Australian Comedy

Australian humour is a vast and complex topic. When simply researching Australian comedians there were 192 pages on Wikipedia alone. What was confirmed in my mind after researching this topic, was the fact that comedy is central to Australian cultural identity. Comedy forms the basis of many forms of popular entertainment from stand-up comedians to television sketch shows. As we are looking to produce a screen comedy, I specifically looked at television shows and movies that were successful and why certain types of humour work.

Convict colonies occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries, where large numbers of convicts were transported to various Australian penal colonies by the British government. Australian humour can be traced back to these origins. Our unique sense of humour was developed in response to the harsh conditions of the penal system and the intense labour that took place while the British settled Australia.

Furthermore, Australia is a country of climatic and geographic extremes. We have large-scale bushfires, droughts, floods even cyclones. We also have vast, dry desserts and extreme heat in many areas of Northern Australia. In order to deal with these harsh physical characteristics of land and climate, Australia has developed a notorious sense of humour that makes light of bad situations that you can’t change. This is called a Black Sense of Humour.

In many cultures it is considered poor taste to find humour in difficult circumstances. However, Australians tend to look for this lighter side. For example Harold Hold Swimming Pool was named after Harold Holt an Australian Prime Minister in the 60’s. Holt disappeared one day while swimming in a beach near Portsea and was presumed drowned. Australia ironically named a swimming pool in his honour.

There are a number of other types of humour prominent in Australian society such as an anti-authoritarian sense of humour. This aspect has been in evidence since colonial times where the ability to make a policeman or authority figure laugh often meant the difference between harsh labour and freedom. This anti-authoritarian nature also relates to television shows such as “Frontline” from the 1990’s and the more recent, “Chaser series.” These are anti-authoritarian shows with a pessimistic and sceptical commentary of society. This has proved to be a successful formula for depicting Australian humour on television. The Chaser series have won a number of prizes, and are known for their antics across the country.

Most prominently, Australians have a strong tradition of targeting themselves as objects of humour. This is also a habit of Australians from ethnic backgrounds. It is one of the most common styles of humour out there. Some of the most successful Australian films use humour to present aspects of Australian identity.

“The Castle” and “The Wog Boy”are examples of films that allow Australians to laugh at themselves and their cultural differences.

In contrast the internationally successful “Crocodile Dundee” found humour in gently mocking American culture and foreign perceptions of Australians.

Class-based comedy has been a staple of our cultural scene for many decades, as it has been in Britain. Stupidity is the basis for many comedies. One of the golden rules is your characters shouldn’t learn from their mistakes and often the same jokes, or lines are used over and over again. “Kath and Kim” is an example of class based comedy, where Australians enjoy laughing at people that they think are not themselves.

Ultimately, there are a number of different formulas for a successful Australian comedy for film and television. The challenge however, is translating this success for an overseas market. The International Comedy page looks at this concept in more detail.

Emily Angwin