Australian comedy
Encyclopedia
Australian comedy refers to the comedy and humour performed in or about Australia
or by the people of Australia. Australian humour can be traced to various origins, and today is manifested in a diversity of cultural practices and pursuits. Writers like Henry Lawson
helped to establish a tradition of laconic, ironic and irreverent wit in Australian literature
and Australian cultural stereotypes have proved rich sources of comedy for artists from poet C.J. Dennis to satirist Barry Humphries
and iconic film maker Paul Hogan
: each of whom have given wide circulation to Australian slang. Vaudeville larikinisim in the style of Graham Kennedy
and parochial satire and self mockery has been a popular strain in Australian comedy, notably in the work of such as Norman Gunston
(Garry McDonald), The D-Generation
, Roy & HG and Kath and Kim. Acclaimed Australian comic character actors have included John Meillon
, Leo McKern
, Ruth Cracknell
, Geoffrey Rush
and Toni Collette
. Cynical political satire like that of The Chaser
and social and cultural commentary provided by broadcasters like Clive James
and Andrew Denton
has been another hallmark. Multiculturalism
has also contributed to a diversity in Australian comedy, from the work of migrant comedians like Mary Coustas
and Anh Do
to Aboriginal performers like Ernie Dingo
. Australian stand up comedy has a wide following and the Melbourne Comedy Festival is a major international comedy event.
The "Australian sense of humour" is often characterised as dry, irreverent and ironic, exemplified by some of the works of performing artists like Barry Humphries
and Paul Hogan
and by character creations such as mock-talk-show hosts Norman Gunston
(Garry McDonald) and Roy and HG
(John Doyle
and Greig Pickhaver
). Australian humour was influenced by the convict origins of European Australian history. It is today expressed in Australian slang
as well as throughout Australian film, literature
, and other media. While outback
and "bronzed Aussie" stereotypes are a rich source of Australian comedy, so are the urban rituals and exuberant cosmopolitanism of much of contemporary Australia, as expressed by auteur's like Baz Luhrmann
in the 1993 film Strictly Ballroom
. The quirks of Australian multiculturalism have also provided fodder for comedy: from They're a Weird Mob
(1966) about an Italian immigrant adapting to Sydney life; to the works of Vietnamese refugee Anh Do
and Egyptian born Akmal Saleh
; the Guido Hatzis
parody and Nick Giannopoulos
' Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos
(2010) about second generation Australian Greeks returning to their ancestral home. Actor Ernie Dingo
is perhaps the best known Aboriginal Australian comedic performing artist.
helped establish anti-authorianism as a hallmark of Australian comedy, Watkin Tench
, an officer of the marines on the First Fleet
, reflected on the irreverent humour of his friends among the Aborigines of Sydney. Influential in the establishment of stoic, dry wit as a characteristic of Australian humour were the bush ballad
eers of the 19th century, including Henry Lawson
, author of The Loaded Dog
. His contemporary Banjo Paterson
contributed such classic comic poems as Mulga Bill's Bicycle
, The Geebung Polo Club and Bush Christening. Early novelist Joseph Furphy
wrote in the Australian vernacular and the poet CJ Dennis reflected a sense of Australian identity and humour in the Australian vernacular - notably in "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke
", which chronicles the courtship and marriage of a larrikin called Bill and his girl, Doreen: including a trip to the theatre: "This Romeo 'e's lurkin' wiv a crew -- A dead tough crowd o' crooks -- called Montague". The Dad and Dave series about a pioneer farming family was an enduring hit of the early 20th century. Australia's ANZAC troops of World War I
were said to often display a streak of irreverence in their relations with superior officers and dark humour in the face of battle. Books like Norman Lindsay
's The Magic Pudding
use humorous anthropomorphism to transform the animals of the Australian bush into a classic work of Australian children's literature.
Vaudeville stars like Roy Rene
'Mo' toured with the Tivoli Circuit prior to the arrival of radio. Mo, in baggy trousers and battered top hat and using Australian English catchphrases like "'Strike me lucky' and 'Don't come the raw prawn with me' became Australia's most successful variety star and began performing on radio in 1946. The arrival of television in 1956 assisted in the demise of the large vaudeville theatres and a switch to small venue "comedy revues" - notably the Melbourne University Revues.
include housewife and "gigastar" Dame Edna Everage; and "Australian cultural attaché to the Court of St. James's
" Sir Les Patterson, whose interests include boozing, chasing women and flatulence. Edna made her first appearance in a Melbourne University's UTRC revue at the end of 1955, as the city prepared for the 1956 Olympic Games
. Humphries says his creations "encourage people to look at Australia critically and with affection and humour". Humphries first performed the Edna character to a London audience in 1969 and after initial bewilderment, British audiences came to adore the antipodean house-wife parody. Humphries honed the character to satirise vices from snobbery to celebrity-worship and later succeeded in the United States. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist
humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time … [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin
".
Impersonators of the famous with wide followings have included Gerry Connolly
, Max Gillies
and Billy Birmingham
(The Twelfth Man
). Conolly's best known impersonation is of the Queen, while Gillies has made a career out of political impersonations on programs such as The Gillies Report
and Birmingham has had success sending up well-known Australian sports commentators, notably Richie Benaud
and the Channel Nine
cricket commentary team. The flamboyant "Bob Downe" character is a cheesy, safari-suit-wearing lounge singer and exponent of camp humour. Elliot Goblet
delivers quirky deadpan stand up. Representatives of the "bawdy" strain of Australian comedy include Rodney Rude
and Austen Tayshus
. Tayshus' first single "Australiana
" became the biggest selling single in Australian recording history. A spoken word piece, it is filled with Australian puns: :
(The Sheik of Scrubby Creek
) has been a popular exponent of vaudeville Australian country music
for several decades. His songs are peppered with Australian slang: sheilas, drongos, dills and geezers. The breakthrough hits of leading Australian country music stars Slim Dusty
and John Williamson
might both be considered comic novelty songs: Dusty's Pub With No Beer
(1957) and Williamson's Old Man Emu (1970). Dusty's hit was the first Australian single to reach the international pop charts. It begins with mock profundity:
Williamson was influenced by Australian folk-singer, artist and broadcaster Rolf Harris
and his novelty hit Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport. Harris built an extraordinarily successful career in Britain as a broadcaster and entertainer. Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport is one of his many Australian themed comic hits and tells the sorry tale of a dying stockmen instructing his comrades on what to do upon his passing:
Popular novelty hits of recent decades have included The Twelfth Man
(Billy Birmingham)'s sports commentary parody Marvellous;; the Pauline Hanson
send up I Don't Like It by Pauline Pantsdown
; and the "bogan
anthem" Bloke by tattooed, mulleted stand up comic Chris Franklin
.
The cinema of Australia
has a long history and Australia was a pioneer in the production of feature films. Among early hits of Australian cinema were silent classics like Raymond Longford
's The Sentimental Bloke
(1919) and the Cinesound series of films based on Steele Rudd
's Dad and Dave characters of the 1930s. A century of Australian film was marked in 1995 with an homage remake of Steele Rudd's On Our Selection
featuring Joan Sutherland
and some of Australia's most acclaimed character actors: Leo McKern
, Geoffrey Rush
and Noah Taylor
.
Australians have a strong tradition of self-mockery in their comedy, from the outlandish Barry McKenzie
expat-in-Europe movies of the 1970s, to the quirky outback characters of the Crocodile Dundee
films of the 1980s and the Working Dog Productions
' 1997 homage to suburbia The Castle
.
Paul Hogan
's Aussie bushman-in-New York/fish-out-of-water comedy romance Crocodile Dundee was a huge international hit - becoming the most successful foreign film ever released in the United States. Other than Hogan in the lead role, the film series features such veteran Australian comedic actors as John Meillon
, David Gulpilil
and Ernie Dingo
. Australian cinema's all time top-ten box-office hits include several other comedies: the barn yard animation Babe
(1995), directed by Chris Noonan
; George Miller's animation Happy Feet
(2006); Baz Lurhmann's musical Moulin Rouge!
(2001); Crocodile Dundee 2 (1988); Strictly Ballroom
(1992); Rob Sitch
's The Dish
(2000); and Stephan Elliott
's dragqueens-in-the-outback comedy drama The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
(1994).
Other successes at the Australian box office include: 1966's They're a Weird Mob
; the Alvin Purple
and the Barry Humphries
-Bruce Beresford
Barry McKenzie
movies of the 1970's (of the "Ozploitation
" genre); 1987's Young Einstein
; 1990's The Big Steal
, 1992's Spotswood
1994's Muriel's Wedding
; 1994's The Sum of Us
; 1999's The Craic
and Nick Giannopoulos
' Wog Boy comedies. Clayton Jacobson
's successful 2006 comedy debut Kenny
, starring Shane Jacobson
followed the life of a Melbourne plumber working for a corporate bathroom rental company called Splashdown. Crackerjack is a 2002 film starring Mick Molloy
and Bill Hunter
in which a wisecracking layabout (Molloy) joins a seniors lawn bowls club in order to be allowed to use a free parking space and discovers a villainous plot against the club. The 2009 clay-animation black comedy Mary and Max
brought together the voices of Australian comic character actors Barry Humphries, Eric Bana
and Toni Collette
.
The 2006 comedy-drama Ten Canoes
, directed by Rolf de Heer
and Peter Djigirr, is notable for its setting in pre-European Australia
.
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The vaudeville talents of Graham Kennedy
, Don Lane
and Bert Newton
earned popular success during the early years of Australian television. Kennedy hosted the groundbreaking In Melbourne Tonight
(IMT) from 1957 to 1970, becoming known as "The King of Australian Comedy". He also hosted the popular innuedno-laden 1970s game show Blankety Blanks
. His quick witted IMT offsider Bert Newton remains one of the most enduring comic talents of Australian television, presenting a string of programs and hosting the Logie Awards more often than any other presenter. The variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday
, hosted by Daryl Somers
screened for three decades and featured the ever-popular amateur comedian segment: "Red Faces" in which often bizarre and occasionally skilled acts would perform before celebrity judges.
My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?
was a popular sitcom of the 1960s. Among the best loved Australian sitcoms was Mother & Son, about a divorcee (played by Garry McDonald) who had moved back into the suburban home of his mother (Ruth Cracknell
). Sitcom Kingswood Country
depicted the shifting face of Australia in the 1980s with bigotted patriarch "Ted" Bullpitt (Ross Higgins
) having to come to terms with his migrant son-in-law. Acropolis Now
further reflected the ongoing demographic changes, set amongst the inner working of a Greek Cafe with a cast of exaggerated "Aussie-Greeks": Nick Giannopoulos
as "Jim" and Mary Coustas
as the memorable "Effie
". Ethnic humour also formed a central plank of the comedy in SBS television's offbeat Pizza
TV series, which included regular Arab and Asian characters and presented pizza delivery in the suburbs of Sydney as "one of the most dangerous jobs in the world".
Nevertheless, sketch comedy rather than the sitcom formula has been a popular stalwart of Australian television. The Mavis Bramston Show
and later The Naked Vicar Show
and The Paul Hogan Show
achieved great popularity in the 1970s. Notable programs of recent decades have included The Comedy Company
in the 1980s, which featured the comic talents of Mary-Anne Fahey
, Ian McFadyen
, Mark Mitchell, Glenn Robbins
, Kym Gyngell
and others. The show focussed on suburban life with regular characters: the Greek fruit shop owner Con, the inarticulate and unemployed Col'n Carpenter, school girl Kylie Mole and elderly Uncle Arthur
became household names. The shows catchphrases such as Con's "coupla days" and "bewdiful" entered the Australian vernacular. In August 1989, then Prime Minister Bob Hawke
appeared in a The Comedy Company sketch with Mitchell on the premise of presenting Con with Australian citizenship. In reply to Con's question as to when Hawke was going to fix up the country, Hawke took delight in responding "a coupla days".
Growing out of Melbourne University and The D-Generation
came The Late Show
(1991-1993), starring the influential talents Santo Cilauro
, Tom Gleisner
, Jane Kennedy
, Tony Martin
, Mick Molloy
and Rob Sitch
; and during the 1980s and 1990s Fast Forward (Steve Vizard
, Magda Szubanski
, Marg Downey
, Michael Veitch
, Peter Moon
and others) and successor Full Frontal
- which launched the career of Eric Bana
and featured Shaun Micallef
. The D-Gen team formed Working Dog Productions
who have produced a string of hit films and television series: including The Panel talk show, Russell Coight's All Aussie Adventures mockumentary series and Thank God You're Here
improvisation comedy show.
Rove McManus
is a three time winner of the Gold Logie award as comedic host of his self-titled chat-variety show. The cerebral wit of such as Clive James
, Clive Robertson and Andrew Denton
has been employed to great acclaim in the talk-show interview style.
The Australian tradition of self-mockery runs thick in television comedy. The dysfunctional suburban mother-daughter sitcom Kath & Kim
pokes fun at the accents and attitudes of Australian suburbia. Roy and HG
provide an affectionate but irreverent parody of Australia's obsession with sport. The Dream with Roy and HG
has been a regular feature of Olympic television coverage in Australia since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Actor/writer Chris Lilley
has produced a series of award winning "mockumentary" style television series about "ordinary" Australian characters since 2005.
Cynical satire has had enduring popularity in Australian comedy. Rubbery Figures
was a satirical rubber puppet series that screened in Australia in various forms from 1984 to 1990 and featured puppet caricatures of leading politicians and businesspeople. The Doug Anthony All Stars
musical comedy group featured Paul McDermott
, who later hosted the satirical news-based quiz show Good News Week
. The television series Frontline
lampooned the inner workings of Australia's "news and current affairs" TV journalism; The Hollowmen
(2008) was set in the office of the Prime Minister's political advisory (spin) department. The Chaser
series cynically examines domestic and international politics. Satirists John Clarke
and Bryan Dawe
have performed together in a long running mock-interview segment on ABC Television's current affairs flagship The 7:30 Report.
Australian tastes can be eclectic when it comes to imported comedy from other English-speaking countries, with long-running American series like M*A*S*H, Seinfeld
, Friends
and The Simpsons
achieving devoted followings in Australia - but so too such quintessentially British comedies as Fawlty Towers
, Dad's Army
, The Goodies
, Blackadder
and The Office
.
, which began in 1987 with Barry Humphries as patron and British comic Peter Cook
as guest of honour and has grown to attract over 350,000 visitors annually. Stand-up is performed at live venues of all sizes across the nation - from small Pubs to major auditoria. Various television programs like Hey Hey It's Saturday
and Rove Live
have provided additional exposure to stand up comics.
Among the best known of contemporary stand up comedy performers in Australia are Wil Anderson
, Carl Barron
, Jimeoin
, Dave Hughes
, Wendy Harmer
, Peter Helliar
, Russell Gilbert
, Tony Martin
, Anh Do
, Judith Lucy
, Mick Molloy
and Adam Hills
.
in the 1940s. In recent years, popular comedy DJ duos have included Roy & HG and Merrick and Rosso
beginning on JJJ Radio and Martin/Molloy
, Akmal and Kate Ricthie
and the Hamish & Andy (radio show)
on the commercial networks.
Australian cartoons have a long history dating back to colonial times. Political cartoons began appearing in Australian newspapers in the 1830s and The Bulletin
magazine used political cartoons to great effect from the 1880s. Will Dyson
took the Australian style of satirical cartooning to London before the First World War. Later internationally influential Australian cartoonists included Pat Oliphant
and Paul Rigby
. Ginger Meggs
, a popular long-run Australian comic strip, was created in the early 1920s by Jimmy Bancks
. The strip follows the escapades of a red-haired prepubescent mischief-maker who lives in an inner suburban working-class household. Stan Cross
is famous for his iconic 1933 “For gorsake, stop laughing: this is serious!” cartoon.
Cartoons are today an integral part of political commentary and analysis in Australia. The lyrical cartoons of Michael Leunig
provide a quirky take on social issues. Patrick Cook
, Alan Moir
, Warren Brown
and Cathy Wilcox
are prominent contemporary political cartoonists.
(MICF) is one of the largest comedy festivals in the world, and a popular fixture on the city's cultural calendar. More recently the The Sydney Comedy Festival
and Brisbane Comedy Festival were launched.
Raw Comedy Award, supported primarily by the MICF and Triple J
, is Australia's longest running and well-known national competition for emerging comedians. Heats are held annually around the country and the grand final is held in Melbourne during the festival and recorded for broadcast nationally on Australian Broadcasting Corporation
television later in the year.
World’s Funniest Island began as an Australian comedy event held on the third weekend in October on Cockatoo Island
, on Sydney Harbour in 2009. The Bald Archy art prize (a parody of the Archibald Prize
) includes cartoons or humorous works making fun of celebrities and current affairs and is allegedly "judged by a cockatoo".
The annual TV Week Logie Award
s recognise television comedy in the category of "Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy" and the Australian Film Institute
offers the annual Australian Film Institute Award for Best Television Comedy Series
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
or by the people of Australia. Australian humour can be traced to various origins, and today is manifested in a diversity of cultural practices and pursuits. Writers like Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
helped to establish a tradition of laconic, ironic and irreverent wit in Australian literature
Australian literature
Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary tradition begins with and is linked to...
and Australian cultural stereotypes have proved rich sources of comedy for artists from poet C.J. Dennis to satirist Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
and iconic film maker Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan, AM is an Australian actor best known for his role as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee from the Crocodile Dundee film series, for which he won a Golden Globe award.-Early life and career:...
: each of whom have given wide circulation to Australian slang. Vaudeville larikinisim in the style of Graham Kennedy
Graham Kennedy
Graham Cyril Kennedy, AO was an Australian radio, television and film performer, often called Gra Gra and The King of Australian television.-Childhood:...
and parochial satire and self mockery has been a popular strain in Australian comedy, notably in the work of such as Norman Gunston
Norman Gunston
Norman Gunston was a satirical TV character performed by Australian actor and comedian Garry McDonald. Norman Gunston was primarily well known in his native Australia, and to a lesser extent, the United States during the mid to late 1970s.- Early years :...
(Garry McDonald), The D-Generation
The D-Generation
The D-Generation was a popular and influential Australian TV sketch comedy show, produced and broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for two series, between 1986 and 1987...
, Roy & HG and Kath and Kim. Acclaimed Australian comic character actors have included John Meillon
John Meillon
John Meillon was an Australian actor, most widely known outside Australia for his role as Walter Reilly in the films "Crocodile" Dundee and "Crocodile" Dundee II. He also voiced Victoria Bitter beer commercials until his death.-Biography:Meillon was born in Mosman, Sydney...
, Leo McKern
Leo McKern
Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...
, Ruth Cracknell
Ruth Cracknell
Ruth Cracknell AM was an Australian theatre and television character actress who appeared in many comedy roles. She was known variously as "Crackers", "Dame Crackers" and "Dame Ruth" throughout a career spanning 56 years....
, Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
and Toni Collette
Toni Collette
Antonia "Toni" Collette is an Australian actress and musician, known for her acting work on stage, television and film as well as a secondary career as the lead singer of the band Toni Collette & the Finish....
. Cynical political satire like that of The Chaser
The Chaser
The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedian group, known for their television programmes on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation channel. The group take their name from their production of satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste...
and social and cultural commentary provided by broadcasters like Clive James
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
and Andrew Denton
Andrew Denton
Andrew Christopher Denton is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program Enough Rope. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique...
has been another hallmark. Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
has also contributed to a diversity in Australian comedy, from the work of migrant comedians like Mary Coustas
Mary Coustas
Mary Coustas is an Australian television personality. Originally from Melbourne, Coustas often performs as the character "Effie": a stereotypical second-generation Greek Australian...
and Anh Do
Anh Do
Anh Do is a Vietnamese Australian author, actor and stand-up comedian.He has appeared on many Australian TV shows such as Thank God You're Here and Good News Week, and was runner-up on Dancing With The Stars in 2007. He studied a combined Business Law degree at the University of Technology, Sydney...
to Aboriginal performers like Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo AM is an Indigenous Australian actor and television presenter originating from the Yamatji people of the Murchison region of Western Australia.-Background:...
. Australian stand up comedy has a wide following and the Melbourne Comedy Festival is a major international comedy event.
Australian sense of humour
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
and Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan, AM is an Australian actor best known for his role as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee from the Crocodile Dundee film series, for which he won a Golden Globe award.-Early life and career:...
and by character creations such as mock-talk-show hosts Norman Gunston
Norman Gunston
Norman Gunston was a satirical TV character performed by Australian actor and comedian Garry McDonald. Norman Gunston was primarily well known in his native Australia, and to a lesser extent, the United States during the mid to late 1970s.- Early years :...
(Garry McDonald) and Roy and HG
Roy and HG
Roy & HG is an Australian comedy duo, comprising Greig Pickhaver in the role of "H [Harry] G Nelson" and John Doyle as "'Rampaging' Roy Slaven". Their act is an affectionate but irreverent parody of Australia's obsession with sport. Their characters based on archetypes in sports journalism: Nelson...
(John Doyle
John Doyle (comedian)
John Partick Doyle AM is an award-winning Australian actor, writer, radio presenter and comedian.-Early life:Doyle was born in Lithgow, New South Wales in 1953 into a music-loving, Catholic household with three sisters and a brother. His mother was a business woman and father a railway fettler...
and Greig Pickhaver
Greig Pickhaver
alt=Greig Pickhaver|thumb|In May 2010Greig Pickhaver AM is an actor, comedian and writer, who forms one half of the Australian sports comedy duo Roy and HG...
). Australian humour was influenced by the convict origins of European Australian history. It is today expressed in Australian slang
Australian English
Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....
as well as throughout Australian film, literature
Australian literature
Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary tradition begins with and is linked to...
, and other media. While outback
Outback
The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
and "bronzed Aussie" stereotypes are a rich source of Australian comedy, so are the urban rituals and exuberant cosmopolitanism of much of contemporary Australia, as expressed by auteur's like Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann
Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for The Red Curtain Trilogy, which includes his films Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...
in the 1993 film Strictly Ballroom
Strictly Ballroom
Strictly Ballroom is a 1992 Australian romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann and produced by M&A Productions. The film is the first installment in The Red Curtain Trilogy, Luhrmann's trilogy of theatre-motif-related films; the follow-ups were Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...
. The quirks of Australian multiculturalism have also provided fodder for comedy: from They're a Weird Mob
They're a Weird Mob
They're a Weird Mob is a 1966 film based on the novel of the same name by John O'Grady under the pen name "Nino Culotta", the name of the main character of the book. It was one of the last collaborations of the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...
(1966) about an Italian immigrant adapting to Sydney life; to the works of Vietnamese refugee Anh Do
Anh Do
Anh Do is a Vietnamese Australian author, actor and stand-up comedian.He has appeared on many Australian TV shows such as Thank God You're Here and Good News Week, and was runner-up on Dancing With The Stars in 2007. He studied a combined Business Law degree at the University of Technology, Sydney...
and Egyptian born Akmal Saleh
Akmal Saleh
Akmal Saleh is an Australian comedian and actor. He was born in Egypt and arrived in Sydney, Australia with his family in 1975 at the age of 11. He has been performing stand-up comedy since the early 1990s and his live shows have toured comedy festivals both within Australia and internationally...
; the Guido Hatzis
Guido Hatzis
Guido Hatzis is a Greek-Australian comic character created by Australian comedians Tony Moclair and Julian Schiller and voiced by Moclair. Guido appeared originally on Schiller and Moclair's radio program "Crud" on the Australian Radio Network Triple M....
parody and Nick Giannopoulos
Nick Giannopoulos
Nick Giannopoulos is a Australian stand-up comedian, film and TV actor. He is best known for his comedy stage show Wogs Out of Work alongside George Kapiniaris and the television sitcom Acropolis Now and is an exponent of wog comedy.-Early life:Nick is an actor/writer/producer/director...
' Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos
Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos
The Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos is a 2010 Australian motion picture comedy sequel to the 2000 film The Wog Boy, starring Nick Giannopoulos, Vince Colosimo and Costas Kilias. It was released in Australia on 20 May 2010 and UK on 7 January 2011.-Plot:...
(2010) about second generation Australian Greeks returning to their ancestral home. Actor Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo AM is an Indigenous Australian actor and television presenter originating from the Yamatji people of the Murchison region of Western Australia.-Background:...
is perhaps the best known Aboriginal Australian comedic performing artist.
Formative years: early Australian comedy
While the convicts of the early colonial periodHistory of Australia (1788-1850)
The history of Australia from 1788–1850 covers the early colonies period of Australia's history, from the arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Sydney to establish the penal colony of New South Wales in 1788 to the European exploration of the continent and establishment of other colonies...
helped establish anti-authorianism as a hallmark of Australian comedy, Watkin Tench
Watkin Tench
Lieutenant-General Watkin Tench was a British Marine officer who is best known for publishing two books describing his experiences in the First Fleet, which established the first settlement in Australia in 1788...
, an officer of the marines on the First Fleet
First Fleet
The First Fleet is the name given to the eleven ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 with about 1,487 people, including 778 convicts , to establish the first European colony in Australia, in the region which Captain Cook had named New South Wales. The fleet was led by Captain ...
, reflected on the irreverent humour of his friends among the Aborigines of Sydney. Influential in the establishment of stoic, dry wit as a characteristic of Australian humour were the bush ballad
Bush ballad
Bush songs or bush ballads are a folk music and poetry tradition in Australia's outback. The rhyming songs, poems and tales often relate to the itinerant and rebellious spirit of Australia, a young country. The lyrical tradition of bush songs was born of settlers and influenced by Aboriginal...
eers of the 19th century, including Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
, author of The Loaded Dog
The Loaded Dog
"The Loaded Dog" is a humorous short story by Australian writer Henry Lawson. The plot concerns three gold miners and their dog, and the farcical consequences of leaving a bomb cartridge unattended...
. His contemporary Banjo Paterson
Banjo Paterson
Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood...
contributed such classic comic poems as Mulga Bill's Bicycle
Mulga Bill's Bicycle
"Mulga Bill's Bicycle" is a poem written in 1896 by Banjo Paterson.The poem is a ballad. Each line is a fourteener, having fourteen syllables and seven iambic feet....
, The Geebung Polo Club and Bush Christening. Early novelist Joseph Furphy
Joseph Furphy
Joseph Furphy , is widely regarded as the "Father of the Australian novel". He mostly wrote under the pseudonym Tom Collins, and is best known for his novel Such is Life , regarded as an Australian classic.-Biography:Furphy was born at Yering Station in Yering, Victoria...
wrote in the Australian vernacular and the poet CJ Dennis reflected a sense of Australian identity and humour in the Australian vernacular - notably in "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is a verse novel by Australian novelist and poet C. J. Dennis. The book sold over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year, and is probably one of the highest selling verse novels ever published in Australia....
", which chronicles the courtship and marriage of a larrikin called Bill and his girl, Doreen: including a trip to the theatre: "This Romeo 'e's lurkin' wiv a crew -- A dead tough crowd o' crooks -- called Montague". The Dad and Dave series about a pioneer farming family was an enduring hit of the early 20th century. Australia's ANZAC troops of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
were said to often display a streak of irreverence in their relations with superior officers and dark humour in the face of battle. Books like Norman Lindsay
Norman Lindsay
Norman Alfred William Lindsay was an Australian artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler, and boxer. He was born in Creswick, Victoria....
's The Magic Pudding
The Magic Pudding
The Magic Pudding: Being The Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff is an Australian children's book written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay. It is a comic fantasy, and a classic of Australian children's literature....
use humorous anthropomorphism to transform the animals of the Australian bush into a classic work of Australian children's literature.
Vaudeville stars like Roy Rene
Roy Rene
Roy Rene , born Harry van der Sluys, was an Australian comedian and vaudevillian. As the bawdy character Mo McCackie, Rene was one of the most well-known and successful Australian comedians of the 20th century. Roy Rene was born in Adelaide in the 15 of February 1892 with the name Harry van der...
'Mo' toured with the Tivoli Circuit prior to the arrival of radio. Mo, in baggy trousers and battered top hat and using Australian English catchphrases like "'Strike me lucky' and 'Don't come the raw prawn with me' became Australia's most successful variety star and began performing on radio in 1946. The arrival of television in 1956 assisted in the demise of the large vaudeville theatres and a switch to small venue "comedy revues" - notably the Melbourne University Revues.
Modern Australian comedy
Character creations
The satirical character creations of Barry HumphriesBarry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
include housewife and "gigastar" Dame Edna Everage; and "Australian cultural attaché to the Court of St. James's
Court of St. James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...
" Sir Les Patterson, whose interests include boozing, chasing women and flatulence. Edna made her first appearance in a Melbourne University's UTRC revue at the end of 1955, as the city prepared for the 1956 Olympic Games
1956 Summer Olympics
The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...
. Humphries says his creations "encourage people to look at Australia critically and with affection and humour". Humphries first performed the Edna character to a London audience in 1969 and after initial bewilderment, British audiences came to adore the antipodean house-wife parody. Humphries honed the character to satirise vices from snobbery to celebrity-worship and later succeeded in the United States. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist
Absurdism
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any...
humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time … [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
".
Impersonators of the famous with wide followings have included Gerry Connolly
Gerry Connolly (comedian)
Gerard William "Gerry" Connolly is an Australian comedian, actor, impressionist and pianist. He is best known for his satirical caricatures of public figures such as Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher, Joh Bjelke-Peterson, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Bill Collins and Dame Joan...
, Max Gillies
Max Gillies
Max Gillies AM is an Australian actor.Gillies was a founding member of the experimental theatre company, the Australian Performing Group, which was active throughout the 1970s....
and Billy Birmingham
Billy Birmingham
Billy Birmingham is an Australian humourist and sometime sports journalist, most noted for his parodies of Australian cricket commentary in recordings under The Twelfth Man name. He was the writer of the comedy hit Australiana which was made famous by performer Austen Tayshus...
(The Twelfth Man
The Twelfth Man
The Twelfth Man is the name for a series of comedy productions by Australian satirist Billy Birmingham. Birmingham, a skilled impersonator, is generally known for parodying Australian sports commentators' voices...
). Conolly's best known impersonation is of the Queen, while Gillies has made a career out of political impersonations on programs such as The Gillies Report
The Gillies Report
The Gillies Report was an Australian satirical television series that was broadcast on the ABC between 1984 and 1985. The program was notorious for sending up politicians and media personalities of the day such as Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Opposition Leader Andrew Peacock.The show starred Max...
and Birmingham has had success sending up well-known Australian sports commentators, notably Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud
Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....
and the Channel Nine
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
cricket commentary team. The flamboyant "Bob Downe" character is a cheesy, safari-suit-wearing lounge singer and exponent of camp humour. Elliot Goblet
Elliot Goblet
Elliot Goblet is a character created by the Australian comedian Jack Levi.The character is renowned for his deadpan delivery of quirky one-liners - his style can draw comparisons with that of the American comic Steven Wright...
delivers quirky deadpan stand up. Representatives of the "bawdy" strain of Australian comedy include Rodney Rude
Rodney Rude
Rodney Rude is an Australian 'blue' stand-up comedian, poet and writer. He is infamous for his bawdy humour. He has released 12 albums and 5 videos throughout his long career, all of which are distributed by EMI Music Australia. To date, Rodney has sold well in excess of 3 million CDs videos and...
and Austen Tayshus
Austen Tayshus
Austen Tayshus is the stage name of Jewish Australian comedian Alexander Jacob Gutman. He is best known for the comedy single "Australiana", a spoken word piece filled with Australian puns.-Biography:...
