International Comedy

An Australian comedy is, by definition, a small scale event. It markets to a maximum audience of 20 million, of which around 30% aren’t a ‘TV’ demographic (ie: too old or too young), and where the Australian comedy must compete with international comedy content that is usually of better production value and also vastly far more popular in terms of world standards. When you look at the statistics, only our very, very best shows have been able to be exported to other countries, where they often enjoy a purely ‘cultural oddity’ role in the industry (Australians are an ‘unknown’ society, as can be seen in the numerous portrayals of us in foreign media). Either way, a truly successful Australian comedy is going to have be able to break out of the grossly boxed-in Australian audience and find a market overseas.

By ‘market overseas’ I don’t just mean any country willing to have us. Presumably we can count non-English speaking countries as being a a little too difficult and different for us to work there (how could we possibly portray Jonah‘s sulking islander character in Germany?), and we can also count out countries that are unconnected to Australia (we can’t go and market to Jamaica, say). Thus our market potential has significantly declined for purely social reasons.

This brings me to my first point: the comedy of society. When we discuss comedy, as is mentioned by Ash, there are the general genres – slapstick, black, sarcastic, situational, etc – but each society has its own ideological understanding of comedy. Take for example Spain. I conducted a telephone interview with my cousin (Salvador Benedetti) who lives in Barcelona. In Spain their approach to comedy, and what they find funny is hugely different to Australia. It is quite natural for old people to tell disgustingly dirty jokes at the dinner table (unheard of in Australia), it is fine to laugh at physical characteristics of someone (not only unheard of, but also a precursor to a fight in Australia) and usually all humour is cynical and indecently sarcastic. Because of the cultural difference between many societies, it is quite reasonable to see why Australian comedy has been almost unable to get any foot-hold in an over-seas market.

And so to my next point: where CAN we market to? Well, we obviously need an understanding of why Australians laugh at our own comedy, but we also need to isolate the countries that match our personal taste in comedy, have a relationship with us as a society (as well as a professional media relationship) and have a sizable audience for us to profit off (yay!). There are 2 countries that conform to these three criteria – The US and the UK. With a combined population of over 360 million they have a huge audience, while Australia is a Commonwealth member as well as a signatory of the US/Australia free trade agreement and part of the Iraq War Coalition. Both the US and Australia are former colonies of England, and both have generally the same ratio of demographics (all three have a large contingent of W.A.S.P.s – white, ango-saxon protestants – and a also contain roughly the same immigrant population – Italians, Indians, etc)

So, now that we have identified the two possible international consumers of our Australian comedy, we must look at their social comedy styles, as well as what is popular in both countries. First off, let’s look at the US…

As David Marc mentions in his book Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture – “television, in the manner of most popular media, paints pictures of life with broad brushstrokes.” This is a good example of where America is currently with its comedy production. It appeals to a mass audience, it stereotypes and creates wildly obvious ‘situational comedies’. Take for example:
- Friends

- Just Shoot Me

- Cheers

- Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

- Everybody Loves Raymond

- Married with Children

- Seinfeld

- Frasier

Each has a very long life span, and is targeted at a lower level of comedy (epic lulz, vulgarity and slap stick). American comedy rarely laughs at itself, and often focuses in a family based character support. Like Australia, America is a strongly patriotic country, with a powerful ideological tendency towards the nuclear family. The current rise of metropolitan living, coupled with an increase of foreign awareness and a strong immigration rate has meant that, as Marc says:

By the end of the 1950s, all the ‘normal’ families had moved to the suburbs. The city was a place where one might find an eccentric bachelor … or a ‘working girl’ … In a nation that liked to think of itself as composed of one gigantic middle class with tiny pockets of millionairedom and poverty at either end, the sitcom city was a place where one might find the high-rise rich and the working poor…

This is probably why a huge proportion of America’s comedy productions are based in a large city (Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Seinfeld, King of Queens, Sex and the City, etc) – because not only is it a generic place, but it also allows for the introduction of characters hitherto unseen in middle-America. In many ways this is similar to Australia’s strongly metropolitan lifestyle (we are ‘one of the most‘ urbanised countries in the world), as well as our ability to create strong caricatures of different demographics (we need look no further than Kath & Kim). However, America is (unfortunately) a strongly narcissistic country and will seldom syndicate a show that doesn’t contain at least some part of America in it (The Office was reshot as an American office, while New Zealand show ‘Flight of the Conchords‘ was ‘made’ to be set in New York). For the time being, it seems, any Australian comedy in American will probably have to involve American lifestyle in the plot at some point.

