''Australia You're Standing In It'' is an Australian

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

series produced by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

, first screened in September 1983 with a second series screened in September 1984. In honour of the 30th Anniversary of the show, the complete series was released on DVD on 13 March 2013.

Cast

Rod Quantock Rodney Edward Quantock (born 1948) is an Australian stand-up comedian and writer. Quantock is known for his pioneering style of stand-up comedy, which is often politically driven, as well as being the face of bed retailer Capt'n Snooze for man ...

* Mary Kenneally * Stephen Blackburn * Geoff Brooks * Sue Ingleton * Evelyn Krape *

Tim Robertson Tim Robertson is an Australian actor and writer. Early life Robertson was born in 1944 in Braintree, Essex, in the UK. He relocated to Australia in 1952. He is a graduate of the University of Western Australia (1965). After graduating, he ta ...

(Series 1) * Peter Browne (Series 2)

Format

''Australia You're Standing In It'' featured many recurring sketches and characters that parodied well known personalities, pop stars, music videos, television programs and advertisements of the day, or simply sent-up well-known social situations. These included: * Two pretentious society matrons (Ingleton and Kenneally) and a third (Krape) who could never quite make the grade much to the delight of the other two who mocked her. Catchphrase: "Helloo Daaaahlings!" * The Dodgy Brothers (Blackburn and Brooks), two badly dressed and dim businessmen who appeared in low-budget and badly produced television advertisements selling their dodgy products. Partly a parody of the then ubiquitous advertisements for the Saba furniture warehouse, and other cut-rate advertisements of its ilk. * "Brainspace", a new-age segment presented by Tim and Debbie (Kenneally and Blackburn), whose convoluted and pretentious talk was a smokescreen for their ignorance. Their main catchphrase was "Amaaazing!" * Mock advertisements for fictional product "Chunky Custard". Most of these were parodies of familiar contemporary advertisements for real products, mimicking current commercials for such products as Big M or Four'N Twenty Pies. Halfway through the second series Chunky Custard was phased out and replaced by "Hot Yak Fat", which came in a can resembling a beer can. Viewers were exhorted to "crack a Fat today" (a play on a common Australian slang term for a penile erection). * Many parodies of popular songs and music videos, including Mary Kenneally as Bonnie Tyler in "Total Eclipse of the Brain". * Bruce Rump (Brooks), a parody of Bruce Ruxton. Rump always ended his skits with "And that's why we should keep the bloody flag the same! Now clear out!" * Rod Quantock in stand-up routines in which he would address the audience directly. In one episode he attempted to put Victorian viewers to sleep by hypnotizing them with an Australian Rules football. * "Fair Cops". * The Catalogue Collectors, a pair of scarf-clad Melburnians who lived in a caravan next to Port Phillip and collected catalogues. Catchphrase: "Home is where the front door is."

Spinoffs

* For a short time Tim and Debbie hosted ''Reel To Real'' on the ABC, in which the pair presented old

B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

s (e.g. ''

The Boy with Green Hair ''The Boy with Green Hair'' is a 1948 American fantasy-drama film in Technicolor directed by Joseph Losey in his feature film directorial debut. It stars Dean Stockwell as Peter, a young war orphan who is subject to ridicule after his hair my ...

'') and proceeded to interrupt, deconstruct, and generally mock them in voice-over as the movie screened. * A long-playing record of most of the Tim and Debbie sketches was released under the title ''Brainspace, Vol. II''. Another album, ''Australia - you're standing in it (Brainspace Vol III)'' followed in 1986. * The Dodgy Brothers (again portrayed by Blackburn and Brooks) and Bruce Rump (Brooks) were resurrected in the later ''

Fast Forward To fast-forward is to move forwards through a recording at a speed faster than that at which it would usually be played, for example two times or two point five times. The recordings are usually audio, video or computer data. It is colloquiall ...

''.

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

are a set of annual ceremonies presented by

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the

music of Australia The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions o ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - ,

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

, ''Australia You're Standing In It '' , Best Comedy Release , , , -

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0084977 Australian television sketch shows 1983 Australian television series debuts 1984 Australian television series endings 1980s Australian comedy television series Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming