With enough absurdity to make Monty Python look like a gritty Guy Ritchie film, TV Critic George Laycock praises Aunty Donna’s new sketch show as mostly funny and constantly original
To promote the release of comedy group Aunty Donna’s new series, the ‘Netflix Is A Joke’ YouTube channel released the sketch ‘Everything’s a Drum’ from the show. This sketch uses a zany song that could be on a children’s show like Lazy Town. But it adds explicit sexual reference, physical violence, and a toxic mother-son relationship. At the time of writing, the most popular comment on this video remains ‘what…what did I just watch?’
This is to be expected. In my experience, most people react to Aunty Donna for the first time with something between confusion and fear. Coming into this as a seasoned Donna fanatic, I did not suffer this initial bafflement.
Most people’s initial reaction to the comedy trio Aunty Donna is something between confusion and fear
The sketch comedy of Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun revolves around typical premises, such as going to the barber or searching for a new house-mate. From these settings, they use comedic conventions and exaggerate them to horrifying extents – and herein lies the joke. I encourage you to search up the sketches ‘Relatable’ or ‘Morning Brown’ on YouTube as hilarious evidence of this.
Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun is divided into six twenty-minute episodes of sketch comedy, in which the majority of ridiculous characters are played by the three members of Aunty Donna (Broden Kelly, Mark Bonanno, and Zachary Ruane). The gags mainly fall on the funny side of the absurd. But sometimes the sketches fall short (e.g. – ‘Moogie Woogie Boogie’ at the end of episode 4). When this happens, the skits resemble a Beckettian tragicomedy, something which almost seems bleak and existential in its outright strangeness.
The gags mainly fall on the funny side of the absurd
The series also demonstrates why Netflix taking over from traditional TV isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The nicheness, crudeness, and strangeness of this show mean that it is unlikely to have been released on mainstream television. Netflix’s investment in the Melbourne-based trio means that they can reach an international audience without any investors taking the huge risk that comes with a TV release.
In a world where a President refused to concede the American election in the midst of a pandemic, it is nice to laugh at the absurd instead of fearing it.
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