Class Clowns is Taskmasters with a dash of trivia

It’s always a bit awkward when the ABC decides it’s time to get educational. It’s one thing to inform viewers about subjects they’re already interested in – who doesn’t love Gardening Australia? – but the ABC programmers just can’t resist a show where a microdose of comedy is meant to make a massive infodump palatable to a viewing audience that hasn’t been inside a learning institution since the 20th century.

A wacky quiz show set in a natural history museum? A wacky panel show based on criminology? Been there, done that. Now it’s time for a wacky set of semi-educational challenges where comedians dress up in school uniforms and tackle challenges. Imagine a version of Taskmaster where you were expected to learn things and hey presto, now you don’t need to watch Class Clowns.

Hosted by Julia Morris (who does a good job as the snooty school principal), the premise is straightforward enough: it’s back to school for a bunch of local comedians, who are faced with a mix of questions to be answered and challenges to be performed. Will they earn points so eventually there’ll be a winner? Would there be any point if they didn’t? Oh wait, entertainment, that’s also a thing.

Class clowns competing for house points

One of the show’s big strengths is the comedians, with a good mix of ages and comedy styles to keep things… well, relatively lively. Dave Hughes and Nina Oyama are The Bin Chickens (remember how you were randomly lumped into Houses at school? Same thing here), Becky Lucas and Matt Okine are The Cane Toads and Luke McGregor and Bron Lewis are – appropriately enough – The Redbacks.

Laughing at bad school photos is a reliable icebreaker (Hughes makes the good point that old photos are funny because back then crap photos couldn’t be deleted) before it’s time for the tough questions. You know, like, “Which animal has cube-shaped poo?” Then there’s a serious question aimed at a year seven level about colour blindness and hang on, is this trying to teach us stuff?

The physical challenges are a bit more silly, which is a good thing as there’s a fairly hard limit on how entertaining it is to watch comedians answer serious questions. The opening clips reveal that at some stage Raygun is going to turn up to be a celebrity judge – presumably for a dance routine, but who knows for sure.

In the first episode our teams are first demonstrating their knowledge (or lack thereof) of biology by acting out a living version of the classic game Operation; one team member has to place organs in their right position on the other, and a mistake leads to an electric shock. Turns out seeing Okine getting repeatedly shocked is quality television.

Could try harder in class

None of the challenges on offer are particularly memorable. They’re funny-ish rather than classic comedy. In an attempt to make up for that, the comedians work pretty hard to inject as much personality as possible into proceedings – well, as much as the format allows.

Some suit the school setting more than others. Okine quickly establishes himself as something of a class clown, the kind who’s happy to make jokes about his own teammate’s school photo. McGregor comes across as the nerd, but that’s always been his comedy persona, and Lewis is so unphased when it comes to biology that she’s got no idea how she’s managed to have three kids.

And then there’s Dave Hughes. One of the first episode’s challenges is to put on a play, and for various reasons The Bin Chickens have to use English accents in theirs. Hughes’ accent is not English, and is difficult to describe even as ‘human’, which is a reminder that his big comedy strength used to be random crazy stuff, not politically-charged crazy stuff.

It’s not exactly a surprise that Hughesy’s recent public deep dive into ‘edgy’ political talking points isn’t reflected in his performance here. It is a bit of a shame though. He could have been the student obsessed with the Manosphere who bases his entire personality on views he picked up from dubious online influencers. Though it’s doubtful the ABC wanted Class Clowns to reflect the current state of our schools quite that accurately.

As the latest in a very long line of slightly educational quiz shows that are also supposed to be somewhat funny, Class Clowns is definitely yet another one of those shows. And to be fair, it is funnier than something like Crime Night! or Tonight at the Museum. But it’s still a series that puts a lot of effort into coming up with over-the-top scenarios that often result in only so-so television.

Though they should be applauded for their restraint in holding off on the inevitable cringe sex education segment until episode two.

Class Clowns premieres 30 September ABC TV and ABC iview.

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