Merrick and Rosso

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Merrick Watts & Tim 'Rosso' Ross

Merrick Watts and Tim Ross (Merrick and Rosso) are an Australian comedy duo, best known for their typically Australian attitude and form of humour. They first came to prominence performing a weekly guest spot on the drive program on Triple J radio in 1998. Following this they became fulltime presenters for that segment for the next two years. In 2001, they were snapped up by commercial radio rival Nova 96.9 for the breakfast radio shift (6am to 9am). They currently hold this time slot as breakfast broadcasters (Sydney and parts of New South Wales) as Nova FM became a national radio station.

In 2003 their television show Merrick and Rosso Unplanned debuted on the Nine Network, based on the antiformat established by Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned in the UK. This was not their first foray into television - they had a short-lived cable television show, Planet Merrick and Rosso (later known as Super Planet Merrick and Rosso).

[edit] The B Team

Around September 2005, Merrick and Rosso began filming for their second television series, The B Team. It was in a completely different format made entirely of short skits with minimal audience interaction. This was a substantial change from Merrick and Rosso Unplanned. The B Team aired in late 2005 on Network Ten at 9.30pm on Wednesday throughout Australia. It rated poorly.

Some characters created by the boys include Brett & Craig, Dimitri the dodgy mobile phone dealer, DJ Panfa and Rosso Crowe.

Brett & Craig are satires of the traditional "Aussie bogan" and are supposedly from Adelaide, South Australia.

Dimitri is a parody of the "fully sick" subculture that has arisen in Australia recently. Clearly, the character 'Dimitri' is either of Mediterranean heritage or Middle eastern descent and appears to be very temperamental. He regularly misinterprets what other characters say and takes offence presuming they insulted his sister. Immediately after, his aggression turns physical and he generally kicks or punches the air. Finally, he tells himself to calm down ("what would Craig David do in this situation? .... walk away") and approached the "offending character" with a proposition.

Rosso Crowe is a character played by Rosso in which he dresses as Russell Crowe within Sydney and Los Angeles. Amazingly there were a few members of the public that were fooled despite the only similarity between Rosso and Russell being facial hair and accent.

The boys have acknowledged on The B Team that they had contacted Russell Crowe and the actor himself has supplied Merrick and Rosso with some of his own clothing to help them pull off the stunt. Merrick and Rosso quoted Russell Crowe by stating that he found them to be "funny bastards" in a letter he wrote to them accompanying the aforementioned supplied items. Clothing includes a navy blue vest, a blue Cinderella Man Cap and a green and red South Sydney Rabbitohs Rugby League team jersey with a Cinderella Man logo.

[edit] The Podcast

Merrick and Rosso record their own podcast daily after they complete their breakfast show on Nova 96.9. Their podcast is a mix of email reading and prank calls which never fail to give a laugh. In the middle of 2006 they held a "Podcast Reunion" in Auckland, New Zealand in an attempt to gather a large number of fans of the podcast for a few drinks. Apparently no more than six people turned up. Despite this fact, the podcast is a popular one, reaching thousands of listeners throughout Australia and internationally.

One message that the boys surely would like to leave; "GFY Stiffler!"