Bulletin

Issue: January/February 2006

Research in action

Screen comedy and our national identity

When you watch comedy on Australian television and in Australian movies, do you see a mirror image of Australia’s national identity?

As Australia changes, so does on-screen comedy but this leads to a conundrum. Do changes in comedy influence perceptions of national identity or do changing national outlooks change comedy?

A three-member La Trobe University research team has received a $300,000 ARC Discovery Grant over three years to research the way comedy portrays Australian national types and how it looks at aspects of the Australian way of life.

Dr Felicity Collins, a senior lecturer in Cinema Studies, Dr Sue Turnbull, Associate Professor in Media Studies, and postdoctoral fellow, Dr Susan Bye, believe an in-depth examination of our on-screen comedy will lead to a better understanding of how comic form and characters continue to influence ideas about our national character.

Drs Collins and Turnbull recently completed a project on ABC TV comedy under a La Trobe University-Industry Collaborative grant and the new research will build on this.

Dr Collins said the new project would explore how recurring comedy forms (sitcoms, sketch comedy, political satire) and comic characters (the ocker, larrikin, and battler) influence ideas about the national character, the Australian way of life, and national identity.

She said such influences were parti-cularly important in the current post-national and multi-ethnic contexts.

‘Because perceptions of national identities change, we will examine how comic types also change over time, perhaps responding to different cultural policies and economic, social and political attitudes,’ Dr Collins said.

‘The project will look at why some Australian films like Crocodile Dundee and comedians like Barry Humphries and Paul Hogan succeed internationally while others, like Magda Szubanski, Andrew Denton, Ernie Dingo and Max Gillies, are household names in Australia but are less well-known abroad.

‘It will also look at how the portrayal of our lifestyle has changed – and how sometimes it has not changed – over half a century. For instance, in the 1970s and 80s Bazza McKenzie and Crocodile Dundee embodied the Ocker figure, while Dame Edna Everage, and much later Kath and Kim, portrayed our suburban lifestyle.

‘Why has comedy been central to national identity in Australia and how did this come about? We want to look at how this compares with other national cultures, for instance British comedy and its influence on British identity.

‘An important question we are examining is how multiculturalism affected the types portrayed. ‘For example, Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee was successful even though his character was essentially a 19th century bushman living at the end of the 20th century. However, his relationship with the character played by Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil in the same film reflected changes in Australian culture.

‘That film was important for Australia’s international identity because at the time it was the most successful foreign film ever released in the USA. By contrast, The Castle which was a hit in Australia was not as successful overseas although it also dealt with contemporary, multicultural attitudes.’

Dr Collins said the organisation of the global film and television industry also had a bearing on the extent to which Australian films and television reached foreign audiences.

‘The global media market is dominated by five conglomerates including Murdoch’s Fox group and Time Warner, making it difficult for independent Australian producers of comedy to compete at home and overseas.