Interestingly, the UK is almost totally opposite to the American style of both syndication and creation. In contrast to America’s fast creation and long syndication the UK produces very short lived programs primarily through the BBC with (usually) good production values and a long pre-production stage, followed by a reliable DVD sale plan. Inevitably these comedies become ‘cult classics’, due to short syndication runs, and the ‘once off’ appeal. Examples include:

- Monty Python

- Blackadder

- Absolutely Fabulous

- The Office

- Extras

- Black Books

- Fawlty Towers

English comedy is usually very black, self-reflexive and sometimes depressing. It is often cynical or sarcastic and quite frequently revolves around strange plots or settings. Most of the shows concern a very bizarre story (Extras about those guys you never know in the film industry, Red Dwarf about a group of space adventurers, Blackadder about a single family line dating from the middle-ages to the first world war), as well as odd and often lonely characters. Just looking at the promotional art of each series, you can see a strong contrast with the American comedies. While almost all the American promo art involves ‘hugging’ and overly exaggerated smiles, the British versions are far more realistic, even going to the extremes of creating a pretty bleak image such as The Office. Also, the American series strive for physical beauty and a more ‘Hollywood’ appearance (sets look expensive, actors look rich, etc), while the British comedies are usually more dirty and common – the sets look old, the actors underpaid.

Almost all TV creation goes through the BBC, which is a very high quality network (similar to SBS and ABC here in Australia), which means that there is a good chance of funding, but unfortunately also a small run time. As stated in its Royal Charter, the BBC is required to be:

free from both political and commercial influence and to answer only to its viewers and listeners

bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK

stimulating creativity and cultural excellence

This means that there is usually a huge influx of additional content, making sure that the BBC enjoys a amazingly fast turn over rate, but additionally a very small syndication rate. Luckily, the BBC have a defence against this fast paced programming – DVD sales. According to Pact (Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television – a British media trade body) the current BBC (and other networks) DVD sales plan is quite remarkable:

British TV companies made £534m (~1.1 billion AU$) from selling shows abroad

There are rising global DVD sales, which went up 25% between 2003 and 2004

Sales of ready-made shows were up 12% – but revenues from selling format ideas dropped 25%.

The US is the biggest market for British TV, accounting for almost 40% of sales

With this sort of back-up plan, it seems it is just as commercially viable to market in England. Additionally, the British humour is a lot more like Australia’s, making the transition from Australia-to-England far smoother than Australia-to-America. Moreover, with our viral and internet based distribution model playing a key role in the production of the comedy, a plan to integrate an English based production style into the Australian comedy will result in a positive reaction in the UK, and as past history has shown, this translates to good DVD sales as well as a possible syndication run in America

In conclusion, as Australian comedy producers we should, nay MUST, market to the wider world community. The Australian audience can no longer support a truly good quality comedy, and thus the only option is to go to the two best producers and consumers of screen comedy – the US and UK. As I have shown above, we have two roads to go down, and both will require a certain ‘manipulation’ of the original Australian comedy. To market to an American audience will require an American connection in the story, strong stereotypes, and reliance on a non-cerebral comedy. Oppositely, marketing to Britain will mean through the BBC, and so a short syndication of perhaps a few months, followed by a reliable but slow acting DVD sales plan. Fortunately, each path will probably lead to the other (popularity in America will mean a pick-up in England, and vice-versa), so I guess all us Australian comedy producers have to wonder is… is it for the lolz or is it for the loot? (That is me trying to rhyme lolz with a synonym for money).

 

Thanks for reading,

Matt