image of person or book cover 809934497133478575.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon They're a Weird Mob single work   novel   humour  
Issue Details: First known date: 1957... 1957 They're a Weird Mob
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Who the hell’s Nino Culotta. That’s what you asked yourself when you first picked up this book, wasn’t it? Well I’m Nino Culotta. My father baptised me Giovanni—John—well Giovannino is like Johnny, and Nino is an easier way of saying it. Or a lazier way, if you like.

'Just off the boat from Italy—the north—Nino Culotta arrives in Sydney. He thought he spoke English but he’s never heard anything like the language these Australians are speaking.

'They’re a Weird Mob is an hilarious snapshot of the immigrant experience in Menzies-era Australia, by a writer with a brilliant ear for the Australian way with words.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon They're a Weird Mob Sono Strana Gente Richard Imrie , ( dir. Michael Powell ) United Kingdom (UK) Australia : Williamson-Powell International , 1966 Z553582 1966 single work film/TV humour (taught in 6 units)

Italian sports journalist Nino Culotta is lured to Sydney during the mid-1960s to work for his brother's new magazine for migrant Italians. When he arrives in the country, however, Nino finds out that there is no magazine and that his brother has taken off with the investors' cash. Left in the lurch is his brother's business partner, Kay Kelly. Nino vows to pay off his brother's debt and gets a job as a builder's labourer. In doing so, he learns how to talk, act, and drink like an Australian male. His numerous attempts to woo Kay are repeatedly rebuffed with humorous results, but in the end she falls in love with him. Nino's introduction to the country and its culture finds him bemused but ultimately confident that he has a future here.

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image suggests this film is 'very much a product of the assimilationist view dominating Australian immigration policy at the time'.

Notes

  • Dedication: This is a work of fiction, and is dedicated to all Australians who work with their hands, in gratitude for their very real contributions to my education. Anyone who thinks he recognises himself in these pages probably does. N.C.
  • David Carter's 'Case-Study: They're a Weird Mob and Ure Smith' in Paper Empires a History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005, ed. Craig Munro and Robyn Sheahan-Bright (2006): 24-30 reports that by 1981 there had been 47 impressions and an estimated 940,000 sales of the work.

Contents

* Contents derived from the Melbourne, Victoria,:Text Publishing , 2012 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction, Jacinta Tynan , essay

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Ure Smith , 1957 .
      image of person or book cover 809934497133478575.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 205p.
      Description: illus. (b & w)
      Reprinted: 1957 , 1958 Twelve times , 1959 , 1960 , 1961 , 1963 , 1964 , 1966 , 1968 , 1974 , 1978 , 1985
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Nicholas Kaye ,
      1958 .
      Extent: 208p.
      Reprinted: 1960
      Note/s:
      • Includes three page glossary.
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Ure Smith , 1964 .
      image of person or book cover 787908967669801073.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 205p.
      Description: illus.
      Reprinted: 1966
      ISBN: 0725400544 (pbk)
      Series: y separately published work icon Humorbooks Ure Smith (publisher), 1964- Z1209981 1964 series - publisher
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Kaye and Ward ,
      1968 .
      image of person or book cover 8392508997817026329.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 208p.
      Description: illus.
      ISBN: 071820719X
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Lansdowne , 1981 .
      image of person or book cover 5029251654439668984.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 205p.
      ISBN: 0701815876
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Weldon , 1989 .
      image of person or book cover 8552987301215788163.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 205p.
      ISBN: 0947116923
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon John O'Grady Classics John O'Grady , Sydney : Ure Smith , 1991 Z1310711 1991 selected work novel prose Sydney : Ure Smith , 1991
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon They're a Weird Mob [and] So You Want to Be an Australian Nino Culotta , Cyril Pearl , Dingley : Seal Books , 1995 Z1310808 1995 selected work novel prose humour Dingley : Seal Books , 1995 pg. 1-205
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2012 .
      image of person or book cover 6682124437631920044.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: xv, 253p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 26 April 2012.
      ISBN: 9781921922183 (pbk.)
      Series: y separately published work icon Text Classics Text Publishing (publisher), Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012- Z1851461 2012 series - publisher novel 'Great books by great Australian storytellers.' (Text website.)

Other Formats

  • Sound recording.
  • Braille.