. Tayshus' first single "Australiana
Australiana (song)
Australiana was the #1 single in Australia in 1983 for eight consecutive weeks. It is a spoken-word comedy by Austen Tayshus, written by Billy Birmingham....
" became the biggest selling single in Australian recording history. A spoken word piece, it is filled with Australian puns: :
Song
Chad MorganChad Morgan
Chadwick William "Chad" Morgan is an Australian singer and guitarist known for his vaudeville style of comic country and western songs, his prominent teeth and goofy stage persona. In reference to his first recording he is known as The Sheik of Scrubby Creek.- Biography :Morgan was born in...
(The Sheik of Scrubby Creek
The Sheik of Scrubby Creek
The Sheik of Scrubby Creek is the debut album of country singer Chad Morgan.-Track listing:#"I'm the Sheik of Scrubby Creek" – 2:23#"You Can Have Your Women, I'll Stick to My Booze" – 2:17#"The Bachelor's Warning" – 2:27#"The Shotgun Wedding" – 2:27...
) has been a popular exponent of vaudeville Australian country music
Australian country music
Australian country music is a part of the music of Australia. There is a broad range of styles, from bluegrass, to yodelling to folk to the more popular. The genre has been influenced by Celtic and English folk music, by the traditions of Australian bush balladeers, as well as by popular American...
for several decades. His songs are peppered with Australian slang: sheilas, drongos, dills and geezers. The breakthrough hits of leading Australian country music stars Slim Dusty
Slim Dusty
David Gordon "Slim Dusty " Kirkpatrick AO, MBE was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and producer, with a career spanning nearly eight decades. He was known to record songs in the legacy of Australian poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson that represented the Australian Bush...
and John Williamson
John Williamson (singer)
John Robert Williamson AM is an Australian country music singer-songwriter. Williamson has released over thirty-two albums, ten videos, five DVDs, and two lyric books...
might both be considered comic novelty songs: Dusty's Pub With No Beer
Pub with No Beer
A Pub With No Beer is the title of a humorous country song made famous by country singers Slim Dusty and Bobbejaan Schoepen ....
(1957) and Williamson's Old Man Emu (1970). Dusty's hit was the first Australian single to reach the international pop charts. It begins with mock profundity:
Williamson was influenced by Australian folk-singer, artist and broadcaster Rolf Harris
Rolf Harris
Rolf Harris, CBE, AM is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, painter and television personality.Born in Perth, Western Australia, Harris was a champion swimmer before studying art. He moved to England in 1952, where he started to appear on television programmes on which he drew the...
and his novelty hit Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport. Harris built an extraordinarily successful career in Britain as a broadcaster and entertainer. Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport is one of his many Australian themed comic hits and tells the sorry tale of a dying stockmen instructing his comrades on what to do upon his passing:
Popular novelty hits of recent decades have included The Twelfth Man
The Twelfth Man
The Twelfth Man is the name for a series of comedy productions by Australian satirist Billy Birmingham. Birmingham, a skilled impersonator, is generally known for parodying Australian sports commentators' voices...
(Billy Birmingham)'s sports commentary parody Marvellous;; the Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson
Pauline Lee Hanson is an Australian politician and former leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a political party with a populist and anti-multiculturalism platform...
send up I Don't Like It by Pauline Pantsdown
Pauline Pantsdown
Simon Hunt, sometimes known as Pauline Pantsdown, is an Australian satirist and Australian Senate candidate who parodied Pauline Hanson, a controversial former member of federal parliament, in 1997. His birth name was Simon Hunt, but he changed his name by deed poll so that he would appear on the...
; and the "bogan
Bogan
The term bogan is Australian slang, usually pejorative or self-deprecating, for an individual who is recognised to be from a lower class background or someone whose limited education, speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour exemplifies such a background....
anthem" Bloke by tattooed, mulleted stand up comic Chris Franklin
Chris Franklin
Chris Franklin is an Australian stand up comedian and former sailor for the Royal Australian Navy. He is most famous for writing the song "Bloke" , which reached #1 on the ARIA Charts in 2000...
.
Cinema
Cinema of Australia
Cinema of Australia, more commonly referred to as the Australian film industry, refers to the system of production, distribution, and exhibition of films in Australia. Film production commenced in Australia in 1906 with the production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, the earliest feature film made...
has a long history and Australia was a pioneer in the production of feature films. Among early hits of Australian cinema were silent classics like Raymond Longford
Raymond Longford
Raymond Longford was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian cinema. He formed a production team with Lottie Lyell...
's The Sentimental Bloke
The Sentimental Bloke
The Sentimental Bloke is an Australian silent film based on the 1915 poem The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C.J. Dennis.The film, from the Southern Cross Feature Film Company of Adelaide, was made by Raymond Longford and Lottie Lyell, at that time the best known partnership in Australian cinema...
(1919) and the Cinesound series of films based on Steele Rudd
Steele Rudd
Steele Rudd was the pseudonym of Arthur Hoey Davis an Australian author, best known for On Our Selection.-Early life:...
's Dad and Dave characters of the 1930s. A century of Australian film was marked in 1995 with an homage remake of Steele Rudd's On Our Selection
Dad and Dave: On Our Selection (1995 film)
Dad and Dave: On Our Selection is an Australian comedy film, based on the characters and writings of author Steele Rudd. It is set in late nineteenth century colonial Queensland, but largely filmed in Braidwood, New South Wales...
featuring Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
and some of Australia's most acclaimed character actors: Leo McKern
Leo McKern
Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...
, Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
and Noah Taylor
Noah Taylor
Noah George Taylor is an English-born Australian actor.-Early life:Taylor, elder of two boys, was born in London, England, the son of Maggie, a journalist and book editor, and Paul Taylor, a copywriter and journalist. Taylor's Australian parents returned to Australia when he was five, and he grew...
.
Australians have a strong tradition of self-mockery in their comedy, from the outlandish Barry McKenzie
Barry McKenzie
Barry "Bazza" McKenzie is a fictional character originally created by the Australian comedian Barry Humphries for a comic strip, written by Humphries and drawn by New Zealand artist Nicholas Garland, in the British satirical magazine Private Eye.-Background:The Private Eye comic strips were...
expat-in-Europe movies of the 1970s, to the quirky outback characters of the Crocodile Dundee
Crocodile Dundee
"Crocodile" Dundee is a 1986 Australian comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as Sue Charlton....
films of the 1980s and the Working Dog Productions
Working Dog Productions
Working Dog Productions is a small film and television production company based in Melbourne, Australia. It was originally known as Frontline Television Productions Pty Ltd...
' 1997 homage to suburbia The Castle
The Castle (film)
The Castle is a 1997 Australian comedy film directed by Rob Sitch. It starred Michael Caton, Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Sophie Lee, Eric Bana and Charles 'Bud' Tingwell. The screenwriting team comprised Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Jane Kennedy of Working Dog Productions.The Castle was...
.
Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan, AM is an Australian actor best known for his role as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee from the Crocodile Dundee film series, for which he won a Golden Globe award.-Early life and career:...
's Aussie bushman-in-New York/fish-out-of-water comedy romance Crocodile Dundee was a huge international hit - becoming the most successful foreign film ever released in the United States. Other than Hogan in the lead role, the film series features such veteran Australian comedic actors as John Meillon
John Meillon
John Meillon was an Australian actor, most widely known outside Australia for his role as Walter Reilly in the films "Crocodile" Dundee and "Crocodile" Dundee II. He also voiced Victoria Bitter beer commercials until his death.-Biography:Meillon was born in Mosman, Sydney...
, David Gulpilil
David Gulpilil
David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu , is an Indigenous Australian traditional dancer and actor. His first starring role was Walkabout....
and Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo AM is an Indigenous Australian actor and television presenter originating from the Yamatji people of the Murchison region of Western Australia.-Background:...
. Australian cinema's all time top-ten box-office hits include several other comedies: the barn yard animation Babe
Babe (film)
Babe is a 1995 Australian-American film directed by Chris Noonan. It is an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the United States, by Dick King-Smith and tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheepdog...
(1995), directed by Chris Noonan
Chris Noonan
Chris Noonan is a Sydney-based Australian filmmaker and actor best known for the pioneering live-action / CG film Babe, for which he received Academy Award nominations as both director and writer.-Biography:...
; George Miller's animation Happy Feet
Happy Feet
Happy Feet is a 2006 American-Australian computer-animated family film with music, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions and was released...
(2006); Baz Lurhmann's musical Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 romantic jukebox musical film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. Following the Red Curtain Cinema principles, the film is based on the Orphean myth, La Traviata, and La Bohème...
(2001); Crocodile Dundee 2 (1988); Strictly Ballroom
Strictly Ballroom
Strictly Ballroom is a 1992 Australian romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann and produced by M&A Productions. The film is the first installment in The Red Curtain Trilogy, Luhrmann's trilogy of theatre-motif-related films; the follow-ups were Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...
(1992); Rob Sitch
Rob Sitch
Robert Ian Sitch , is an Australian director, producer, screenwriter, actor and comedian.-Early life:Sitch attended St Kevin's College and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Melbourne, where he resided at Trinity College. He worked at the Royal Womans Hospital...
's The Dish
The Dish
The Dish is a 2000 Australian film that tells the story of how the Parkes Observatory was used to relay the live television of man's first steps on the moon, during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969...
(2000); and Stephan Elliott
Stephan Elliott
Stephan Elliott is an Australian film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Elliott began his career as an assistant director working in the boom of the Australian film industry of the 1980s....
's dragqueens-in-the-outback comedy drama The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a 1994 Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot is based on the journey of three drag queens who travel across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named...
(1994).
Other successes at the Australian box office include: 1966's They're a Weird Mob
They're a Weird Mob
They're a Weird Mob is a 1966 film based on the novel of the same name by John O'Grady under the pen name "Nino Culotta", the name of the main character of the book. It was one of the last collaborations of the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...
; the Alvin Purple
Alvin Purple
Alvin Purple was a 1973 Australian comedy film starring Graeme Blundell, written by Alan Hopgood and directed by Tim Burstall.It received largely negative reviews from local film critics. Despite this it was a major hit with Australian audiences...
and the Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
-Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...
