Considering Australia’s rather small population, we have produced some very fine comedians over the years. Wil Anderson, Rove McManus, Kitty Flanagan, Dave Hughes, Judith Lucy, just to name a few that have made it to household name status. Now not to burst your bubble or anything but if you don’t know how television works, these people don’t always write their own material. Sure for the most part, their stand-up is their own but when it comes to producing a fresh half an hour of jokes on current affairs or adverts each week, it’s not even humanly possible for them to do it alone. There’s is a multitude of hilarious people writing for the big names on TV and chances are unless you pause the credits and read them one by one, you won’t have heard of any of these people. That is what podcasts are for.
If you were to ask me to point you in the direction of the most Australian comedy podcast I know, I wouldn’t hesitate to mention The Sweetest Plum. Well maybe I would hesitate to say; “why don’t you read my recommendations for Novastream every week?” but then I would get over myself and refer you back to The Sweetest Plum. Streaming since 2010, The Sweetest Plum consists of two of the great men, Declan Fay and Nick Maxwell(not the AFL player). Between the two of them, they have written for some of the funniest Australian shows over the years, shows like Rove, Dirty Laundry Live, The Weekly With Charlie Pickering, among others. If you were to listen to their podcast you would understand that they were the right choice for the job.
Since 2010, The Sweetest Plum has gone through many changes. Originally it was a fifteen minute or so collection of sketches before making it’s way on to radio at an unmmmentionable radio station(sorry, I don’t know why I tripled the ms in unmentionable, the key must have got stuck) and then finally making its way back online in an hour or so ranty conversation between friends. Topics vary week to week and can often involve the news, mildly famous Australians, AFL or just whatever has pissed Nick off that day. The beauty of this podcast is that no matter the subject, the result will always have you in stitches. Being a nerd, I have no interest in AFL but I am always excited to hear what Declan and Nick have to say on the topic. As for mildly famous Australians, people like Lindsay Gaze and Warwick Capper are always going to be funny no matter where you come from.
Other topics for conversation on the show include, “the big boy” a term coined by the show for men that generally are nothing more than big boys, the stupid people that argue for sharks to be killed just because they are up for “a bit a cullin'” and the preposterousness of Australian hip hop. These kind of topics, while hilarious may explain why the show has a niche market. Unless you listen to the show, you will never understand what is so funny but if you do, you can find yourself fit into a group of lucky people that giggle every time they see a man in a pair of board shorts, two sizes too small for him pull out a wad of hundred dollar bills.
Unfortunately but understandably, The Sweetest Plum is another podcast that gets updated frequently, rather than to a schedule. Although, all the episodes are still available on the iTunes stream, which is over one hundred and twenty episodes strong. There is also a website for the show that has archived all the episodes and goes a bit further to explain what the show is all about. So I say, what have you got to lose? Give The Sweetest Plum a listen, you never know you might just find yourself another best frond for life.
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