Hamish (left) and Andy (right)
Hamish Blake and Andy Lee are an Australian Comedy Duo who, while most famous for their radio shows, have also dabbled in television; the two are something of an ubiquitous force in Australian media, regularly making guest spots on panel shows and the like. Their most famous effort is The Hamish & Andy Show, a weekly (daily until 2011) afternoon radio program on the Today Network.
After several years of doing television specials and guest appearances on Network Ten, the Nine Network signed an on-going television deal with the duo from 2011 onward.
Since 2019 Hamish has been host of the Australian version of LEGO Masters.
The duo have a joint Twitter account
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Television projects include:
- Radio Karate (C31 Melbourne, 2003)
- Hamish and Andy (Seven Network, 2004)
- Real Stories (Network Ten, 2006, Mockumentary parodying Australian current affair programs such as Today Tonight and A Current Affair)
- Hamish & Andy ReGifted (Network Ten, 2008, a Rove “very early Christmas special” focusing on, and hosted by Hamish & Andy. Received a sequel in 2009)
- Hamish & Andy’s American Caravan of Courage (Network Ten, 2009, special edition of Rove)
- Hamish & Andy’s Caravan of Courage: Great Britain and Ireland (Network Ten, 2010, sequel to the above)
- Learn India with Hamish and Andy (Network Ten, 2010, Commomwealth Games tie-in travel special)
- Hamish & Andy’s Reministmas Special (Network Ten, 2010, continuation of ReGifted)
- Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year (Nine Network, 2011-2014, Travelogue Show documenting their travels across the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America in each season, respectively)
- Hamish & Andy’s Caravan of Courage: Australia vs. New Zealand (Nine Network, 2012, two-part travel special)
- True Story with Hamish and Andy (Nine Network, 2017-2018)
- Hamish & Andy’s Perfect Holiday (Nine Network, 2019)
Radio/podcast projects for Southern Cross Austereo include:
- The Almost Tuesday Show (2003)
- The Almost Midday Show (Saturdays, 2004-2005)
- The Hamish & Andy Show (Daily (changed to weekly in 2011), 2006-2013)
- Hamish & Andy’s Business Brunch/Happy Hour (Daily, 2013-2014)
- The Hamish & Andy Show (Reboot, Daily, 2015-2017)
- Hamish & Andy (LiSTNR podcast, 2018-present)
- Hamish & Andy’s Remembering Project (LiSTNR podcast, 2020-present)
Tropes related to this comedy duo:
- Achievements in Ignorance: Andy entered Hamish into a bodybuilding competition without telling him. Despite possessing zero muscle tone and not knowing what to do, Hamish won the competition because he was the only competitor whose weight fell in the proper bracket.
- Ascended Extra:
- Cackling Jack, who allegedly started out on work experience, is now pretty much the third member of the comedy duo. Though there are several behind-the-scenes guys who are more important than him, he appears on mic more than any one else aside from Hamish and Andy.
- There also used to be Giggling Ben but he rarely spoke on the show and now works elsewhere in the station.
- Radio Mike used to be a minor co-host, but currently hosts the spin-off podcast Hamish & Andy's Remembering Project along with the duo.
- Book Ends: Episode 5 of Gap Year Asia opens with a film about Hamish & Andy racing their snakes (and a "snake in my pants" dare). It finishes with a "Cultural Eating" segment about eating snake hearts.
- But Not Too Evil: During a sketch about the idea about making a new version of Google Maps called Google Treasure Maps that would be tailored specifically for pirates. One of the pirates mentioned his intention of using the map to find a port were he could pillage and “inappropriately touch” women.
- Clip Show: From January-March 2017, the Hit network aired "10 Years in 10 Weeks", a highlights package which recapped the past 10 years of their radio show, with each week being dedicated to a different year.
- Comedic Sociopathy:
- Hamish used to have a weekly feature where he'd read and describe a Fred Basset strip over the radio. Andy despised this and the only way he'd allow it to go on air was by putting Hamish through a variety of tortures (usually throwing things) while Hamish was doing the bit. The head of the station had to put a stop to the segment after Andy destroyed a computer monitor with a hammer.