Barry McKenzie
Barry McKenzie
Barry "Bazza" McKenzie is a fictional character originally created by the Australian comedian Barry Humphries for a comic strip, written by Humphries and drawn by New Zealand artist Nicholas Garland, in the British satirical magazine Private Eye.-Background:The Private Eye comic strips were...
movies of the 1970's (of the "Ozploitation
Ozploitation
Ozploitation films are a type of low budget horror, comedy and action films made in Australia after the introduction of the R rating in 1971. The year also marked the beginnings of the Australian New Wave movement, and the Ozploitation style peaked within the same time frame...
" genre); 1987's Young Einstein
Young Einstein
Young Einstein is an Australian comedy film directed by and starring Yahoo Serious, released in 1988.-Plot:Albert Einstein, the son of an apple farmer in Tasmania in the early 1900s, splits a beer atom with a chisel in order to add bubbles to beer, discovers the theory of relativity and travels to...
; 1990's The Big Steal
The Big Steal (1990 film)
The Big Steal is a 1990 Australian caper film directed by Nadia Tass starring Ben Mendelsohn, Claudia Karvan and Steve Bisley. David Parker was the scriptwriter and cinematographer. The film won three Australian Film Institute awards.-Plot:...
, 1992's Spotswood
Spotswood (film)
Spotswood is an Australian comedy film directed by Mark Joffe, made in 1990-1991, released in 1992 in some locations. It is also known as The Efficiency Expert in America....
1994's Muriel's Wedding
Muriel's Wedding
Muriel's Wedding is a 1994 Australian-French romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by P. J. Hogan. The film, which stars actresses Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Sophie Lee, and Bill Hunter, focuses on the socially awkward Muriel whose ambition is to have a glamorous wedding and improve...
; 1994's The Sum of Us
The Sum of Us (film)
The Sum of Us is a 1994 Australian film version of the play The Sum of Us. Directed by Kevin Dowling and Geoff Burton, the film starred Russell Crowe and Jack Thompson...
; 1999's The Craic
The Craic
The Craic is a 1999 Australian comedy film starring Jimeoin and Alan McKee and directed by Ted Emery.-Plot:Two Irish actors flee from 1988 Belfast after a violent confrontation with a leader of the IRA and illegally enter Australia. Seeking acting work, the two fear immigration officers...
and Nick Giannopoulos
Nick Giannopoulos
Nick Giannopoulos is a Australian stand-up comedian, film and TV actor. He is best known for his comedy stage show Wogs Out of Work alongside George Kapiniaris and the television sitcom Acropolis Now and is an exponent of wog comedy.-Early life:Nick is an actor/writer/producer/director...
' Wog Boy comedies. Clayton Jacobson
Clayton Jacobson (Film Director)
Clayton Jacobson is an Australian film director, writer, producer, and editor. His debut feature film was Kenny. Kenny was released in 2006 in Australia to critical acclaim, winning a number of awards....
's successful 2006 comedy debut Kenny
Kenny (2006 film)
Kenny is a 2006 Australian mockumentary film starring Shane Jacobson as Kenny Smyth, a Melbourne plumber who works for corporate bathroom rental company Splashdown....
, starring Shane Jacobson
Shane Jacobson
Shane Jacobson is an Australian actor, director, writer, and comedian, best known for his performance as the eponymous character Kenny Smyth in the 2006 film Kenny...
followed the life of a Melbourne plumber working for a corporate bathroom rental company called Splashdown. Crackerjack is a 2002 film starring Mick Molloy
Mick Molloy
Michael "Mick" Molloy is an Australian comedian, writer and producer who has been active in the fields of radio, television, stand-up and film.-Biography:...
and Bill Hunter
Bill Hunter (actor)
William John "Bill" Hunter was an Australian actor of film, stage and television. He appeared in more than 60 films and won two Australian Film Institute Awards.-Early life:Hunter was a son of William and Francie Hunter...
in which a wisecracking layabout (Molloy) joins a seniors lawn bowls club in order to be allowed to use a free parking space and discovers a villainous plot against the club. The 2009 clay-animation black comedy Mary and Max
Mary and Max
Mary and Max is a 2009 Australian clay-animated black comedy-drama film written and directed by Adam Elliot and produced by Melanie Coombs. The voice cast included Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Eric Bana, Bethany Whitmore, with narration by Barry Humphries. The film premiered on the...
brought together the voices of Australian comic character actors Barry Humphries, Eric Bana
Eric Bana
Eric Bana is an Australian film and television actor. He began his career as a comedian in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal before gaining critical recognition in the biopic Chopper...
and Toni Collette
Toni Collette
Antonia "Toni" Collette is an Australian actress and musician, known for her acting work on stage, television and film as well as a secondary career as the lead singer of the band Toni Collette & the Finish....
.
The 2006 comedy-drama Ten Canoes
Ten Canoes
Ten Canoes is a 2006 film. It was directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr and starred Crusoe Kurddal. The title of the film arose from discussions between de Heer and David Gulpilil about a photograph of ten canoeists poling across the Arafura Swamp, taken by anthropologist Donald Thomson in...
, directed by Rolf de Heer
Rolf de Heer
Rolf de Heer is a Dutch film director, writer and producer living in Australia. De Heer was born in Heemskerk in The Netherlands but migrated to Sydney when he was eight years old. He attended the Australian Film Television and Radio School in Sydney. His company is called Vertigo Productions and...
and Peter Djigirr, is notable for its setting in pre-European Australia
Prehistory of Australia
The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the first definitive sighting of Australia by Europeans in 1606, which may be taken as the beginning of the recent history of Australia...
.
Television
The vaudeville talents of Graham Kennedy
Graham Kennedy
Graham Cyril Kennedy, AO was an Australian radio, television and film performer, often called Gra Gra and The King of Australian television.-Childhood:...
, Don Lane
Don Lane
Don Lane , born Morton Donald Isaacson, was an American-born talk show host and singer. Don Lane is best known for hosting The Don Lane Show, which was aired on The Nine Network in Australia from 1975 to 1983....
and Bert Newton
Bert Newton
Albert Watson "Bert" Newton, AM, MBE is an Australian television personality, known for hosting television series such as In Melbourne Tonight, Good Morning Australia and 20 to 1. Newton has also hosted the Logie Awards on numerous occasions through his career.-Early life:Newton was born in...
earned popular success during the early years of Australian television. Kennedy hosted the groundbreaking In Melbourne Tonight
In Melbourne Tonight
In Melbourne Tonight, also known as "IMT", was a highly popular nightly variety television show produced at GTV-9 Melbourne from 6 May 1957 to 1970....
(IMT) from 1957 to 1970, becoming known as "The King of Australian Comedy". He also hosted the popular innuedno-laden 1970s game show Blankety Blanks
Blankety Blanks
Blankety Blanks was a popular Australian game show based on the American game show Match Game. It was hosted by Graham Kennedy on Network Ten. It ran from 1977-1978.Regular panelists were Ugly Dave Gray, Noeline Brown, Carol Raye and Stuart Wagstaff...
. His quick witted IMT offsider Bert Newton remains one of the most enduring comic talents of Australian television, presenting a string of programs and hosting the Logie Awards more often than any other presenter. The variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday
Hey Hey It's Saturday
Hey Hey It's Saturday was a long-running variety television program on Australian television. It initially ran for 27 years , debuting on the Nine Network on 9 October 1971 and broadcasting its last episode on 20 November 1999. Its host throughout its entire run was Daryl Somers, who would later...
, hosted by Daryl Somers
Daryl Somers
Daryl Paul Somers OAM , is an Australian television personality. The son of a dairy farmer and a cabaret singer, Somers rose to national fame as the host of the long-running comedy-variety program Hey Hey It's Saturday.-Early life:Somers, who has an Irish Catholic heritage, was educated at...
screened for three decades and featured the ever-popular amateur comedian segment: "Red Faces" in which often bizarre and occasionally skilled acts would perform before celebrity judges.
My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?
My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?
My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? was a popular Australian situation comedy series produced by ATN7 from 1966 to 1968.The situation involved a young couple, Wally and Rita Stiller , living in Balmain with Rita's father Dominic McGooley . Also in the regular cast was Stewart Ginn, and later Noeline...
was a popular sitcom of the 1960s. Among the best loved Australian sitcoms was Mother & Son, about a divorcee (played by Garry McDonald) who had moved back into the suburban home of his mother (Ruth Cracknell
Ruth Cracknell
Ruth Cracknell AM was an Australian theatre and television character actress who appeared in many comedy roles. She was known variously as "Crackers", "Dame Crackers" and "Dame Ruth" throughout a career spanning 56 years....
). Sitcom Kingswood Country
Kingswood Country
Kingswood Country is an Australian sitcom that screened from 1980 to 1984 on the Seven Network. The series started on 30 January 1980 and was a spin-off from a sketch on comedy program The Naked Vicar Show that had featured Ross Higgins as a blustering bigot...
depicted the shifting face of Australia in the 1980s with bigotted patriarch "Ted" Bullpitt (Ross Higgins
Ross Higgins
Ross Higgins is an Australian actor, best known for his role as Ted Bulpitt in the television situation comedy series Kingswood Country....
) having to come to terms with his migrant son-in-law. Acropolis Now
Acropolis Now
Acropolis Now was an Australian sitcom set in a Greek bar of the same name that ran for 63 episodes from 1989 to 1992 on the Seven Network. It was created by Nick Giannopoulos, George Kapiniaris and Simon Palomares, who also starred in the series. They were already quite well known for their comedy...
further reflected the ongoing demographic changes, set amongst the inner working of a Greek Cafe with a cast of exaggerated "Aussie-Greeks": Nick Giannopoulos
Nick Giannopoulos
Nick Giannopoulos is a Australian stand-up comedian, film and TV actor. He is best known for his comedy stage show Wogs Out of Work alongside George Kapiniaris and the television sitcom Acropolis Now and is an exponent of wog comedy.-Early life:Nick is an actor/writer/producer/director...
as "Jim" and Mary Coustas
Mary Coustas
Mary Coustas is an Australian television personality. Originally from Melbourne, Coustas often performs as the character "Effie": a stereotypical second-generation Greek Australian...
as the memorable "Effie
Effie
"Effie" is an outrageous comedic character played by Australian actress Mary Coustas. Coustas depicts a stereotypical second-generation Greek Australian....
