

Mark Humphries wants more oddballs in the Labor Party.

Having begun his latest satirical role as the anchor of The 6.57 News, as part of 7NEWS nationally each Friday night, the popular Australian comedian admits a certain frustration with the current Government’s approach to picking candidates

“I must confess that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments were very generous to me comedically, they had a rich cast of characters,” Humphries says.

“There’s people that I miss, like Senator Eric Abetz. I think that was a real loss for comedy when he left politics. I am grateful that Barnaby (Joyce) has stuck around.

“That’s my frustration with Labor, and as they’re in the lead-up to when the next election is and they’re looking for new candidates, if they could throw in a few more oddballs, they’d be doing me a big favour.”

Speaking to The West Australian before his much-anticipated debut on Friday night, Humphries is back on track lambasting Australia’s politicians, but from a different space — behind the news desk.

The three-minute weekly slot will see Humphries take on the hottest political topics of the week, weaving jokes throughout.

The move is a first for a commercial news station in Australia for many years, adding an influx of humour at the end of the week.

“The traditional 6pm News has been the same thing for a long time,” Humphries said.

“I really applaud Seven for taking a bit of a chance on something and trying to shake things up a bit — and hopefully, it’s just a different way for audiences to engage with the news.”

Despite the darker world, and amid ongoing conflicts, Humphries said satire was needed, not only to tell important stories, but to give the audience at home a voice on political matters — something regular journalists can’t always do.

“Satire allows us to, I suppose, process the news in a way that is perhaps a bit more enjoyable and more gratifying way,” he said.

“What I like being able to do is to take the events of the week and then kind of just look at them either from a different angle or repackage them in a way that a straight journalist just doesn’t have the license to do

“And just to give a bit of, perhaps a bit of the audience’s perspective on things. And (also) to sometimes be the audience’s voice in the way that a journalist really can’t.”

Humphries has spent more than a decade on Australian screens, including on ABC’s The Roast and SBS’s The Feed, where he says he refined his dry, satirical approach to current affairs.

But it was following the death of comedy icon, John Clarke, where Humphries took his biggest step — taking on the Thursday night slot held by Clarke and partner Bryan Dawe.

The sketch-style comedy gave him the flexibility to take up the news of the week however he and his writing partners saw it — press conferences, movie trailers, mockumentaries and recurring characters, including Barrabas Loins, the Nationals MP for Offalseed.

“As much as I love that variety, I must admit, I also felt I feel like I’ve kind of done everything I can,” he said.

“I really am quite relieved that this is a sort of desk piece, I’ve got my own little area.

“It’s much more in this sort of traditional form of news parody, where we are ‘down-the-barrel’ with good, quite straight delivery — but you’re throwing two clips of headlines and quotes and having jokes weaved throughout.”

Seven’s Director of News and Current Affairs Anthony De Ceglie said the segment would “cut through the political spin”.

“When the nightly news is done well, it’s always been about more than just breaking stories, the latest crime incidents, sports highlights or world events. It’s also about making you think, sometimes making you cry and hopefully making you smile,” he said.

The new segment, The 6.57pm News will run every Friday at the end of Seven’s 6pm bulletins nationally, broadcast live on Channel 7 and 7plus.

AUSTRALIAN SATIRISTS

Norman Gunston (Garry McDonald)

McDonald rose to fame on The Aunty Jack Show as an inept interviewer, Norman Gunston. Complete with a greasy combover and shaving nicks covered by tissue scraps, Gunston parodied egocentric TV personalities with his gormless interview techniques, speaking with stars such as Muhammad Ali, Mick Jagger and a bewildered Warren Beatty.

Max Gillies

Known for his ability to accurately impersonate prominent political figures — including US president Ronald Reagan, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Prime Minister Bob Hawke — Max Gillies’ parodies on his show lead the way for other satirical performances.

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe

A long-standing feature of Australian TV for almost three decades, including a 17-year stint at the end of each Thursday’s 7.30 Report on the ABC, Clarke and Dawe took on an issue of the week — using just dialogue.

The pair, in plain suits and shot against a black studio, had Dawe as an interviewer and Clarke as a weekly rotating cavalcade of guests. Politicians, senior business leaders and world figures could not escape the dry humour.

One iconic bit from 1991 — The Front Fell Off, where Clarke played Shipping Minister Bob Collins, bumbling his way through an interview on an oil spill off the coast of WA — has since gone viral on social media, years after it first aired.

Working Dog - Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch, Jane Kennedy, and Tom Gleisner

Launching in 1994 with the current affairs satire Frontline, the Working Dog crew have been a staple of Australian TV screens for 30 years. Frontline was widely lauded for accurately spinning off the cut-throat environment that was broadcast newsrooms of the 90s, lead by the dim-witted anchor Mike Moore, played by Sitch.