Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Wogboy Comedies and the Australian National Type
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'Popular Australian film comedy since the early 1970s has been dominated by reinventions of the national type. These reinventions involve transformations of the urban larrikin and the bush battler, first established in silent film classics such as The Sentimental Bloke (Raymond Longford 1919) and in Cinesound Studio's Rudd family comedies of the 1930s, directed by Ken G. Hall. These comic types continue to surface in popular film and television as the larrikin, ocker or decent Aussie bloke, exemplified in the 1970s by Bazza McKenzie, in the 1980s by Crocodile Dundee, in the 1990s by Darryl Kerrigan in The Castle, and most recently by cable TV showman Steve Irwin until his untimely death in 2006. Yet despite decades of multiculturalism, little attention has been paid to the impact of post-war, non -British immigration on Australian comic types. This chapter examines three popular comedies which champion ethnically marked characters as either 'New Australians' (They're a Weird Mob, Michael Powell 1966), 'wogboys' (The Wog Boy, Alexsi Vellis 2000) or `chockos' (Fat Pizza, Paul Fenech 2003). It asks whether 'wogboys' and 'chockos' - as diasporic, multicultural or new world comic types - have trumped the larrikins and ockers of Australian screen comedy, or whether 'wogsploitation' films are popular with Australian film and television audiences precisely because they tap into a long. standing national type without disturbing its key characteristics.' (Publication abstract)

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    y separately published work icon Diasporas of Australian Cinema Catherine Simpson (editor), Renata Murawska (editor), Anthony Lambert (editor), Bristol : Intellect , 2009 Z1762587 2009 anthology criticism (taught in 1 units) 'Diasporas of Australian Cinema is the first volume of essays to focus on diasporic hybridity and cultural diversity in Australian film-making over the past century. Topics include, post-war documentaries and migration, Asian-Australian subjectivity, cross-cultural romance, 'wogsploitation' comedy, and post-ethnic cinema. This collection also provides a comprehensive filmography making it a useful reference text for scholars of Australian film and cultural studies. The book is a vital contribution to the burgeoning international body of critical work on diasporic cinemas.' (Publisher's blurb) Bristol : Intellect , 2009 pg. 73-82
Last amended 13 Jan 2017 09:24:08
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