". Ethnic humour also formed a central plank of the comedy in SBS television's offbeat Pizza
Pizza (TV series)
Pizza is an Australian black comedy television series on the Australian television network, SBS. It has also spun off a feature length movie in 2003, and in 2004 released a highlights video/DVD which also included previously unshown footage and a schoolies exposé theatre show entitled "Fat Pizza"...
TV series, which included regular Arab and Asian characters and presented pizza delivery in the suburbs of Sydney as "one of the most dangerous jobs in the world".
Nevertheless, sketch comedy rather than the sitcom formula has been a popular stalwart of Australian television. The Mavis Bramston Show
The Mavis Bramston Show
The Mavis Bramston Show was a popular and award-winning Australian TV satirical sketch comedy series of the mid-1960s.-Introduction:The tremendous impact that The Mavis Bramston Show had in Australia in the mid-1960s was heightened because of its unique place in the history of the Australian TV...
and later The Naked Vicar Show
The Naked Vicar Show
The Naked Vicar Show was a satirical Australian radio, television series. The classic Australian sitcom Kingswood Country was spawned from sketches in the series....
and The Paul Hogan Show
The Paul Hogan Show
The Paul Hogan Show was a popular Australian comedy show which aired on Australian television from 1973 until 1984. It made a star of Paul Hogan who later appeared in Crocodile Dundee. Hogan's friend also appeared in the show, playing Hogan's dim flatmate Strop...
achieved great popularity in the 1970s. Notable programs of recent decades have included The Comedy Company
The Comedy Company
The Comedy Company was an Australian comedy television series first aired from 16 February 1988 until about 11 November 1990 on Network Ten, Sunday night and was created and directed by Ian McFadyen, and co directed and produced by Jo Lane...
in the 1980s, which featured the comic talents of Mary-Anne Fahey
Mary-Anne Fahey
Mary-Anne Fahey is an Australian actor, comedian and writer.-Biography:Fahey has starred in and written for comedy programs including The Comedy Company, Kittson, Fahey , Get a Life and One Size Fits All...
, Ian McFadyen
Ian McFadyen
Ian McFadyen is an Australian writer, actor, and director. He is best known as the producer and performer on the Australian television series The Comedy Company which ran from 16 February 1988 to 11 November 1990...
, Mark Mitchell, Glenn Robbins
Glenn Robbins
Glenn Maxwell Robbins is an Australian comedian, writer and actor.Robbins attended Strathmore Secondary College and graduated in 1975...
, Kym Gyngell
Kym Gyngell
Kym Gyngell is an Australian AFI award winning comedian and film, television and stage actor...
and others. The show focussed on suburban life with regular characters: the Greek fruit shop owner Con, the inarticulate and unemployed Col'n Carpenter, school girl Kylie Mole and elderly Uncle Arthur
Glenn Robbins
Glenn Maxwell Robbins is an Australian comedian, writer and actor.Robbins attended Strathmore Secondary College and graduated in 1975...
became household names. The shows catchphrases such as Con's "coupla days" and "bewdiful" entered the Australian vernacular. In August 1989, then Prime Minister Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
appeared in a The Comedy Company sketch with Mitchell on the premise of presenting Con with Australian citizenship. In reply to Con's question as to when Hawke was going to fix up the country, Hawke took delight in responding "a coupla days".
Growing out of Melbourne University and The D-Generation
The D-Generation
The D-Generation was a popular and influential Australian TV sketch comedy show, produced and broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for two series, between 1986 and 1987...
came The Late Show
The Late Show (Australian TV series)
The Late Show was a popular Australian comedy show, which ran for two seasons on ABC from 18 July 1992 to 30 October 1993.-Cast:The Late Show has its roots in the 1980s comedy group, The D-Generation...
(1991-1993), starring the influential talents Santo Cilauro
Santo Cilauro
Santo Cilauro is an Australian television and feature film producer, screenwriter, actor, author, comedian and cameraman, a co-founder of The D-Generation...
, Tom Gleisner
Tom Gleisner
Tom Gleisner is an Australian director, producer, writer, comedian, occasional actor and author. He was educated at Xavier College in Melbourne, Australia.-Television, radio and film:...
, Jane Kennedy
Jane Kennedy (actor)
Jane Kennedy is an Australian actress, comedian, radio presenter, and television producer best known for her work with the Working Dog Productions – a tight-knit group of performers responsible for a variety of television and films....
, Tony Martin
Tony Martin (comedian)
Tony Francis Martin is a comedian and writer from Te Kuiti, New Zealand who has had a successful TV, radio, stand-up and film career in Australia.- Career :...
, Mick Molloy
Mick Molloy
Michael "Mick" Molloy is an Australian comedian, writer and producer who has been active in the fields of radio, television, stand-up and film.-Biography:...
and Rob Sitch
Rob Sitch
Robert Ian Sitch , is an Australian director, producer, screenwriter, actor and comedian.-Early life:Sitch attended St Kevin's College and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Melbourne, where he resided at Trinity College. He worked at the Royal Womans Hospital...
; and during the 1980s and 1990s Fast Forward (Steve Vizard
Steve Vizard
Stephen William Vizard, born 6 March 1956 in Richmond, Victoria, is an Australian media personality, comedian, businessman and writer.-Early life:...
, Magda Szubanski
Magda Szubanski
Magda Szubanski is a British-born Australian actress, comedian, television presenter, radio host and author.Szubanski's career began while she was studying at university and she progressed to television sketch comedy, as both a writer and performer...
, Marg Downey
Marg Downey
-Career:Downey first rose to prominence in the sketch comedy program The D-Generation on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the late 1980s. She subsequently appeared in later sketch comedy series with other members of The D-Generation, including Fast Forward, Full Frontal and Something Stupid...
, Michael Veitch
Michael Veitch
Michael Veitch is an Australian comedian, author and broadcaster, best known for his roles on the sketch comedy television shows The D-Generation, Fast Forward and Full Frontal, as well as for his books on Second World War aviation and the Bass Strait Islands.Veitch emerged from the tradition of...
, Peter Moon
Peter Moon (comedian)
Peter Moon is an Australian comedian, best known for writing and performing in the sketch comedy Fast Forward....
and others) and successor Full Frontal
Full Frontal (TV series)
Full Frontal was an Australian sketch comedy series which debuted in 1993. The show first aired on the Seven Network on 13 May 1993, and finished on 18 September 1997....
- which launched the career of Eric Bana
Eric Bana
Eric Bana is an Australian film and television actor. He began his career as a comedian in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal before gaining critical recognition in the biopic Chopper...
and featured Shaun Micallef
Shaun Micallef
Shaun Patrick Micallef is an Australian actor, comedian and writer. After ten years of working in insurance law as a solicitor in Adelaide, Micallef moved to Melbourne to pursue a full-time comedy career in 1993...
. The D-Gen team formed Working Dog Productions
Working Dog Productions
Working Dog Productions is a small film and television production company based in Melbourne, Australia. It was originally known as Frontline Television Productions Pty Ltd...
who have produced a string of hit films and television series: including The Panel talk show, Russell Coight's All Aussie Adventures mockumentary series and Thank God You're Here
Thank God You're Here
Thank God You're Here is an Australian television improvised comedy program created by Working Dog Productions, which premiered on Network Ten on 5 April 2006, and aired for the first three seasons with Seven for the fourth season...
improvisation comedy show.
Rove McManus
Rove McManus
John Henry Michael "Rove" McManus is an Australian comedian, television presenter, producer and media personality. He was the host of the self-titled variety show Rove, and is the owner of the production company Roving Enterprises...
is a three time winner of the Gold Logie award as comedic host of his self-titled chat-variety show. The cerebral wit of such as Clive James
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
, Clive Robertson and Andrew Denton
Andrew Denton
Andrew Christopher Denton is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program Enough Rope. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique...
has been employed to great acclaim in the talk-show interview style.
The Australian tradition of self-mockery runs thick in television comedy. The dysfunctional suburban mother-daughter sitcom Kath & Kim
Kath & Kim
Kath & Kim is a Logie Award-winning character-driven Australian television situation comedy series. The series was created by, and is written by Jane Turner and Gina Riley who play the title characters: a suburban mother and daughter with a dysfunctional relationship...
pokes fun at the accents and attitudes of Australian suburbia. Roy and HG
Roy and HG
Roy & HG is an Australian comedy duo, comprising Greig Pickhaver in the role of "H [Harry] G Nelson" and John Doyle as "'Rampaging' Roy Slaven". Their act is an affectionate but irreverent parody of Australia's obsession with sport. Their characters based on archetypes in sports journalism: Nelson...
provide an affectionate but irreverent parody of Australia's obsession with sport. The Dream with Roy and HG
The Dream with Roy and HG
The Dream with Roy and HG was a sports/comedy talk show, broadcast every night during the Sydney 2000, Salt Lake 2002 and Athens 2004 Olympics, presented by Australian comedy duo Roy and HG....
has been a regular feature of Olympic television coverage in Australia since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Actor/writer Chris Lilley
Chris Lilley (comedian)
-External links:****...
has produced a series of award winning "mockumentary" style television series about "ordinary" Australian characters since 2005.
Cynical satire has had enduring popularity in Australian comedy. Rubbery Figures
Rubbery figures
Rubbery Figures was a satirical rubber puppet series that screened in Australia in various forms from 1984 to 1990. It appeared on TV comedies like The ABC's Rubbery Figures and Fast Forward...
was a satirical rubber puppet series that screened in Australia in various forms from 1984 to 1990 and featured puppet caricatures of leading politicians and businesspeople. The Doug Anthony All Stars
Doug Anthony All Stars
The Doug Anthony All Stars were an Australian musical comedy group who performed together between 1984 and 1994. The band was an acoustic trio comprising Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson on main vocals and Richard Fidler on guitar and backing vocals...
musical comedy group featured Paul McDermott
Paul McDermott (comedian)
Paul McDermott is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, director, singer, artist and television host. He currently hosts the satirical news-based 'Good News World' a follow up to quiz show Good News Week which airs in Australia on Network Ten...
, who later hosted the satirical news-based quiz show Good News Week
Good News Week
Good News Week is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that initially aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and resumed on 11 February 2008 to 9 May 2011. The show aired first on ABC TV before it was bought by Network Ten in 1999...
. The television series Frontline
Frontline (Australian TV series)
Frontline is an Australian comedy television series which satirised Australian television current affairs programmes and reporting. It ran for three series of 13 half-hour episodes and was broadcast on ABC TV in 1994, 1995 and 1997.-Production:...
lampooned the inner workings of Australia's "news and current affairs" TV journalism; The Hollowmen
The Hollowmen
The Hollowmen is an Australian television comedy series set in the offices of the Central Policy Unit, a fictional political advisory unit personally set up by the Prime Minister to help him get re-elected. Their brief is long term vision; to stop worrying about tomorrow's headlines, and focus on...
