Wogs Still Out Of Work: Australian Television Comedy As .
Wogs Still Out of Work:Australian television comedyas colonial discourseMitchell, Tony “Wogs still out of work:Australian television comedy as colonialdiscourse”, Australasian Drama Studies, No. 20,1992, pp119-133.by Tony MitchellIn his studies of the representation of ethnicminorities in the news media, the Dutchsociologist Teun A. van Dijk has suggested thatthe reader or viewer of mass media texts stores"hidden information" about the world andother nationalities in the form of "models" and"scripts". The former are personal impressionsbased on individual experience, while the latterare "culturally shared, and hence more social.which feature the stereotypical informationmembers of a culture or group share abouteveryday events and episodes". (1) Thesenotions, in so far as they relate to ethnicstereotypes, can be extended to fictional modesof representation, particularly comedy, whichtraditionally has involved a high degree ofcaricature and stereotyping of ethnic groups,and relies on an audience's recognition ofcertain shared "models" and "scripts" relating toboth their own and other nationalities. Thisstereotyping is not necessarily always negative;in the case of a comedy show like Wogs Out ofWork there is a dynamic of affectionatecaricaturing of ethnic minorities, or "outgroups", aimed primarily at members of thoseethnic minorities, but in a way which challengesthe dominant Anglo-Australian "in groups"'s"scripts" and "models" of ethnic minorities.Wogs Out of Work however, despite being thelongest ever running live theatre show in recentAustralian history, after touring the country for3 1/2 years, and reportedly playing to morethan 25% of the population of Griffith (2),appears to be the exception that proves the rule.Most representations of non-Anglo-Saxonmigrant groups in Australian comedy, both onstage and television, confirm received AngloAustralian negative stereotypes, whethergenerated by Anglo (or autochthonous, to usevan Dijk's term) or non-Anglo (or alecthonous)comics. (In terms of the dominant Anglo-Saxonculture of Australia, Aboriginal groups, despitebeing autochthonous, or Indigenous, must beincluded in the alecthonic group.)A Note on Con the FruitererBetween 1988 and 1990, the entirely Anglodominated TV show The Comedy Companybecame the most highly rating Australian TVcomedy series. Arguably its most popularcharacter was Mark Mitchell in the role of Conthe Fruiterer, conceived as an attempt at"proportional representation" of NESB migrantsinvolving a blond, Anglo-Saxon actor "blackingup" his hair and facial features (in a similarmode to that in which white actors put on blackmake-up to play Aboriginal roles), putting onartificial chest hair, and assuming a workingclass Greek migrant accent. In the words ofComedy Company writer Ian McFadyen, Conthe Fruiterer was an attempt to represent "thatwhole immigrant subculture which untilrecently has been totally ignored except as astereotype token wog". (3) But it is difficult tosee Con the Fruiterer as anything other than a"stereotype token wog." Even his name (Con asin "con man", Dikelitis as in "dickhead")suggests a wiliness made harmless by stupidity,which renders harmless the threat to AngloAustralian hegemony represented by non-Anglomigrant cultures. In contrast, the use of theparodied Greek surname "Suckapenis" in WogsOut of Work could be seen as a far morerealistic representation of the pain experiencedMaking Multicultural Australia Wogs Still Out of Work: Australian television comedyas colonial discourse1
by Greek and other NESB migrants at havingtheir names mocked at school by Anglo pupilsand teachers. Much of the comedy of Con'scharacter derives from his incorrect English,which is used as a butt of humour, as in thefollowing sketch where Con is waiting for hiswife Marika to have a baby:The doctor says to me that Marika is having thecontradictions. And if the baby no come out soon,we gunna have to seduce her. I say to the doctor, noway, that's how we got in trouble in the first place.So we still waiting, waiting, waiting. No wonderthey call him the eternity ward. (4)As humour this is very effective, but as a comicrepresentation of the language difficultiesexperienced by many middle-aged NESBmigrants it is less than charitable, and is basedon an assumed cultural superiority of anautochthonous, English language speakingposition. Con the Fruiterer's comedy relies ontransgression of what Robert Young, explicatingthe theoretical position of Homi Bhabha, hasdescribed as "colonial discourse. as anapparatus of power". (5) Correct English is thediscourse of power in Australian society, andmigrants of non-English speaking backgroundsignal their difference and lower social status bya perceived inability to speak correct English. Asan Anglo-Australian actor representing a Greekmigrant, Mark Mitchell, who appearedelsewhere in The Comedy Company as a blondAnglo-Australian speaking correct English,stigmatises NESB migrant speech as a comicvariant from an English colonial norm. Thereare situations where this representation ofmigrant speech could be subversive to the normof colonial discourse, as in the case of a genuineNESB migrant deliberately speakingtransgressive English (as appears in Wogs Out ofWork with terms like "skip"), but The ComedyCompany's Anglocentricity ensures that thenorm is upheld. Con is a caricature of whatPeter Shergold has outlined as the three mainareas of difference seen as typifying NESBAustralians by Anglo-Australians: physicalappearance; culture, customs and habits (aswhen Con spits into plastic bags before puttinghis fruit and vegetables into them) andlanguage. (6)These areas of difference in the social andcultural definition of NESB migrants are oftenfetishised by Anglo-Australian comedians in ascenario which reveals an ambivalence towardswhat Bhabha has described as "that 'otherness'which is at once an object of desire andderision". (7) Bhabha's adaptation of theFreudian notion of fetishism is applicable here:Con the Fruiterer reflects an Anglo-Australianfascination with the physicality, behaviour andspeech of Mediterranean migrants which at onceacknowledges the threat they are seen to pose toAnglo-Australian values and security and mockstheir difference in an attempt to render itharmless. The sexual connotations of thisfetishism are particularly evident in Mitchell'sportrayal of Con's wife Marika, where heassumes a falsetto voice and "soft" mannerismswhile retaining Con's portly stature, darkfeatures and even facial hair. In one particularsketch, which appeared in the opening programof a new series of The Comedy Company inNovember 1989, Mitchell portrays Marikawearing a sexy black negligee (which she hasbought from a "lingering" shop) reading a sexmanual and making preparations to seduce Conon their wedding anniversary. The sceneculminates with her spraying on perfume andgoing into the bedroom, while Con is shownjumping out of the window in horror. This"primal" seduction scene combines a fascinationwith the rituals of female sexual behaviour witha fascination with ethnic otherness in a dualfetishisation of the double personality Mitchellenacts.An important "ethnic" comic predecessor ofCon the Fruiterer is the Italo-Australiancharacter of Sergio Pacelli as portrayed by theAnglo-Australian actor Will Bluthal in the ABCsitcom Home Sweet Home, which was firstbroadcast in 1981, and repeated regularly overthe past decade, most recently on Channel 10on Saturday afternoons in 1991. Home SweetHome was in turn strongly influenced by thecomic novel They're a Weird Mob (1957) byNino Culotta (John O'Grady), which wasfilmed by British director Michael Powell inMak ing Multicul tural Australia Wogs Still Out of Work: Australian television comedyas colonial discourse2
1966, with Italian actor Walter Chiari in thelead role of an Italian migrant experiencingAnglo-Australian customs and idiosyncrasiesand eventually adopting them and rejecting hisethnic background. Both film and sitcomportray a caricatured Italian male learningstereotyped Anglo-Australian male values andrituals, which are largely centred in pubs andfeature busty blonde barmaids. In both cases,accented English, dark Mediterranean physicalfeatures and a background of sexual repressionare prominent; the major difference is thatO'Grady's Nino is played by a genuine Italianactor. In Franco di Chiera's importantdocumentary film study of the portrayal ofAboriginal people and NESB migrants inAustralian cinema and television, A Change ofFace (SBS, 1988), the producer of Home SweetHome, John O'Grady Jnr, admits:I can only agree Pacelli is a stereotype. I feel sadabout that. If I were doing the program now I woulddo it differently. But it doesn't mean it was racist. (8)O'Grady's final point is an important one, inrevealing that Home Sweet Home was anAnglo-Australian comedy which attempted toportray Italian migrants and their difficulties inadapting to Australian norms in affectionate ifsomewhat inaccurate terms. Despite Pacelli'swife and one of his daughters being portrayedby Italian actresses, the series was virtually a"minstrel show".The strong fascination thatCon the Fruiterer has exerted on televisionviewers is shown by his rapid ascent to thestatus of media personality above and beyondThe Comedy Company. In 1989 he wascrowned king of Melbourne's Moomba Festival,and he frequently appeared in newspaper andTV commercials - especially for Ford's E-con-ovan. He even appeared sandwiched between BobHawke and John Howard at a Boy ScoutJamboree which was televised on the ABC onDecember 30, 1988, which suggests