History Series / ShaunMicallefsMadAsHell

** Shaun himself has done this a couple of times, apppearing in the studio audience to ask himself a question.

** When Des-Lazlo Clusterbuck of the Nullarbor Mountaineering Co-Operative [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLLBszz-P9I appears in the studio]] to talk about the issue of [[ToiletHumour human waste]] on Mount Everest, Shaun interrupts and questions his (perfectly normal) outfit, asking, "Have you never seen a sketch comedy show?" JumpCut to Des-Lazlo in a full mountain climbing outfit. "Thank you."

** Mainly to other Micallef works:

* StudioAudience: Most episodes have been filmed in front of one, and in later seasons have increasingly had characters appearing in them to interrupt Shaun as part of a sketch. However, starting in March 2020, the audience has been discontinued as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The episode in question begins with Shaun using an irritating LaughTrack for less than a minute before he has it turned off. Shaun still gets interrupted as much as before, though, in some cases pointing out that what he's saying is just to fill in time before he's interrupted. As of June 30, 2021, the audience has returned, with Shaun joking that they were overseas arrivals who had chosen to be here as an alternative to hotel quarantine (which also meant being in the audience for other shows such as ''Gardening Australia'').

*** As of the third season, the Micallef Tonight logo is now a set piece and the Micallef Tonight theme music closed out the first three episodes, and as of the fourth season, the [[Film/BladeRunner Tyrrel Corp.]] chair that Shaun sat on in later seasons of ''Series/TalkinBoutYourGeneration''was a set piece in the background.

*** Occasionally, Shaun would trot out a quick High Horse gag from MicallefTonight, to the delight of the studio audience.

* StudioAudience: Most episodes have been filmed in front of one, and in later seasons have increasingly had characters appearing in them to interrupt Shaun as part of a sketch. However, starting in March 2020, the audience has been discontinued as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The episode in question begins with Shaun using an irritating LaughTrack for less than a minute before he has it turned off. Shaun still gets interrupted as much as before, though, in some cases pointing out that what he's saying is just to fill in time before he's interrupted.

'''Leo''': When its ready.\\

-->'''Shaun''': I mean, for a start, it didn't make any sense, did it? I mean, Doctor Goebbels had nothing to do with economic policy. And if it didn't have to make any sense, there are plenty of other less offensive members of the medical profession Mr. Abbott could have likened Mr. Shorten to, which wouldn't have caused such a brouhaha, if you'll excuse my French. There's Film/DrStrangelove, Dr. Kissinger, Dr. Kervorkian, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawley_Harvey_Crippen Dr. Crippen]], [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Dr. Jekyll]], Dr. Literature/{{Frankenstein}}, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Edelsten Dr. Edelsten]], [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes Dr. Zaius]], Creator/DrSeuss, [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Dr. Lecter]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Kruszelnicki Dr. Karl]], [[Series/{{Neighbours}} Dr Karl]], [[ComicBook/DoctorOctopus Dr. Octavius]], Dr Pepper, Dr. Ming's Herbal Weight-Loss Tea and of course Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman, to name but sixteen. Now, in a perfect world, of course, the reference could have made sense too, the name of the doctor reflecting, in some way, Labor's approach to handling the economy when they were in power. Literature/DoctorDolittle, perhaps.

''Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell'' (2012 - Present) is something of an Australian version of ''Series/TheDailyShow'', [[{{Dissimile}} except it airs weekly, and has a limited season run.]] Hosted by Creator/ShaunMicallef, it features many hilarious and bizarre characters who help him dissect the news and current events of the week. Shaun's supporting cast includes Roz Hammond (series 1-10), Francis Greenslade, Tosh Greenslade (no relation), Emily Taheny (all since series 1), Stephen Hall (regular since series 2), Veronica Milsom (series 1-4), Nicholas Bell (series 6), Molly Daniels, Ming-Zhu Hii (both series 9), Michelle Brasier and Christie Whelan Browne (since Series 10)

This is the longest running show Shaun has fronted - as of August 2020 the show has begun its twelfth series.

** Shaun giving Bill Shorten's "[[LameComeback zingers]]" the MundaneMadeAwesome treatment.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
-->'''Damien Scranton''': I will say one thing, Tony Abbott is right on one count.
-->'''Shaun''': He's a right [[CountryMatters what?]]

* InstantlyProvenWrong: When Chris Lorax is questioned about a ''Daily Telegraph'' headline beginning with "For plaque's sake", he attempts to defend this case of GettingCrapPastTheRadar by arguing that it's a small story at the bottom of page 11, "it's not like it's a big front-page headline." Shaun proceeds to pull out a big front-page headline reading "A Cluster Truck".

** Roz Hammond left the cast in late series 10 to prepare for a stage production of ''Literature/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', but returned for the last episode of series 11, by which point the play had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her character Dolly Norman was completely unaware of this situation until Shaun explained it to her: "I thought things had been a bit quiet."

* AscendedFanboy: Tosh Greenslade was a big fan of Shaun's previous works, so was more than excited to have his first regular TV job working with him.

* EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped: Season 11 introduces the show's Pauline Hanson Translator whose job it is to translate Pauline's [[StrangeSyntaxSpeaker idiosyncratic syntax]] and {{Metaphorgotten}} tendencies into something comprehensible for the average viewer. She does quite well for most of the show until, following particularly convoluted utterance from Pauline, Shaun looks at her expectantly, only to be told "I have no idea what she is talking about".

** Series 11 has a sketch in which Ugly Jim Spoons discusses the World Health Organisation, and each time Shaun says the pronoun "who" Jim responds like he said the acronym.

-->'''Clavis''': Yes, sure. Communist Party chief Xi Jinpeng will become president, replacing Hu Jintao

*** The accompanying captions used to be punny, have been uniformly been replaced with 'See Above' during seasons 8-10.

*** The accompanying captions used to be punny, but in seasons 8-10 have uniformly been replaced with 'See Above'.

* LampshadedTheObscureReference: In one of the ''Enid Swink'' sketches in Series 12, Francis's character points out that a lot of the audience won't even remember what it's parodying, since the last series of ''Series/JanetKing'' was three years ago.

** When Shaun [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDBlokHDdjI questions]] Mick Onk about the symbolism of his blindfolded puppet of Tony Abbott.