- Their appearances on Rove usually involves them having to do some sort of unpleasant task and end with them wet/sticky/puking/etc.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Their first Gap Year series followed a variety show format (complete with celebrity interviews and various recurring segments)which included... , rather than a travel show format, which is slightly lost in later edited versions.
- Out of those segments, only Hamish vs. Andy was kept in later seasons, with the original Narrator replaced by the more popular and funnier-sounding Ian Danter. Thanks to its popularity, Ultimate Wingman made at least one appearance in each series.
- Their first Gap Year series followed a variety show format (complete with celebrity interviews and various recurring segments)which included... , rather than a travel show format, which is slightly lost in later edited versions.
- "El Niño" Is Spanish for "The Niño": "El Paso is Spanish for the Paso."
- Golden Snitch: A game called Random John, in which a random phone number is dialed. If the person who answers the phone is called “John Johnson”, the caller gets 50 "john points", making it something of a golden snitch. However, since they have been playing this game for over three months and still have not gotten a single john point, even getting a “John” could qualify as at least a silver snitch.
- Gone Horribly Right: Hamish spent months making a fuss that he'd ordered Steven Seagal's LIGHTNING BOLT energy drink but never received any and started an impromptu campaign about it with his radio listeners, promising that if they themselves bugged the manufacturer about it, he'd give every contributor an equal share of his order. As it turned out, the product had been discontinued but someone involved with the product got word of the campaign and sent Hamish that last two cans of LIGHTNING BOLT known to exist. Hamish and Andy then found themselves having to purchase a large number of vials and tediously put literal drops of LIGHTNING BOLT into each one in order to make good on Hamish's promise.
- In Caravan Of Courage - Australia vs. New Zealand, Andy gets fed up by Hamish's obsession of deep-frying all the food in the caravannote that he blows it up in a mine field. Hamish is upset by this, and follows the insert with him showing a "memorial" he made for the deep fryer.
- Insistent Terminology: Hamish's habit of referring to Andy's house as the Lair, to the point where his apartment in New York which Andy called The Nook eventually became known as the Lair after three weeks.
- Hamish also calls Andy a prowler (ever since his breakup with Megan Gale) and himself Andy's love coach, despite Andy's strenuous objections.
- Name and Name, in conjunction with The Eponymous Show.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: "This was going to be the greatest thing we had ever seen... at a Thai rocket festival."
- Profound by Pop Song: In the American Caravan of Courage, Hamish quotes the line "I was born to try" from Delta Goodrem's song "Born To Try" during a speech at a sports game, interpreting it as a motivational quote.
- Repurposed Pop Song:
- The theme song from the Reministmas Special, "Holy Moly" by Motocade is reused for Caravan Of Courage - Australia vs. New Zealand rather than the original Caravan of Courage theme song.
- Frank Stallone’s “Far From Over”, originally the subject of a story arc involving them being obsessed with said song and getting Frank Stallone to do a concert in Melbourne was reused for Andy’s Mr. New York State Bodybuilding Competition performance in their USA Gap Year.
- Running Gag:
- In Caravan of Courage - Great Britain and Ireland, Andy tries to annoy Hamish while driving Sir Vancealot by playing a tin whistle, until Hamish throws it into the ocean. It is immediately replaced by bagpipes right after.
- Andy telling people that Hamish “did circus tricks instead of sports at school” to warn people of his odd actions.
- Self-Deprecation: When Hamish put on some weight, many jokes were made about it; Hamish made more jokes about it than Andy did.
- Straight Man: Andy; though he can still be quite silly, he's usually less so than Hamish.
- Shipper on Deck: Invoked, Hamish has decided that Andy has a crush on DJ Havana Brown
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: A dating example. Andy was in a relationship with supermodel Megan Gale for some time. Hamish couldn't believe it when he found out about it and the dichotomy of their appearances was occasionally mined for humor.