he hadachieved a quasi-ministerial status in the worldof Australian comedy. As a result he became auniversal point of reference for NESB migrantsin Australia, a fact which appears to havepolarised the Greek community in Melbourne:some seeing him as an insulting caricature,others as an emblem of a new acceptance ofGreek migrants in Anglo-Australian culture. Therange of responses from Melbourne Greekcommunity leaders represented in The Age andThe Sydney Morning Herald during theMoomba Festival is worth recording. DrAndrew Theophanous, Caucus ImmigrationCommittee Chairman: "It's not that we can'ttake a joke. but you are talking about a majorfestival. a very stereotyped and false image".Mr Fiv Antoniou, director of the GreekAustralian Antipodes Festival: "It is saying thatwe are mentally low and all talk in brokenEnglish". (8) Ms Ann Paralis, president of theGreek Orthodox Youth of Australia: "It's alldone in fair fun, although there is some dangerthat people who have not been exposed to theGreek community and culture might assumethat it is reality and not see beyond thestereotype." (9) Dr Dimitrious Ktenas, presidentof the Greek Orthodox Community ofMelbourne and Victoria was reported in bothThe Age and the SMH of 9th February, 1989,as saying "Greeks were 'better at satirisingthemselves than any other race' and said thechoice was not an issue" (9), but the SMH of2nd February had further reported him assaying "that it was acceptable for Greeks tolaugh at themselves. But this was 'a differentstory' and it was possible that the communitymight boycott the festival by not entering a floatin the parade through the city on the last day ofMoomba." (8) (Dr Ktenas' first remark, whichincidentally suggests that Greeks are better atsatirising themselves than Mitchell's attempts,either seems to have been taken out of context,or he changed his mind during the week.) Thispredominantly negative sample of responses,presented as a balanced range of views, contrastssharply with the self-congratulatory descriptionof Con's impact on the Greek communityexpressed in The Age by Doug McLeod, thehead writer of The Comedy Company:Con is an archetype rather than a stereotype. Hismannerisms are so convincing that many Greeks findit hard to believe he is not Greek. They are flatteredby his affectionate parodies, and forgive him for notbeing ethnic. (10)Making Multicultural Australia Wogs Still Out of Work: Australian television comedyas colonial discourse3
McLeod's colonialist speaking position, whichmakes sweeping assumptions about theresponses of Greek Australians, reflects aposition of power from which Anglo-Australianshave traditionally spoken for NESB migrants,which also mirrors the dynamic of Con theFruiterer's comic strategies. In a survey of theportrayal of non-Anglo-Saxons on Australiantelevision, Peter White sees Con as an originalAustralian ethnic stereotype who matches theNew York Jew and the Vaudeville Italian, and"inevitably elicits a shock of recognition forGreeks and non-Greeks alike" in his mimicry ofNESB migrants' confusion of the gender ofpronouns. But he also quotes Philip Bell'sobservation:The comic stereotype looks good-natured, evenaffectionate; yet. it 'infantilises' the ethnic group,portraying its members as abnormal and ridiculous,and thereby undermines their chances of being takenseriously. (11)This suggests that the Greek and other NESBfruiterers who put pictures of Con in their shopwindows may be employing a strategy akin towhat Bhabha has described as "sly civility" (12) a wry mockery or parody of the subservient,simple and harmless persona which Mitchell hasprovided for Greek shopkeepers.One of the "archetypal" aspects of Con'spersonality is his often violent, lazy andinconsiderate treatment of his wife Marika, andhis exploitation of his daughters (shown to greateffect on his hit single "Bewdiful", which wasalso released as a music video clip). In serving toconfirm Anglo-Saxon "models" of Greek malepatriarchal and sexist behaviour, these facets ofCon's character, which are presented as amusingand comic, would appear to offer comfort tothose in the Australian Greek community whomight condone such behaviour, since Con isultimately harmless, gentle and loveable. But hehas also provided fuel for racist tendencieselsewhere in the Australian media. John Laws, aradio talkback show host not noted for hi
stigmatises NESB migrant speech as a comic variant from an English colonial norm. There are situations where this representation of migrant speech could be subversive to the norm of colonial discourse, as in the case of a genuine NESB migrant deliberately speaking transgressive English (as appears in Wogs Out of Work with terms like "skip"), but The Comedy Company's Anglocentricity ensures .
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