AustLit
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Notes
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Contents indexed selectively.
Contents
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How to Write Comedy : The Complete and Utter Guide to Writing Comedy,
single work
essay
Writing comedy is easier than you'd think, just as long as you're prepared to do a huge amount of unpaid, unappreciated work and put up with continual rejection, including being yelled at by 'industry people' who think they know better, even though they are short and were clearly teased at school.
Comedy in written form is as old as written language. Indeed, some people say that writing itself was first developed in order to note down particularly funny dinner party anecdotes.
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What Makes a Blackfulla Laugh?,
single work
essay
'If you're the kind of person who loves to tell old jokes but can never find anyone who hasn't heard them before, then I'm your woman. It's a constant source to delight to certain friends of mine that I've never heard even the hoariest of old gags. I laugh like a drain when they tell me the one about the Irishman, Englishman and Australian. When they come sidling up and whisper 'Hey Gayle you heard the one about...' and my reply is 'no', their faces light up in a mixture of wonder and disbelief. Disbelief mainly, because they can't believe a woman of my vintage who's obviously been round the block more than a few times, hasn't heard these jokes, limericks, or bawdy rugby songs before.' (Introduction)
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Still Standing,
single work
criticism
'The republic referendum ten years ago taught me how hard it is to beat a slogan, particularly when it takes at least thirty seconds of air time to counter it. We live in a sound-bite age, and that's just how it is. This time around, the slogan was 'cheaper books', and who doesn't want cheaper books? Of course, the issue was in no way that simple. No issue is two words long.' (Introduction)
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Ethnic Comedy in Contemporary Australia,
single work
criticism
'Having a good sense of humour' is something most societies and cultures pride themselves upon. But in Australia, joking of all kinds can be targeted at all social levels and while witty is good, crude will also pass. For Australians, using (or at least tolerating) humour is not so much permitted, as compulsory. Our national identity is almost synonymous with the right to take the mickey (aka - take the piss - a cruder, older form of the expression, now acceptable again). Our culture deploys humour as a weapon to identify those who are truly 'at home', in the land and the society. Thus it's not so much the nature of the humour we use as how we use it that indicates our 'Australian-ness'.
- Celebration : Australian Authors Past & Present : Jon Cleary, single work biography (p. 24-27)
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Wits, The Getting of Them and Having Them About You,
single work
criticism
Picture this scene from our past, if you will.
It's a hot, still noon in the Australian bush. The deep blue sky has not a wisp of cloud and the sun beats down pitilessly. The only sound is the harsh cark of crows as they roost in some defeated gums by the dried-out creek bed. A small herd of dead sheep lie shrivelled and stinking in the now parched mud. Surveying this desolate scene from the creek bank is a tall lean bushman mounted on horseback. Eyes narrowed under the deep shadow of his bushman's hat, he slowly strokes his chin and utters a couple of brief, well-chosen observations about sheep, death and existence.
In these circumstances, such words as pass for humour were generally a masterpiece of deadpan understatement, a joke so dry and scarcely detectable that only a brown dog could sniff the wit in it.
- Letter Home : The Triggering Town, single work column (p. 34)