DILLIGAF: Typical Aussie?

[Andre S]

I am interested in knowing what makes Australians tick as I will be doing my best to become one too, soon if all goes well.

So we got ourselves some DVDs to watch over the weekend. One was a recent Aussie art movie set in Adelaide (good) and the other was the stand-up comedian Kevin "Bloody" Wilson in a live show in Australia.

Kevin recons he would have liked to hang out with Ned Kelly and Banjo Patterson, so in his own mind I guess he sees himself as the typical Aussie or possibly even a folk icon. I assume that the crude politically incorrect sense of humour is typical. If you had to compare him with a similar South African, I guess it would be something like Mel Miller or Barry Hilton. I think the humour is dated myself, but the audience seemed to be mostly thirty somethings and they had a great time from what I could see. Lots of beer was consumed at the tables. My wife was shocked and seemed disappointed at the boorishness of the very large crowd who needed little encouragement to join in the singing. She looked like she was watching a car crash.

"Father Christmas, you *$%#, where's moi *&$@&%# bike!"

D.L.L.I.G.A.F.: Does It Look Like I Give A F%$#@? (a typical Kevinism)

Another song went: "Root'n in the back of my UTE"...

Are all Australians really that crude or am I generalising?....Of course I am, but what are your experiences and have you fondly absorbed any colloquialisms yet?

André S

[no longer interested]

I am interested in knowing what makes Australians tick as I will be doing my best to become one too, soon if all goes well.

So we got ourselves some DVDs to watch over the weekend. One was a recent Aussie art movie set in Adelaide (good) and the other was the stand-up comedian Kevin "Bloody" Wilson in a live show in Australia.

Kevin recons he would have liked to hang out with Ned Kelly and Banjo Patterson, so in his own mind I guess he sees himself as the typical Aussie or possibly even a folk icon. I assume that the crude politically incorrect sense of humour is typical. If you had to compare him with a similar South African, I guess it would be something like Mel Miller or Barry Hilton. I think the humour is dated myself, but the audience seemed to be mostly thirty somethings and they had a great time from what I could see. Lots of beer was consumed at the tables. My wife was shocked and seemed disappointed at the boorishness of the very large crowd who needed little encouragement to join in the singing. She looked like she was watching a car crash.

"Father Christmas, you *$%#, where's moi *&$@&%# bike!"

D.L.L.I.G.A.F.: Does It Look Like I Give A F%$#@? (a typical Kevinism)

Another song went: "Root'n in the back of my UTE"...

Are all Australians really that crude or am I generalising?....Of course I am, but what are your experiences and have you fondly absorbed any colloquialisms yet?

André S

Mate I realise that your generalising and thats ok we all do so without being brash your wife will need to get used to the Aussie Boorishness etc as Aussies are not brash etc but rather just everyday people with what you see is what you get and yup there is a D.L.L.I.G.A.F. mindset and if she is conservative if may be a shock in the cultural sense to her. At the time we immigrated from SA I found people like Kevin and the likes of "Barnesy" Jimmy Barnes just darn right crude rude lewd um well you get the picture now after all the time we lived in Aus I now look at things like this on you tube and laugh till I am rolling on the floor.. why because I absorbed the Aussie culture and way of life and as such it absorbed me to the point that I am being asked to do a talk tomorrow at a local "elementary" read primary school on Australia.. my point is that I have absorbed with absolute gusto, pride and fondness all the brill, bonza beaut ripper colloquialisms and more the whole of Aussie life that a mate of my dh said yes you sound South African but I see tha passion of Australia its in your heart!. and that mate is Fair Dinkum

[Barnone]

Hi Andre,

I enjoyed your post it has been debated here in the past regarding propensity of the average aussie to swear more than the average Saffer.

I have also listened to Kevin bloody Wilson for many years, I think most of the material is pretty dated now (1st heard the Santa number in the late 80's !) I'm not sure how busy he is these days.

I do have to disagree on your comparison to SA's Mel Miller (he can't sing !) & Barry Hilton (he very seldom swears & neither can he sing)

Joe Parker had a show that included lots of filth & some singing though the closest SA act I've heard to KBW is a chap called "Shane" - "Sies Jou Vark" which is not at all for the faint hearted !

Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

Though nothing better than a good laugh (as long as noone is too offended !)

[The Parsons Family]

I was told by an Australian mate to watch Kevin Bloody Wilson... he said it would give me an insight into Australian culture. I didn't manage to make it through a whole DVD. ... but I love DILLIGAF! He is crude and his sense of humour is dated.

I have yet to encounter an Australian who behaves in the manner Kevin Bloody Wilson does....

[Guest mrs mupersan]

Kevin "Bloody" Wilson ROCKS!!!!!! He's an institution!!! I've been listening to him since I was in primary school!!! A friend of a friend, of a friend, of a friend taped it off a friend of a friend's Aussie cousin! He was even here in SA a few years ago - had a show at one of the sports clubs behind the old Green Point Stadium. It was sold out within minutes - those tickets were like hen's teeth!!!

