In 2008, Merrick and Rosso returned to Australia's Comedy Channel with an original format entitled The Merrick & Rosso Show. A mixture of sketches, stunts and parodies, often featuring the guest star, it quickly became the highest rating show in the channel's fifteen year history. Guests throughout the first season were Ray Martin, Brendan Cowell, Kate Ritchie, The Veronicas, Stephen Curry, Ian Thorpe, Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald, Peter Helliar, Hugh Jackman, Dicko and Judith Lucy.
One popular sketch that picked up a following on YouTube and FunnyorDie was 'The Almost Transformers' which featured the stars disguised as a fridge and a washing machine for the purpose of terrifying shoppers. Another stunt included adopting an entire village in PNG (a popular trend amongst Hollywood celebrities) and renaming it Merrick & Rosso Land, distributing T-Shirts bearing slogans such as "Sorry Madonna, I'm Taken", "Angelina Rejected Me" and "Property of Merrick And Rosso".
Guests for the second series included Will Ferrell, The Wiggles, Ed Phillips, Tommy Williams, Magda Szubanski, Bob Evans, Eskimo Joe, David Wenham, Asher Keddie, Charlotte Dawson and Alex Perry, Antonia Kidman and cricketer Stuart MacGill.
The show also created the anti-testimonial, where big name celebrity guests who came into the Nova studios were given (often scripted) material and invited to explain why they could not or did not want to appear on the TV show. Anti-Testimonials were given by Will Smith, Lily Allen, Russell Brand, Chris Rock, Ryan Reynolds, Kelly Clarkson, Rhys Darby, Seth Rogan, Macy Gray, Eric Hutchinson and Cesar Milan.
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“I allude to these facts to show that, so far from the Supper being a tradition in which men are fully agreed, there has always been the widest room for difference of opinion upon this particular. Having recently given particular attention to this subject, I was led to the conclusion that Jesus did not intend to establish an institution for perpetual observance when he ate the Passover with his disciples; and further, to the opinion that it is not expedient to celebrate it as we do.”
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