Once again, it's time for the category where we highlight the wonderful world of the cameo, in which someone who's usually quite good, or at the very least quite famous, turns up for a short time to make everyone smile because it's them. On the other hand, there's also these...

   Most Irritating Cameo
Winner:
Tony Martin on anything really (as he's always heaps better than the show he's appearing on) - 47.37%

Nominees
Andre Rieu on anything - 42.11%
Hamish & Andy on anything - 10.53%

Last Year's Winner
Matt Lucas on Kath & Kim

Voter comments

I'm thinking of Tony in Inspektor Herring. Only because he didn't get given any lines! Boo Micallef!
- menagers

His silent cameo during Herring, in particular. Why, Shaun?
- mixmaster flibble

It's annoying that we're incessantly given shows starring people nobody actually likes (that much; I'm sure Gleeson has some fans but nobody could actually like him a lot, could they?) while Tony Martin is relegated to appearances on Spicks and Specks.
- Moribunderast

Every time Tony Martin turns up on some dodgy, below-par local comedy effort it's a knife in the heart of his fans. Oh sure, he's just having a bit of fun, he's just helping out a mate, he's just letting us know he's still out there. But if you're of the opinion that 'The Last Aussie Auteur' is possibly the finest sustained piece of comedy made in Australia then seeing Tony reprise Warren Perso for the Channel 31 movie show The Bazura Project is going to inspire equal parts joy and disappointment.

In 2008 T. Martin turned up on Spicks & Specks, Rove, The Bazura Project, The Mansion, ABC radio's The Comedy Hour (twice), Melbourne community radio station 3RRR, Triple J's Dools and Linda, Gold FM's breakfast show, the final Inspektor Herring episode of Newstopia, and almost certainly a number of other places we've missed because who has the time to monitor every single sub-standard Aussie comedy effort in the hope that one of this country's greatest living laugh-getters will turn up un-announced? Every single time Tony popped up somewhere the audience yelled out as one: "Give that man his own show". And with every passing year the chances of that happening get slimmer.

Sure, Shuan Micallef got it wrong when he gave Tony Martin a non-speaking, blink-and-you'll miss him cameo in Inspektor Herring, but he got it right when he had Andre Rieu shot. And if it wasn't for the fact that the voters in these awards clearly want to see Tony Martin get a proper go more than anything, the recipient of Micallef's bullet may just have won this.

Andre Rieu started to get big in Australia a few years ago thanks to screenings of his concerts on Foxtel's Ovation channel. He quickly developed a sizable fanbase, many of whom thought it worth paying $300 to see this mop-haired Dutchman turn their local football stadium into Vienna's Schönbrunn Palace and then proceed to pump out several hours worth of light classics and popular favourites accompanied by an orchestra dressed like bridesmaids.

When he wasn't packing out stadiums he was playing shopping centres and free concerts, performing on Dancing with the Stars and filming a cameo for Neighours. You couldn't even switch on The 7.30 Report without seeing him and his fans:

"On one website, the women call him 'Stud muffin'."
- Heather Rankin, Rieu fan, speaking on The 7.30 Report

But if he was God to some, he was simply just omnipresent to others. It's not the over-the-top nature of his shows (the ice-skaters, the fountains, the ballroom dancers, the horse-drawn carriages), the banality of his repertoire, or even DVD covers like these that the voters of these awards object to it. It's that he's literally everywhere.

Walk into any bookshop or DVD retailer - even the Post Office - and his twisted face, violin clamped under his chin, greets you, inviting you to purchase his take on Strauss, Shostakovich or (God help us) Rolf Harris, on your choice of CD or DVD.

Of course, every international performer has to leave sometime, and Rieu eventually did, but not before announcing a whole new series of dates for 2009 and releasing a CD and DVD of his Australian tour. Clearly he hadn't milked enough middle-aged women and pensioners dry yet.

When Hamish (mostly) & Andy (rarely) turn up on a show, things get weird. They get weird because these guys have a status in the comedy scene that far outweighs their ability. Hamish is like your boss butting into a conversation with a lame joke that everyone has to laugh at no matter how lame it is, only he's butting onto other people's television shows and they're happy to have him because Hamish Blake brings with him a lot of Hamish & Andy fans. Who don't seem to care that even on Spicks & Specks he's usually the least funny guy on camera.

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