"Wow, freak me out."
Australia You're Standing In It is a Sketch Comedy produced by The ABC. It ran for sixteen episodes over two seasons, in 1983 and 1984. The show pokes fun at various aspects of Australian society and culture, and parodies a number of popular songs. The cast includes Stephen Blackburn, Geoff Brooks, Sue Ingleton, Mary Kenneally, Evelyn Krape, Rod Quantock, Tim Robertson and Peter Browne.
Regular segments include:
- "Brainspace" - Know-Nothing Know-It-All youths Debbie Wilson and Tim Mactananda providing their pseudo-profound "comments" on various weighty issues.
- The Dodgy Brothers - Wayne and ... ("He's Arthur!") stiltedly but eagerly hawking the wares of their Honest John's Dealership or hosting game shows.
- Commercials for the gross-looking Chunky Custard.
- Rod Quantock's stand-up monologues.
- Beatrice Millpond's pulp romance adventures.
- The Average Family - slice of life sketches about a working class couple with two kids and a brick.
- Bruce Rump delivering right-wing political rants.
- Fair Cops - the crimefighting adventures of policewomen Eleanor and Shirl.
The show spawned a spinoff series, Reel to Real, where Tim and Debbie would analyse a different B-movie each week. The Dodgy Brothers and Bruce Rump would later appear as regular characters on Fast Forward.
A DVD set of the complete series was released in 2013 for the show's thirtieth anniversary.
This series provides amazing examples of the following trope-type situations:
- Accidental Misnaming: Arthur Dodgy can't remember his own name, let alone Wayne's, and keeps calling the latter "Ken".
- Adult Child:
- Play School Parliament depicts Australia's politicians as this.
- Rock band The Sooksnote perform a song called "I Want to Go Back to the Womb", dressed as babies inside a set resembling a play pen. Debbie Wilson tries to interview the lead singer, who pouts, sucks his thumb and says nothing except for a Bratty Food Demand.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Beatrice Millpond is forced into betrothal with the dastardly Mario Terrazzo, after she accidentally destroys an irreplaceable family heirloom.
- Artistic License – Biology: Beverly is 23 months pregnant.
- As Himself: Rod Quantock seldom appears in character, preferring comic monologues. One exception is Mr Speaker in two Play School Parliament sketches.
- Bad "Bad Acting": The Dodgy Brothers are incredibly stilted and awkward on-camera. When not filming it's a different story, although Arthur still can't remember Wayne's name.
- Biting-the-Hand Humour: Plenty of jokes at the ABC's expense.Rod Quantock: The ABC has standards, above which it will not go.
- Brown Bag Mask: Beverly wears a blanket over her head in public to hide her homeliness (she is played by the decidedly unpretty Geoff Brooks).
- Call-Back: Rod Quantock pulls Tasmania off a world map and moves it into Russia. In a later episode he removes Queensland from the map so he can mail it to to Disney, and notes with disappointment that Tasmania is still gone ("We could have used it as a stamp").
- Camera Abuse: Rod Quantock loves writing and drawing on the screen with a black marker.
- Catchphrase:
- Tim and Debbie: "Amazing", "Wow, freak me out", "Excellent", "I don't know if you know" ("I know"), "Comment".
- Bruce Rump's tirades start with "I'll tell you another thing" and end with "And that's why we should keep the flag the same. Now clear out!"
- Beverly: "Mum?"
- Beatrice Millpond talks with much distress of being "mocked".
- In lieu of a police siren, the Fair Cops yell "hang on, hang on," in the tone of one.
- Companion Cube: Glenda has a pet brick that she walks (i.e. drags) around on a lead.
- Delusions of Eloquence: Tim and Debbie frequently mispronounce ("igniminiminous") and misuse ("vale" to mean "bravo") lofty-sounding words, and utter lengthy sentences meant to sound deep but that are just incoherent.Tim: Cause it's the things you don't know you know, that you think you know you don't know...you know?
- Dissimile: Two Aussie outback-types struggle to complete a simile for "dry as a...". One suggests "glass of water". He gets a look of disbelief from his mate, and amends it to "an empty glass".
- Drop-In Character: Auntie Val ("It's only me!") and her daughter Beverly, for the Average Family.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Beatrice Millpond affects an upper-class English version.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Rod Quantock "hypnotises" the Victorian viewers and writes fake state lottery numbers 1-6 on the screen as a prank, anticipating a hilarious misunderstanding that...will land him in jail. He promptly erases the numbers and snaps the Victorians out of their "trance".
- Fair Cop: The Fair Cops, as the name suggests.
- Insistent Terminology: Pammy offends her socialite friends when she uses unfashionable expressions like "tea" instead of "dinner", and "toilet" instead of "lavatory".Pammy: I do try! I've been sick.
Gilly & Kate: "Ill". - Killed Off for Real: At the end of series 1 a nuclear blast vapourises the Average Family, except for Tom, who had his Bankcard on him. They did not return for series 2, likely due to Tim Robertson leaving the show.
- Kissing Cousins: Greg and Beverly. Most of what they get up to is mercifully kept off-screen.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "I'm Glad I'm Not in El Salvador Tonight", a bright, jaunty number about not having to deal with disappearances or brutal execution-style slayings.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: Tim and Debbie's "[noun]-type situation".
- Mister Seahorse: One regular skit features Bill Rawlings, a pregnant man played by Sue Ingleton in a pencil moustache.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- Bruce Rump is a parody of Bruce Ruxton, then president of the Victorian RSLnote .
- One Brainspace sketch features Tartar, a parody of English singer Toyah Willcox.
- Non-Ironic Clown: Mr Jolly Treasurer from Play School Parliament wears sad clown makeup and introduces himself with Mirthless Laughter.
- One-Word Vocabulary: Beverly says little other than "Mum?"
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Speaking admiringly of Tim's unemployment, Debbie asks if rich people are truly happy. Tim replies that they look pretty happy to him. Cue lengthy argument where Debbie claims the guy and his trophy wife in a Mercedes Benz-type situation towing a yacht just thought they were happy but weren't really happy, while Tim insists that they looked really, really, really happy.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Glenda dramatically announces to her parents that she wants to have a career. Her father clutches his chest and sags into a chair, while her mother wails "Where Did We Go Wrong?".
- Strawman Political:
- Bruce Rump caricatures Australian right-wing talking points, such as insisting Aborigines should hand over the land's mineral wealth to white people because otherwise they'd just spend it at the pub.
- At the other extreme are Tim and Debbie, layabout youths who label anything they don't like as "fascist", including the sun (no, not The Sun).
- Suspiciously Specific Denial:
- Debbie announces that she and Tim will not be paying taxes. Tim hastens to add that it's a comment, not because of the money.
- A policewoman comes to Rachel's Raiments. Rachel tells her daughter, who fearfully blurts out "I never done nothin'!"
- This Is the Part Where...: An American televangelist ends his sermon with "this is the bit where I take off of my glasses, and I look at you sincerely, and I ask you for Huge! Sums! of Money!"
- The Un-Favourite: Glenda. She's forced to clean her brother Greg's football boots, and her only gift from her parents is a pet brick. Well, she's only a girl.
- Wham Line: Debbie aborts some high-wire performance art when she breaks down in tears. After regaining her composure, she explains to Tim:Debbie: I just don't think it would be very good for the baby.
"And that's why we should keep the flag the same. Now clear out!"