(2008) was set in the office of the Prime Minister's political advisory (spin) department. The Chaser
The Chaser
The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedian group, known for their television programmes on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation channel. The group take their name from their production of satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste...
series cynically examines domestic and international politics. Satirists John Clarke
John Clarke (satirist)
John Morrison Clarke is a New Zealand-born Australian comedian, writer, and satirist. He was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and has lived in Australia since the late 1970s...
and Bryan Dawe
Bryan Dawe
Bryan John Dawe is best known as an Australian writer, comedian and political satirist, but is also known for his work as a songwriter, photographer and social activist....
have performed together in a long running mock-interview segment on ABC Television's current affairs flagship The 7:30 Report.
Australian tastes can be eclectic when it comes to imported comedy from other English-speaking countries, with long-running American series like M*A*S*H, Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
, Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
and The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
achieving devoted followings in Australia - but so too such quintessentially British comedies as Fawlty Towers
Fawlty Towers
Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Twelve television program episodes were produced . The show was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth, both of whom played major characters...
, Dad's Army
Dad's Army
Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...
, The Goodies
The Goodies
The Goodies are a trio of British comedians who created, wrote, and starred in a surreal British television comedy series called The Goodies during the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches and situation comedy.-Honours:All three Goodies now have OBEs...
, Blackadder
Blackadder
Blackadder is the name that encompassed four series of a BBC1 historical sitcom, along with several one-off instalments. All television programme episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as anti-hero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick...
and The Office
The Office (UK TV series)
The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious...
.
Australian Stand up
Australian stand up comedy is an important aspect of contemporary Australian comedy. Show-piecing the art is the Melbourne International Comedy FestivalMelbourne International Comedy Festival
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the third-largest international comedy festival in the world and the largest cultural event in Australia. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks in April typically opening on or around April Fool's Day...
, which began in 1987 with Barry Humphries as patron and British comic Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
as guest of honour and has grown to attract over 350,000 visitors annually. Stand-up is performed at live venues of all sizes across the nation - from small Pubs to major auditoria. Various television programs like Hey Hey It's Saturday
Hey Hey It's Saturday
Hey Hey It's Saturday was a long-running variety television program on Australian television. It initially ran for 27 years , debuting on the Nine Network on 9 October 1971 and broadcasting its last episode on 20 November 1999. Its host throughout its entire run was Daryl Somers, who would later...
and Rove Live
Rove Live
Rove, formerly Rove Live, was an Australian television talk show which premiered on the Nine Network on 22 September 1999, before moving to Network Ten which aired the program from 2000 until November, 2009. The show was hosted by comedian Rove McManus, and featured an ensemble cast, who presented...
have provided additional exposure to stand up comics.
Among the best known of contemporary stand up comedy performers in Australia are Wil Anderson
Wil Anderson
William James "Wil" Anderson is an Australian comedian, writer, performing stand-up, and television and radio presenter and personality.- Early life :...
, Carl Barron
Carl Barron
Carl Barron is an Australian comedian. His style is based on observational humour. He was born in Longreach, Queensland, the son of a sheep shearer, and formerly worked as an apprentice roof tiler. Barron has released three DVDs, entitled Carl Barron LIVE!, Carl Barron: Whatever Comes Next and...
, Jimeoin
Jimeoin
Jimeoin McKeown, who performs under the name Jimeoin , is a stand-up comedian and actor from Northern Ireland. He came to public attention between 2005 and 2008 while performing an "over the top" comedy tour Australia's outback and major cities, which was filmed for the BBC Northern Ireland...
, Dave Hughes
Dave Hughes
David William "Hughesy" Hughes is an Australian stand-up comedian, radio and television presenter. He is currently co-host on the Network Ten's The Project and Before the Game as well as the breakfast radio show Hughesy and Kate.-Television:Hughes co-hosted the ABC comedy talk show The Glass House...
, Wendy Harmer
Wendy Harmer
Wendy Harmer is an Australian author, writer, radio show host, and comedienne.-Early life and career:...
, Peter Helliar
Peter Helliar
Peter Jason Matthew Helliar is an Australian comedian, actor and writer. Most famous for his work on television as Rove McManus' sidekick on The Loft Live from 1997 to 1998 and on Rove from 1999 and 2009...
, Russell Gilbert
Russell Gilbert
Russell Gilbert , is an Australian comedian and actor from Footscray, Victoria.-Television:He has appeared in several Australian TV comedies, first attracting notice as 'Russ the Postie' on The Comedy Company , which led to a nine year stint on Hey Hey It's Saturday...
, Tony Martin
Tony Martin (comedian)
Tony Francis Martin is a comedian and writer from Te Kuiti, New Zealand who has had a successful TV, radio, stand-up and film career in Australia.- Career :...
, Anh Do
Anh Do
Anh Do is a Vietnamese Australian author, actor and stand-up comedian.He has appeared on many Australian TV shows such as Thank God You're Here and Good News Week, and was runner-up on Dancing With The Stars in 2007. He studied a combined Business Law degree at the University of Technology, Sydney...
, Judith Lucy
Judith Lucy
Judith Mary Lucy is an Australian comedian, known primarily for her stand-up comedy. She has toured Australia with several highly successful one-woman shows, including No Waiter I Ordered the Avocado , King Of The Road , An Impossible Dream , The Show , The Show 2 , Colour Me Judith...
, Mick Molloy
Mick Molloy
Michael "Mick" Molloy is an Australian comedian, writer and producer who has been active in the fields of radio, television, stand-up and film.-Biography:...
and Adam Hills
Adam Hills
Adam Hills is an Australian comedian and television presenter. He has appeared on Australian and British television and is best known for his role hosting the Australian ABC music trivia show Spicks and Specks...
.
Radio
Australian radio has long provided a popular outlet for Australian comedy, since the days of the vaudevillians like Roy ReneRoy Rene
Roy Rene , born Harry van der Sluys, was an Australian comedian and vaudevillian. As the bawdy character Mo McCackie, Rene was one of the most well-known and successful Australian comedians of the 20th century. Roy Rene was born in Adelaide in the 15 of February 1892 with the name Harry van der...
in the 1940s. In recent years, popular comedy DJ duos have included Roy & HG and Merrick and Rosso
Merrick and Rosso
Merrick and Rosso are an Australian comedy duo, Merrick Watts and Tim Ross. The duo began in stand up comedy and first came together when they teamed up for a one off comedy show in 1996...
beginning on JJJ Radio and Martin/Molloy
Martin/Molloy
Martin/Molloy was an Australian radio program starring Tony Martin and Mick Molloy, both formerly of The D-Generation and The Late Show. It was broadcast nationwide on 54 radio stations for two hours on weekday evenings between 1995 and 1998....
, Akmal and Kate Ricthie
Akmal Saleh
Akmal Saleh is an Australian comedian and actor. He was born in Egypt and arrived in Sydney, Australia with his family in 1975 at the age of 11. He has been performing stand-up comedy since the early 1990s and his live shows have toured comedy festivals both within Australia and internationally...
and the Hamish & Andy (radio show)
Hamish & Andy (radio show)
The Hamish & Andy Show , is an Australian radio show created by and starring comedic duo Hamish Blake & Andy Lee. It was broadcast on the Today Network to every state in Australia as well as the ACT for two hours in the key weekday afternoon drivetime slot. Since December 3, 2010, it has moved to...
on the commercial networks.
Cartoons
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
magazine used political cartoons to great effect from the 1880s. Will Dyson
Will Dyson
]William Henry Dyson was an Australian illustrator and political cartoonist.-Early life:Dyson was born at Alfredton, near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, the son of George Dyson, then a hawker and later a mining engineer, and his wife Jane, née Mayall. Dyson was educated at state schools at...
took the Australian style of satirical cartooning to London before the First World War. Later internationally influential Australian cartoonists included Pat Oliphant
Pat Oliphant
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant is the most widely syndicated political cartoonist in the world, described by the New York Times as "the most influential cartoonist now working"...
and Paul Rigby
Paul Rigby
Paul Crispin Rigby AM , usually working under the name Rigby, was an award-winning Australian cartoonist who worked for newspapers in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States....
. Ginger Meggs
Ginger Meggs
Ginger Meggs, a popular long-run Australian comic strip, was created in the early 1920s by Jimmy Bancks. The strip follows the escapades of a red-haired prepubescent mischief-maker who lives in an inner suburban working-class household....
, a popular long-run Australian comic strip, was created in the early 1920s by Jimmy Bancks
Jimmy Bancks
James Charles Bancks or Jimmy Bancks was an Australian cartoonist best known for his comic strip Ginger Meggs....
. The strip follows the escapades of a red-haired prepubescent mischief-maker who lives in an inner suburban working-class household. Stan Cross
Stan Cross
Stanley George Cross was born in the United States but was known as an Australian strip and political cartoonist who drew for Smith’s Weekly and The Herald and Weekly Times...
is famous for his iconic 1933 “For gorsake, stop laughing: this is serious!” cartoon.
Cartoons are today an integral part of political commentary and analysis in Australia. The lyrical cartoons of Michael Leunig
Michael Leunig
Michael Leunig , typically referred to as Leunig, is an Australian poet, cartoonist and cultural commentator. His best known works include The Adventures of Vasco Pyjama and the Curly Flats series...
provide a quirky take on social issues. Patrick Cook
Patrick Cook
Patrick St. John Cook is an Australian cartoonist who is probably best known for his output in The Bulletin, Australia's weekly news magazine...
, Alan Moir
Alan Moir
Alan Moir is an Australian caricaturist and cartoonist who was born in New Zealand. He has been the Editorial Cartoonist for the Sydney Morning Herald since 1984, and previously The Bulletin and Brisbane's Courier-Mail...
, Warren Brown
Warren Brown (cartoonist)
Warren Brown is an Australian cartoonist and television presenter.He has been an editorial newspaper cartoonist since 1986. He is currently cartoonist for the Sydney's Daily Telegraph, for which he also writes a weekly motoring column....
and Cathy Wilcox
Cathy Wilcox
Cathy Wilcox is an Australian cartoonist and children's book illustrator, best known for her work as a cartoonist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers. She has also twice won the Australian Children's Book Council's 'Picture Book of the Year' award...
are prominent contemporary political cartoonists.
