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Finally, a NZ comedy show that’s funny

7DAYS180Have you seen TV3’s Friday night comedy panel show 7 Days yet? Funniest thing since Melody Rules. No seriously, it’s good.

Based on the BBC show Have I Got News For You, 7 Days pits two teams of comedians against each other to summarise the last week of news in witty one-liners and improvised gags. You know, when I’ve seen some of these performers in solo shows they sucked, but when there’s a group of them on stage the competition brings out top-class quips and cutting gibes.

Dai Henwood: loves jokes about short people.Dai Henwood: loves jokes about short people.

Regulars Dai Henwood and Paul Ego are supplemented with some of our best stand-ups, including Ben Hurley, Rhys Darby, Jeremy Elwood, Penny Ashton and Steve Wrigley. Host Jeremy Corbett will never be as posh or snide as Clive Anderson, but he’s actually much more bearable than on the radio. He’s allowed to be little bit rude, due to the show’s 10.00pm slot.

There’s no holds barred on the contestants either – they’re having a rollicking time swearing, taking the piss out of each other and local A to Z listers. It’s mostly delivered in delightful Kiwi-style deadpan, except Rhys Darby laughs at his own jokes, but that’s rather cute. In one episode alone Tony Veitch, Brooke Fraser, Simon Dallow, Clayton Weatherston, Rodney Hide and midgets became the butt of some hilarious and definitely un-PC jokes.

On the same ep they played the new Aids awareness ad from Germany, which shows a couple having rigorous sex. At the end the camera reveals the man is a Hitler lookalike and the tagline is “Aids is a mass murderer”. When Dai Henwood came straight out with “Is Brian Tamaki doing the NZ version?” it was so bad taste it was genius.

Rounds include providing questions to answers, filling in the gaps of newspaper headlines, putting captions to silly photos and deciphering the event depicted in a child’s drawing. It’s current affairs in a comical nutshell and it’s fast-paced enough to not get boring. Corbett says, “This is the show us comedians have been waiting to do for years.” Frankly, it’s taken a while for the talent pool of NZ comedians to reach double figures so it couldn’t have happened before 2009. Homemade humour worth watching. Hurrah.

Now, how about a Kiwi version of Never Mind the Buzzcocks?

View past episodes of 7 Days here.

Rhys Darby: a strange resemblance to our publisher Vincent Heeringa.Rhys Darby: could be our publisher Vincent Heeringa with myopia.

Vincent Heering: funnier than Rhys Darby.Vincent Heeringa: funnier than Rhys Darby.

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