Tim Batt (born 19 August 1987) is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

-based comedian and

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

. He co-hosts The Worst Idea of All Time podcast with fellow NZ comedian

Guy Montgomery Guy Montgomery (born 29September 1988) is a comedian from New Zealand. He is known for his panel game show ''Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee'', which he began as a web series before becoming a TV series, for +HR=E in New Zealand, and late ...

and was nominated for a

Billy T Award The Billy T Award is a New Zealand comedy award recognising up-and-coming New Zealand comedians with outstanding potential. It has been presented annually since its inception in 1997 when Cal Wilson and Ewen Gilmour shared the award. The Billy T ...

in 2014 and 2015.

Early life

Batt grew up in

Christchurch, New Zealand Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over half a million. It is located in ...

and later spent time in Wellington, and then Auckland. Before comedy, he worked in radio and call centers. Batt attended Cobham Intermediate School, and was a contemporary of acclaimed singer and UNICEF ambassador

Hayley Westenra Hayley Dee Westenra (born 10 April 1987) is a New Zealand classical crossover singer. Her first internationally released album, '' Pure'', reached number one on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide ...

, the two appearing together in school productions.

Career

Batt's first appearance on TV was in 2014, on the

TVNZ U TVNZ U, more known as U, was an interactive youth-oriented New Zealand television channel, owned and operated by TVNZ. The channel launched on 13 March 2011, and featured reality programming, as well as an interactive live show and music cont ...

show ''U LATE'' with future collaborator

, where he appeared as a "pathetic but upbeat" public bathroom reviewer. He has also performed standup comedy and worked in commercial broadcasting on the networks MediaWorks and

NZME New Zealand Media and Entertainment (abbreviated NZME) is a New Zealand newspaper, radio and digital media business. It was launched in 2014 as the merger of APN New Zealand (a division of APN News & Media), the Radio Network (formerly part of ...

. After the channel shut down, the two decided to start a small project together, which turned into the podcast The Worst Idea of All Time, a podcast where every season the duo rewatch and review the same film weekly for a year. As of 2024, the show is New Zealand's most successful comedy podcast at over 18 million downloads. Based on the success of the podcast, Batt launched a podcast network, Little Empire Network. The network features podcasts by fellow comedians such as

Rose Matafeo Rose Matafeo (; born 25 February 1992) is a New Zealand comedian, actress and TV presenter. She was a writer and performer on the New Zealand late-night comedy sketch show '' Funny Girls''. In 2018, she won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best S ...

and Nic Sampson. Batt hosted

TVNZ Duke TVNZ Duke, formerly Duke and stylized as TVNZ DUKE or DUKE, is a New Zealand television channel run by state broadcaster Television New Zealand. It screens programming targeted at a male audience. It was launched on 20 March 2016 to replace TVN ...

chat show Banter in 2017. In 2019, he hosted a chat/sketch show hybrid with cohost Luke Rowell called Space Couch. In 2020, Montgomery and Batt were tapped to film a pilot for a TV show for

YouTube Red YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals ...

. The pilot involved the two attempting to take a

method Method (, methodos, from μετά/meta "in pursuit or quest of" + ὁδός/hodos "a method, system; a way or manner" of doing, saying, etc.), literally means a pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, or system. In re ...

approach to film reviewing by watching '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows'' while living in an abandoned subway station in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and eating nothing but pizza. The show was not greenlit for a series. Starting in 2022, Tim Batt cohosted a comedy/conspiracy theory podcast for

Radio New Zealand Radio New Zealand (), commonly known as RNZ or Radio NZ, is a New Zealand public service broadcaster and Crown entity. Established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995, it operates news and current affairs station, RNZ National, and a classi ...

with R.M.S. Titanic enthusiast Carlo Richie about Titanic conspiracy theories, specifically the Olympic exchange theory, called ''Did Titanic Sink?.'' In February 2022, Batt was appointed Creator Network Development Director for New Zealand for Swedish podcasting company

Acast Acast is a Sweden, Swedish-founded startup company, company that provides hosting, monetization and growth support for podcasts, and podcast advertising solutions for brands and media agencies. Launching in 2014, it developed a dynamic insertion ...

. In 2024, ''Did Titanic Sink?'' published a second season featuring a metanarrative involving the search for the mythical Canterbury Panther.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batt, Tim New Zealand male comedians New Zealand podcasters 1987 births Living people 21st-century New Zealand comedians