The Ronnie Johns Half Hour (full name The Ronnie Johns Good Times Campfire Jamboree Half Hour Show (Now on Television)) was an Australian sketch comedy show produced by Jigsaw Entertainment and the Ten Network, which premiered in October 2005.
[citation needed] From 2006 The 3rd Degree worked on solo projects, notably Heath Franklin as Chopper and Jordan Raskopoulos in The Axis of Awesome.
[2] The Ronnie Johns Half Hour was created after representatives from Channel 10 saw a performance of The 3rd Degree's stage show, and were impressed by the cast and characters.
In response, The 3rd Degree came up with a title that they felt was ridiculously long, The Ronnie Johns Good Times Campfire Jamboree Half Hour Show (Now on Television).
[citation needed] As well as many stand-alone sketches, The Ronnie Johns Half Hour features a number of characters who have appeared in multiple episodes.
The title character of the show, Ronnie Johns (Franklin) is the "comedy cowboy"; he rides upon the "Good Taste Pony" (a papier-mâché horse worn around his waist).
Ronnie appears in the opening and closing scenes of the show, as well as occasionally interjecting between sketches, commenting on them and warning the audience about potential bad taste.
Paulie (Raskopoulos), a young man of unknown Mediterranean heritage, dressed in a green-and-pink striped polo shirt, confronts various people to complain about what might be termed pedantic issues.
Other complaints he made included wanting to change the nickname of the Australian soccer team because a "socceroo" is not a real animal, and that George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is "incorrect" because its events did not occur in 1984.
In a more recent episode, Paulie confronts the owner of an Adult Sex shop telling him that the "edible undies" should have a nutritional value printed on the box, just in case a vegan is starving to death and needs to know that there is no beef in them.
At the end of each sketch Paulie recommends that the problem be solved by putting a sticker on the offending object, and assures the target of his complaint that "I've got my eye on youse".
On the Season 1 finale, it was revealed that Paulie's campaign against gnocchi began when his parents both ordered it at a restaurant, thinking it was pasta, and died from potato allergies.
The book contains pictures of often controversial issues such as the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse or the Ku Klux Klan, but Poppy's narration describes them more naively, suggesting they are, for example, performing acrobatics routines or playing dress-ups.
The Social Suicide Bomber (Raskopoulos) is an awkward-looking man in a burgundy blazer and salmon-pink shirt who is summoned by people who are stuck in unpleasant social situations - such as an unattractive man flirting with a woman who does not want that kind of attention - by pressing a large red button.
Simon (Franklin), Gretchen (Ward) and Sigmund (Pender) are a trio of apathetic Germans who dress in black and speak in monotonous voices.
Single Entendre Man (Raskopoulos) is famous for making outrageously explicit comments in a direct manner (i.e. without euphemisms).
episode, they decided they need to come up with a new adjective other than "Underground" Peter Cundall (Ilic) is another sketch involving the impersonation of a real person.
The warnings initially point to a terror attack ("Don't catch a train on Sunday") but in the end are revealed to come from genuine concern ("...There's going to be track work on the red line").
A parody of TV shows like Ripley's Believe it or Not and Guinness World Records hosted by an unnamed character played by James Pender.
Also known as The Finger Guy, Stephen (Pender) is a man who pretends to be pulling an object from his pocket but in facts flips off the person, followed by oohs and aahs.
(Raskopoulos) A man who cuts up human flesh (similar to an Ivan Milat/Mick Taylor type character), and gives words of wisdom to the people at the same time.
The New York City Police Department which features a tough, hardass chief (Raskopoulos), who actually has a heart of gold, and his main officer Kageti (Pender).
The humour comes from the fact that the activities are things that should not be done at all, naked or otherwise such as eating a surfboard, towel whipping a bear or impersonating the Crazy Frog ring tone.
According to the Season 1 DVD commentary, when Heath Franklin appears in one of these sketches he is the only actor to do his naked scenes in the nude, the rest of the cast wore flesh-coloured underwear.
These sketches start off with sped-up black and white stock footage accompanied by frantic music and finish with the message "Don't do Drugs".
The sketch was all set to be broadcast, until shortly before the airing a controversial act involving genital slapping occurred on Big Brother.
Since the sketch would have meant many complaints for the network, The 3rd Degree had to do a last-minute edit, with "Bunch of Flowers" being redubbed over the offending words.
Two episodes later, they referred to these complaints and played an identical scene with Mohammed on the cross instead of Jesus, claiming it to be in the interests of equality.
To this end, T-shirts and posters were printed and distributed around Australia at a variety of venues and events, including the Tropfest Film Festival.
The sketch involved two toy twin towers which the kids then crash a plane into and begin to celebrate (à la 9/11).