The "Santa" song is one of my absolute favourites! It's was funny then and I still find it funny now. I think the main reason I still find it funny is that no-one these days has the balls to say stuff like this anymore. Everyone is so damned PC and worried about offending someone. We all walk around on egg-shells hoping we don't say the wrong thing. I'm SO tired of it. My opinion is that if it offends you, don't watch it!

Of all the Aussies I've met, I haven't met one who tries to emulate Kevin "Bloody" Wilson. He's a comedian. Comedians send things up (usually themselves or their culture) and exaggerate situations to get a laugh. This is what they do.

Andre, we're all pretty wound up here in SA - waiting for visas to be approved, making plans for the big move and trying to avoid being victims of crime before we go. Laughter is probably our best medicine at this point. If KBW doesn't do it for you, find someone who does and have a "bloody" good laugh.

[Andre S]

Hi all, thanks for the responses.

I seemed to have ruffled some feathers again.

Kevin doesn't offend me at all and I assure you my wife isn't a prude either. (We say F#$% a lot in private.) I'm not anti Kevin at all but I do find him boring after a while. Remember, I'm interested to learn what makes Australians tick and I do find his little songs endearing on one level. The DVD was quite an education.

If one were to deconstruct his act, the songs are modelled on American Country and Western style (originally Irish?), which has a typical narrative structure and repetitive chorus. He flirts with danger to see how far he can go before people get upset, but that's the thing - Australians don't appear to get upset easily. If he tried that sort of thing in the American midwest, he would get lynched! He was warned not to use the F-word in Canada and promptly wrote a song about how he wasn't allowed to say F#$& or C#@*. The thing with Kevin is that his humour is on one level disappointing in its apparent celebration of dumbing down and metal laziness. I don't think he is stupid, he knows his audience and identifies with them by giving them his history as a "not very good electrician." He then sings a song about his "typically" fat ugly Aussie wife and the awful task of having sex with her, then one about childish pranks a young apprentice has to endure such as having his pubic hair shaved. Of course, when the camera pans on his real life wife, she seems quite nice and almost glamorous in an average sort of way. My conclusion about Aussies is therefore that they celebtrate the "Aussie Battler" as a folk hero in a self deprecating manner. That's something Americans, Germans and Afrikaners don't really get. The self-deprecating thing. Humour is largely cultural and The Australian self-deprecating sense of humour is (obviously?) derived from the strong British influence. Kevin's act on the surface is aimed squarely at plumbers and electricians, but I suspect that that is part of the national identity of matehood. (Contrast this attitude with France where the train conducter will be able to argue about Proust.) Is matehood therefore a form of dumbing down and mental laziness or is it really a tool of egalitarianism and fairness? The "Tall Poppy Sindrome" springs to mind again. I guess there are two sides to the coin.

It is refreshing to see a culture that has so little wrong with it that all Kevin can come up with is lewd acts which use the F-word as a humour glue. It is obviously designed to shock, whereas in South Africa there is so much material generated by politicians and the uneasy relationship between its mosiac of people, that even foul mouthed comedians such as John Vlismas use it less often. I agree, I also don't like political correctness but I noted with interest that the older more mature Kevin chose not to play his song "living next door to Abbos"...

One of my long time favourites is Barry Humphries, who, even though he has been around forever, still seems to manage to be up to date. Dame Edna, apart from being a man in drag, is quite similar to Evita Bezuidenhout although less political I think. His interview with Parkinson was hilarious and is available on You Tube. Again, a sendup of the older Aussie woman.

I have been reading Barry's biography which gives one a lot of insight into life in Australia, most notably the fact that his family always had char ladies. His father was a successful house builder and Barry seemed to have enjoyed the high life all along.

What is good comedy? Obviously it is a subjective matter but it has a lot to do with your frame of reference. Generally British comedy has more of an intellectual history. American greats such as Jerry Seinfeld or Ben Stiller are different but excellent and intelligent in their own right. We saw some very good acts in Toronto's "comedy theatre" district too and I have been dragged to so many stand-up acts that I suppose I have become a bit of a comedy snob. My current favourite is Eddie Izzard (UK) but I have to say that contemporary SA comedy is razor sharp too. David Kau and Riaad Moosa are intelligent observers with excellent comic timing. (Mel Miller, Eddie Ecksteen and Barry Hilton are dinosaurs.) As I said before, lots of material in SA...

So far, my favourite Australian comedy is "Kath and Kim". It is so dry and ironic that you struggle to get into it but soon realise that it is a wicked self mocking sendup of Australia. I like the sense of humour and find the more intelligent offerings not that dissimilar to British humour. The strong sense of irony is also evident in other films like "Murial's Wedding" and "Priscilla Queen of the Desert".

Humour is good medicine, but it is even better at revealing truths about a society.

André S

[no longer interested]

So far, my favourite Australian comedy is "Kath and Kim". It is so dry and ironic that you struggle to get into it but soon realise that it is a wicked self mocking sendup of Australia. I like the sense of humour and find the more intelligent offerings not that dissimilar to British humour. The strong sense of irony is also evident in other films like "Murial's Wedding" and "Priscilla Queen of the Desert"

Yup kath and kim are a good look a local ( read south eastern suburbs) melbourne humour and well I just think that Scilla Qof D is the most awesome flick ever 'specialy the I will survive scene