Meet Karl Stefanovic's 'replacement'
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, it's Chris Spear with you.
Welcome to The Weekend Briefing, where we chat with the humans behind the headlines. And my guest this weekend is a comedian who's been making headlines for his impersonations of a certain former Today Show host.
I'm free. Truly free. Like Nelson Mandela. I am, in a way, the Nelson Mandela of free-to-air television.
Henry Bretts is a radio host on the Sunshine Coast who's been parodying Karl Stefanovic since Karl launched his independent podcast at the beginning of the year.
Remember a country where Australian Idol touchdowns? Now we're just a place where the only thing getting touchdown is ISIS brides on a tarmac. It makes me so angry.
He's racked up hundreds and thousands of views poking fun at Nine's former golden boy, who at first followed him after catching one of his early impressions.
Who is Henry Bretz and why is he parodying Karl Stefanovic?
But the love didn't last. Henry's now apparently blocked by Stefanovic and I just can't wrap my head around why.
I have this unemployed beast that lives inside my head and honestly it wants to take a nap. Freedom of speech isn't free. It's $14.99 a month at the link in my bio.
We chat about the moment he found out he was blocked, his surprising chat with Lisa Wilkinson and why he sees his content, that also features the likes of Gina Reinhart, Dave Hughes, the PM and Pauline Hanson, as his way of pushing back against powerful forces in the country. A little later in the show is the weekend list, of course, with Sasha Barbagat, where we recommend what to watch, see, do, eat and listen to. But first, here's my chat with Henry Bretz. Henry Bretts, welcome to The Weekend Briefing. Did you have getting blocked by Karl Stefanovic on your 2026 bingo card?
Gosh, imagine if I did. Imagine if I just started. It was New Year's Eve. I was making that resolution and I just said, you know what? this is the year that breakfast television host Carl Stefanovic will block me on Instagram. No, to be non-facetious, I had not had this on my bingo card. It was actually not until even recently that I realized I had been blocked. Despite spending a lot of my time now, I suppose, making content, which still makes me feel a little queasy to say, making content on Instagram, I wouldn't say I'm a savant in using it so it was actually I clicked on Carl's profile the other day it was after the Tommy Robinson fallout I think another news page had tagged him specifically and I clicked on him and it said user not found or this profile does not exist and I started searching for Carl and couldn't find him anywhere and it must have been like a Gen Z colleague of mine someone who's more attuned to the politics of Instagram said to me
mate, that means you've been blocked. Like that's what that means. This is usually reserved for, and then I tried to look up an ex-girlfriend of mine and couldn't find her either. And I was like, okay, I've definitely been blocked. This is, it's my exes and Karl Stefanovic have definitely pulled the same function on Instagram.
We have the proof that we need. You have been blocked by Carl Stefanovic. Making content, making content on Carl's content. Wow, it's so cyclical when you think about it. Do you watch all the podcasts or like when you're making, for example, like, you know, Carl's interviewed Pete Evans and then you put out your little skit. Do you watch the whole episode in full?
When I first started, I was more mimicking the shorts that he was putting out. So he was putting out short two-minute videos and clips that were promoting the episode. So for an episode like an interview he would do with Albo or Pauline, I'll admit I didn't watch the entire podcast. When it got to a point where it felt like both the – more so for Carl specifically, but I suppose as I started to get more followers and more people were noticing the parody, I probably thought the stakes were a bit higher and I did want to be positive that I wasn't... Not that I was thinking about the specificities of defamation law all that much, but I was like, we do need to be... Now that more people are seeing this, let's be a little more careful.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:57
2
Who is Henry Bretz and why is he parodying Karl Stefanovic?
0:57–9:47
3
When and how did Henry discover he was blocked by Karl Stefanovic?
9:47–18:48
4
How does Henry research and create his Karl Stefanovic impersonations?
18:48–21:27
5
What went wrong with Karl's Tommy Robinson interview and why does Henry criticise it?
21:27–41:06
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Briefing
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