Mark Humphries doesn’t want to rock the boat. The comedian, writer and satirist is about to take on a different beast, the nightly news on a commercial network, and he knows people are nervous. What does it look like to have someone take the piss in the final three minutes of a serious news bulletin? To have someone be irreverent, opinionated and funny — things that are not traditionally associated with TV news.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today As someone who has taken shots at the political and corporate elite as well as just run-of-the-mill silly idiots, Humphries has a record of being a little provocative. He was the resident satirist on ABC’s 7.30 for five years, co-hosted the public broadcaster’s The Roast, was on SBS’s The Feed and presented the Channel 10 game show Pointless.
But, as a satirist, aren’t you meant to make people uncomfortable and even a little bit mad? “I’m in two minds of trying to keep everyone that’s concerned about this segment, having them feel relaxed, but at the same time, feeling like I do want it to be something a bit different,” Humphries tells The Nightly. “I do want you to occasionally go, ‘Oh, that was surprising’ and ‘Oh, that was quite sharp’. I do like to think that occasionally that stuff I do has a bit of teeth.
“Not every week but sometimes, especially on certain stories where things need to be taken down a peg or two, a journalist in their role can’t really play that role. And I have t.