Awards and festivals
The annual Melbourne International Comedy FestivalMelbourne International Comedy Festival
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the third-largest international comedy festival in the world and the largest cultural event in Australia. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks in April typically opening on or around April Fool's Day...
(MICF) is one of the largest comedy festivals in the world, and a popular fixture on the city's cultural calendar. More recently the The Sydney Comedy Festival
The Sydney Comedy Festival
The Sydney Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival held in Sydney, Australia.Launched in 2005 as The Cracker Sydney Comedy Festival at a number of inner city venues, the Festival has grown quickly and now attracts 75,000-80,000 patrons every year at venues all across Sydney.In 2011, the...
and Brisbane Comedy Festival were launched.
Raw Comedy Award, supported primarily by the MICF and Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
, is Australia's longest running and well-known national competition for emerging comedians. Heats are held annually around the country and the grand final is held in Melbourne during the festival and recorded for broadcast nationally on Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
television later in the year.
World’s Funniest Island began as an Australian comedy event held on the third weekend in October on Cockatoo Island
Cockatoo Island, New South Wales
Cockatoo Island is the largest island in Sydney Harbour in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located at the junction of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers, Cockatoo Island is a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol. It was also the site of one of Australia's biggest...
, on Sydney Harbour in 2009. The Bald Archy art prize (a parody of the Archibald Prize
Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...
) includes cartoons or humorous works making fun of celebrities and current affairs and is allegedly "judged by a cockatoo".
The annual TV Week Logie Award
Logie Award
The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
s recognise television comedy in the category of "Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy" and the Australian Film Institute
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
offers the annual Australian Film Institute Award for Best Television Comedy Series
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Television Comedy Series
The AACTA Award for Best Television Comedy Series is awarded by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts as part of the AACTA Awards for television for excellence in comedy...
.
Notable comedians
Notable television comedies
See Australian Film Institute Award for Best Television Comedy SeriesAustralian Film Institute Award for Best Television Comedy Series
The AACTA Award for Best Television Comedy Series is awarded by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts as part of the AACTA Awards for television for excellence in comedy...
Notable film comedies
- The Adventures of Barry McKenzieThe Adventures of Barry McKenzieThe Adventures of Barry McKenzie is a 1972 Australian film starring Barry Crocker, telling the story of an Australian 'yobbo' on his travels to the United Kingdom. Barry McKenzie was originally a character created by Barry Humphries for a cartoon strip in Private Eye...
- The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the DesertThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the DesertThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a 1994 Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot is based on the journey of three drag queens who travel across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named...
- Alvin PurpleAlvin PurpleAlvin Purple was a 1973 Australian comedy film starring Graeme Blundell, written by Alan Hopgood and directed by Tim Burstall.It received largely negative reviews from local film critics. Despite this it was a major hit with Australian audiences...
- Babe (film)Babe (film)Babe is a 1995 Australian-American film directed by Chris Noonan. It is an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the United States, by Dick King-Smith and tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheepdog...
- Babe: Pig in the CityBabe: Pig in the CityBabe: Pig in the City is a 1998 sequel to the 1995 film Babe. It occurs in the fictional city of Metropolis. Due to the unexpected darker and more mature subject matter , the film was not received as well as the first Babe film was, as it flopped at the box office and reviews were generally...
- Bad Boy BubbyBad Boy BubbyBad Boy Bubby is an Australian black comedy/drama film written and directed by Rolf de Heer. It stars Nicholas Hope and Carmel Johnson. It was released in 1993....
- Bad EggsBad EggsBad Eggs is a 2003 Australian comedy movie, written and directed by Tony Martin. It stars Mick Molloy, Bob Franklin and Judith Lucy, with Alan Brough, Bill Hunter, Marshall Napier, Nicholas Bell, Steven Vidler, Shaun Micallef, Robyn Nevin, Brett Swain, Denis Moore and Pete Smith having supporting...
- Barry McKenzie Holds His OwnBarry McKenzie Holds His OwnBarry McKenzie Holds His Own is the 1974 sequel to the 1972 Australian comedy film The Adventures of Barry McKenzie.Returning from the original film is Barry Crocker in the title role, as well as Barry Humphries in the role of Barry's aunt, Dame Edna. Also returning in the director's chair is Bruce...
- The Big Steal (1990 film)The Big Steal (1990 film)The Big Steal is a 1990 Australian caper film directed by Nadia Tass starring Ben Mendelsohn, Claudia Karvan and Steve Bisley. David Parker was the scriptwriter and cinematographer. The film won three Australian Film Institute awards.-Plot:...
- Bran Nue Dae (film)Bran Nue Dae (film)Bran Nue Dae is a feature film adaptation of 1990 musical Bran Nue Dae by Jimmy Chi. It was theatrically released in Australia on 14 January 2010, and in the United States on 10 September 2010.-Plot:...
- The Cars That Ate ParisThe Cars that Ate ParisThe Cars That Ate Paris is a 1974 Australian horror comedy film. Directed by Peter Weir, it was his first feature film. Shot mostly in the rural town of Sofala, New South Wales, the film is set in the fictional town of Paris in which most of the inhabitants appear to be directly, or indirectly,...
- The Castle (film)The Castle (film)The Castle is a 1997 Australian comedy film directed by Rob Sitch. It starred Michael Caton, Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Sophie Lee, Eric Bana and Charles 'Bud' Tingwell. The screenwriting team comprised Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Jane Kennedy of Working Dog Productions.The Castle was...
- Chopper (film)Chopper (film)Chopper is a 2000 Australian film, written and directed by New Zealand film-maker Andrew Dominik and based on the semi-autobiographical books by Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read. The film stars Eric Bana as the title character, and co-stars Vince Colosimo, Simon Lyndon, Bill Young and David Field...
- Crackerjack (2002 film)
- The CraicThe CraicThe Craic is a 1999 Australian comedy film starring Jimeoin and Alan McKee and directed by Ted Emery.-Plot:Two Irish actors flee from 1988 Belfast after a violent confrontation with a leader of the IRA and illegally enter Australia. Seeking acting work, the two fear immigration officers...
- "Crocodile" Dundee
- "Crocodile" Dundee II
- The Crocodile Hunter: Collision CourseThe Crocodile Hunter: Collision CourseThe Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course is a 2002 Australian comedy-adventure film based on the nature documentary series The Crocodile Hunter, starring Steve Irwin and his wife Terri Irwin. The Irwins play themselves filming an episode of The Crocodile Hunter while trying to protect a crocodile....
- Dad and Dave: On Our Selection (1995 film)Dad and Dave: On Our Selection (1995 film)Dad and Dave: On Our Selection is an Australian comedy film, based on the characters and writings of author Steele Rudd. It is set in late nineteenth century colonial Queensland, but largely filmed in Braidwood, New South Wales...
- Dirty Deeds (2002 film)Dirty Deeds (2002 film)Dirty Deeds is a 2002 film shot in Australia. It was directed by noted fringe director David Caesar and stars Bryan Brown, Toni Collette, Sam Neill, Sam Worthington and John Goodman and produced by Nine Films and Television, the film and television production arm of the Nine Network, owned by PBL...
- The DishThe DishThe Dish is a 2000 Australian film that tells the story of how the Parkes Observatory was used to relay the live television of man's first steps on the moon, during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969...
- Don's PartyDon's PartyDon's Party is a 1971 play by David Williamson set during the 1969 Australian federal election. The film based on the play was entered into the 27th Berlin International Film Festival.-Plot:...
- Gettin' SquareGettin' SquareGettin' Square is a crime caper movie set on Australia's Gold Coast and directed by Jonathan Teplitzky. The protagonists are ex-criminals trying to keep out of trouble....
- He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (film)He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (film)He Died with a Felafel in His Hand is a 2001 Australian comedy, starring Noah Taylor. The film draws on the novel of the same name and consists of a series of vignettes describing a young man's experience of sharing accommodation with a variety of interesting strangers...
- Hercules ReturnsHercules ReturnsHercules Returns is a 1993 Australian comedy film directed by David Parker, starring David Argue, Michael Carman, Bruce Spence and Mary Coustas. The film has a cult following in Australia and other countries...
- Kenny (2006 film)Kenny (2006 film)Kenny is a 2006 Australian mockumentary film starring Shane Jacobson as Kenny Smyth, a Melbourne plumber who works for corporate bathroom rental company Splashdown....
- Malcolm (film)Malcolm (film)Malcolm is a 1986 Australian cult film, written by David Parker and directed by Nadia Tass. The film stars Colin Friels as the titular tram enthusiast who becomes involved with petty crime. The film won the 1986 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film.At the start of the film Malcolm is...
- Muriel's WeddingMuriel's WeddingMuriel's Wedding is a 1994 Australian-French romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by P. J. Hogan. The film, which stars actresses Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Sophie Lee, and Bill Hunter, focuses on the socially awkward Muriel whose ambition is to have a glamorous wedding and improve...
- The Odd Angry ShotThe Odd Angry ShotBased on the novel of the same name by William L. Nagle, The Odd Angry Shot is a film following the experience of Australian soldiers during the Vietnam War...
- Spotswood (film)Spotswood (film)Spotswood is an Australian comedy film directed by Mark Joffe, made in 1990-1991, released in 1992 in some locations. It is also known as The Efficiency Expert in America....
- Strictly BallroomStrictly BallroomStrictly Ballroom is a 1992 Australian romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann and produced by M&A Productions. The film is the first installment in The Red Curtain Trilogy, Luhrmann's trilogy of theatre-motif-related films; the follow-ups were Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...
- Ten CanoesTen CanoesTen Canoes is a 2006 film. It was directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr and starred Crusoe Kurddal. The title of the film arose from discussions between de Heer and David Gulpilil about a photograph of ten canoeists poling across the Arafura Swamp, taken by anthropologist Donald Thomson in...
- Wog Boy 2: Kings of MykonosWog Boy 2: Kings of MykonosThe Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos is a 2010 Australian motion picture comedy sequel to the 2000 film The Wog Boy, starring Nick Giannopoulos, Vince Colosimo and Costas Kilias. It was released in Australia on 20 May 2010 and UK on 7 January 2011.-Plot:...
- They're a Weird Mob (film)
See also
- List of Australian comedians
- Australian EnglishAustralian EnglishAustralian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....
- Australian cinema
- Television in Australia
- Australian literatureAustralian literatureAustralian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary tradition begins with and is linked to...
- Australian culture
- Australian history
- Theatre in AustraliaTheatre in AustraliaTheatre of Australia incorporates the theatrical arts produced in the area of, on the subject of or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia...