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The Comedy Company – Series 1 Episode 11 (1988)

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clip Uncle Arthur home movies

Original classification rating: G. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Uncle Arthur (Glenn Robbins) screens a home movie of a backyard BBQ.

Curator’s notes

by Kate Matthews

Recognition drives a lot of The Comedy Company’s comedy. Glenn Robbins’s Uncle Arthur is an affectionate portrait of a type of eccentric, old-fashioned uncle that many audience members of the time might have had themselves. It’s possible that this is an Australian archetype that wouldn’t have the same level of familiarity with a young audience now.

Robbins appeared in Kath and Kim (2002-07) and there is a similar style of humour at play here in the attention to daggy details like Aunty Dawn’s biscuits. There is also humour in the differences between Arthur’s interpretation of events in his voice-over and what we see actually happening in his home movies. He is relentlessly upbeat and jocular, even when getting beaten up by his neighbour. Through this joke, Robbins is making an observation about the 'she’ll be right’ attitude and a particular kind of old-fashioned stoicism and avoidance of talking about emotions and uncomfortable situations.

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All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

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  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

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