Australian humour is what sets the stereotypical Aussie larrikin apart from his foreign counterparts and UQP is bringing a bit of laughter to the table through the newly released book, Serious Frolic: Essays on Australian Humour.
The book is a collection of essays on what makes Australians laugh, penned by leading scholars of Australian literature and culture and edited by Fran de Groen and Peter Kirkpatrick.
Serious Frolic looks at the Australian comic spirit, and examines whether there is a distinctive style of Australian humour, what social and cultural factors play a part and who decides when something is funny.
The essays examine all aspects of our national humour from Barry Humphries to Kath and Kim and the ritual of "taking the piss".
"It's probably only in Australia that 'you old bastard' could be a term of deep affection," Dr Peter Kirkpatrick said.
Australian humour has become a brand in its own right and Ken Stewart, Lillian Holt, Elizabeth Webby and Michael Wilding are some of the contributors who bring it to life in the book.
Dr de Groen, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities at the University of Western Sydney, said the contributors were encouraged to write in an amusing and interesting way.
"There are however many examples of different kinds of humour in the essays. Whether they make readers laugh depends very much on the taste of the reader," she said.
"What we've tried to do is start a conversation. Even though we pride ourselves on our sense of humour in Australia there is not a lot of discussion about it."
Dr Kirkpatrick, who teaches Australian literature at the University of Sydney, said the book had helped him better understand the range of Australian humour.
"In one sense, when you look at the kinds of jokes and tall stories that circulate in Australian culture, there's actually not much that's entirely unique or indigenous about them," he said.
"Most jokes, for example, circulate globally, with simply the names and local contexts changed. But in another sense, humour in Australia can be said to differ from that of other cultures simply because it's so insisted upon.
"This is a point that Jessica Milner Davis makes in her essay in the book, that humour is more-or-less compulsory in Australian life as what she calls 'an acculturating ritual'.
"This typically involves taking the mickey out of all and sundry who, in a reciprocal way, have the perfect right to take the mickey out of you."
Serious Frolic: Essays on Australian humour is available from The Co-op Bookstore at The University of Queensland, St Lucia.
The book will form the focus of an event at Gleebooks in Sydney, on March 4.
Media: Eliza Plant at UQ Communications (07 3365 2619)
