Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip from the Australian television comedy series Kath and Kim shows Kim visiting her husband Brett at the electronics retail store where he works to buy a modem. Kim is shown in Kath’s kitchen conducting an online chat with ‘Pina Colada’. Kim’s friend Sharon wants to ‘have a go’ and in pressing the wrong computer key accidentally breaks the connection. A fight erupts between Kim and Sharon, which ends when Kath uses the show’s most recognisable catchphrase, ‘Look at moy’, to defuse the argument.

Educational value points

• Awareness of cultural trends in contemporary suburban Australia helps explain the success of Kath and Kim, as evidenced in this clip from the first series of the comedy show. Kim’s desire to participate in a new trend, the internet chat room, is the focus of this excerpt. Some of the humour arises from her ignorance of this new technology. Spousal discount for employees is also exploited. Kath has her own preoccupation: selling lingerie as part of a pyramid scheme.

• The clip introduces current community concerns about the potential dangers of online relationships by showing Kim engaging in a chat-room conversation. Humour is derived from Kim’s lack of awareness of the dangers of online chat sites and her naive use of a sexually provocative username, despite Brett’s warnings about internet predators, in her chat-room flirtation with an unknown interlocutor ‘Pina Colada’.

• The sketch comedy roots of the series are illustrated in the clip, in particular some of the catchphrases and verbal and visual details. Kim’s deadpan delivery when she reveals her user name ‘Hornbag’, Kath’s catchphrase ‘Look at moy’ with its exaggerated pronunciation and the use of one of the running jokes of the series – cocktail frankfurts – are all elements of the original sketch routine.

• In the clip Sharon, Kim’s ‘second-best friend’ played by comedic actress Magda Szubanski (1961–), is a butt for Kim’s thoughtless and self-centred behaviour. Her apparent obliviousness to it provides another source of humour. Sharon is sports obsessed – hence her appearance in a netball uniform – but seems unaware of her size, although her greediness is a recurrent theme.

• The clip introduces a carefully created fictional world achieved by the documentary ‘feel’ of the filming and the consistent observation of the central characters’ stock traits. Kim’s lack of sensitivity and self-absorption is shown in the way she relates to her husband Brett and friend Sharon. Kath, as always, is looking for ways to make money. The use of a hand-held camera in real locations – an electrical goods store and a real house – add to the documentary style.

• Jane Turner (1960–) and Gina Riley (1961–) are seen here as Kath Day and her daughter Kim in the hit television series Kath and Kim, which they devised, wrote and produced. The characters first emerged in the sketch comedy series Big Girl’s Blouse (1994–95) and were developed into a longer narrative for the first Kath and Kim series shown in 2002. After four series and a telemovie, Kath and Kim was developed into a US remake in 2008.