Works about this Work

The Novel at Arms : Rereading Australian Mid-century Realism Nicole Moore , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;
“Friendship, but Bloke-ier” : Can Mateship Be Reimagined as an Inclusive Civic Ideal in Australia? Na'ama Carlin , Benjamin T. Jones , Amanda Laugesen , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 2 2022; (p. 196-210)

'In 1999, John Howard attempted to insert the word “mateship” into the Constitution, arguing that it had been reimagined as an inclusive national ideal. This article looks at the history and meaning of mateship, followed by a discussion of contemporary Australian attitudes towards it. The data we use in this article is from a voluntary survey (the Australian Mateship Survey) conducted by the authors, which asked respondents (N = 576) how they define mateship and how they feel about the term. The results indicate that a majority think mateship is a key feature of Australian identity but have concerns when the idea is politicised. A sizable minority believe the term is gendered and racialised and, therefore, is not inclusive of all Australians. Further, the survey suggests that a wide range of opinions exists even among those who do believe mateship has national significance. Twenty years after Howard’s attempt to enshrine mateship in the Constitution, this article suggests that the concept remains too divisive to serve as a core Australian value.' (Publication abstract)

Island Stories Frank Bongiorno , 2020 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 69 2020; (p. 52-59) Inside Story , July 2020;
Sandy and Beryl Stone had 'a really lovely night's entertainment One ' Tuesday in Melbourne in the late 1950s — according to Barry Humphries's brilliant 'Sandy Stone' satire of Australian suburban life — when they attended a picture night at the tennis club. 'The newsreel,' Sandy reported, 'had a few shots of some of the poorer type of Italian housing conditions on the Continent and it made Beryl and I realise just how fortunate we were to have the comfort of our own home and all the little amenities round the home that make life easier for the womenfolk, and the menfolk generally, in the home.' (Introduction)
 
y separately published work icon Always Almost Modern : Australian Print Cultures and Modernity David Carter , Melbourne : Australian Scholarly Publishing , 2013 6479433 2013 multi chapter work criticism

'Was Australian culture born modern or has it always been behind the game, never quite modern enough? Was it always already or only always almost modern? David Carter’s essays examine the complex engagements of Australian writers, artists, editors and consumers with 20th-century modernity, social and political crisis, and the impact of modernisms. Always Almost Modern ranges from the great mid-century novels of authors such as Eleanor Dark and M. Barnard Eldershaw to the unprecedented bestseller that was They’re a Weird Mob, from famous to largely forgotten local magazines and to film and television, and from the avant-garde to nationalism, communism and the middlebrow. Chapters engage with key themes in contemporary literary and cultural studies, exploring new ways of understanding Australian culture in terms of its modernity and transnationalism.' (Publisher's blurb)

The Beginner's Guide to Being an Australian : John O'Grady's They're a Weird Mob Lindsay Barrett , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Republics of Letters : Literary Communities in Australia 2012; (p. 239-247)
'Lindsay Barrett interrogates the remarkable effectiveness of Jon O'Grady's They're a Weird Mob - Australia's most popular novel of the 1950s - in negotiating for middlebrow Australian readers the tensions that had arisen between an older version of the 'imagined community' and the new, physical community brought into being by postwar migration. In this sense, Barrett argues, it was 'an intensely ideological work of fiction'. (Kirkpatrick, Peter and Dixon, Robert: Introduction xviii)
[Review] They're a Weird Mob Bhakthi Puvanenthiran , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Lifted Brow , no. 14 2012; (p. 24)

— Review of They're a Weird Mob Nino Culotta , 1957 single work novel
Howyergoin'mate 1957 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 18 December vol. 78 no. 4062 1957; (p. 59)

— Review of They're a Weird Mob Nino Culotta , 1957 single work novel
A Gimmick Book? J. H. Mullett , 1958 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Winter no. 12 1958; (p. 38-39)

— Review of They're a Weird Mob Nino Culotta , 1957 single work novel
[Review] They're a Weird Mob J. D. McLaren , 1958 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Winter no. 12 1958; (p. 38-39)

— Review of They're a Weird Mob Nino Culotta , 1957 single work novel
[Review] They're a Weird Mob A. G. Mitchell , 1958 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 17 no. 2 1958; (p. 216-217)

— Review of They're a Weird Mob Nino Culotta , 1957 single work novel
O'Grady, John see 'Culotta, Nino' : Popular Authorship, Duplicity and Celebrity David Carter , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 21 no. 4 2004; (p. 56-73) Always Almost Modern : Australian Print Cultures and Modernity 2013; (p. 215-231)
Laying Our Cultural Foundations Humphrey McQueen , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Age , 17 November 2007; (p. 19)
'Australia Cane' - Fifty Years Later Pino Bosi , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Literary and Social Diasporas : An Italian Australian Perspective 2007; (p. 31-38)
A Hard, Dry Humour for a Hard, Dry Land Keith Willey , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: Constructing a Culture : A People's History of Australia Since 1788 1988; (p. 156-169)
A White Australia 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Making Australian History : Perspectives on the Past Since 1788 2008; (p. 256-287)
Last amended 7 Aug 2020 12:42:25
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