The Funniest Australian Comedies


   

The laughDB database is dedicated to the funniest comedy movies, stand-up comedy and TV series.

This section is for comedies from Australia. By default they are presented starting with the ones ranking highest on the laugh-o-meter, but you can also sort them by year, title or IMDB rating.


Funniest Australian Comedies sorted by Laugh-o-meter (descending) / page 1 of 2


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Crocodile Dundee DVDCrocodile Dundee
      1986 | Australia | Laughs: 9.2 (Laugh Out Loud) | imdb: 6.6
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Before leaving Australia after she finishes her job, a New York reporter goes to the Northern Territory to write a feature about a tour guide who has survived an attack by a crocodile. To complete the story, the newspaper flies the charming bushman over to the United States to see how he will survive New York. I love this movie: it makes me laugh—a lot—and it shows Australia at its best in the person of Crocodile Dundee, a man who behaves as if all the people he meets are his equal (well, as long as they're men). This trait remains strong in the national self-image, though it has suffered in the years since the movie came out as Australians have had to face the challenge of surviving the globalized world. Crocodile Dundee II is not one tenth as funny. (Last viewed: July 2010)

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      laughDB's full page for Crocodile Dundee


Kenny DVDKenny
      2006 | Australia | Laughs: 7.9 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 7.2
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

What? This was not a real documentary?" That's how I felt at the end of Kenny, a film that follows an Australian porta-loo installer and his truck as he travels where his trade takes him: concerts, races, and a sewage equipment convention in the United States. If it feels so real, it is because of the director's uncompromising "Get real, we're all people" message. I will long remember a sample of the film's clever, understated humor—a line of Kenny's ailing dad when he incites Kenny to take the management job he's been offered: "In life, no one looks up to you until you're sitting down." Five stars. (Last viewed: April 2010)

More About Kenny:
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      laughDB's full page for Kenny


The Castle DVDThe Castle
      1997 | Australia | Laughs: 7.8 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 7.7
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

Made on a disgustingly low budget of $19,000, this is one of the most popular Australian movies ever. Threatened of expulsion by developers seeking to expand an airport, a family fights to keep its home. This classic underdog story is a study in Australian culture—a must-see for anyone seeking a primer on Australian society. In fact, for one Australian I've met who has "risen" from modest roots to an executive position in a big city, the endearing portrayal of the unworldly Kerrigan family is "too close to home". (Last viewed: Apr 2002 June 2011)

More About The Castle:
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      laughDB's full page for The Castle


The Rage in Placid Lake DVDThe Rage in Placid Lake
      2003 | Australia | Laughs: 6.7 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.9
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

Raised by New Age parents, a young man called Placid takes a job at an insurance company as an experiment to find his place in the "straight world". A fine sample of Australian humor. (Last viewed: August 2010)

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Mental Hogan PosterMental
      2012 | Australia | Laughs: 6.5 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.2
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A mentally unstable woman is hired to supervise the five mentally unstable daughters of a mentally unstable housewife. But in the sterile Australian suburbia just south of the Gold Coast, who is really mental—the normal people or the loonies? Supercharged with female hormones, this movie gets loud at times, but it is well-constructed by the unreliable standards of Australia's movie industry. It delivers a couple laughs, lots of grinning, and a pleasant couple of hours in the company of Toni Colette, who rarely disappoints. (Last viewed: September 2013)

More About Mental:
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The Wog Boy posterThe Wog Boy
      2000 | Australia | Laughs: 6.5 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 5.8
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

A charismatic man who has made an art out of living on government stipends has a dispute with the minister for employment, who reverses the situation by hiring him to serve as the agency's poster boy. This is a classic comedy, and although it does not have a laugh a minute it is one of my favorites. (Last viewed: Apr 2002 October 2014)

More About The Wog Boy:
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      laughDB's full page for The Wog Boy


Alvin Purple DVDAlvin Purple (Alvin Purple Rides Again)
      1973 | Australia | Laughs: 5.2 (Watch Once) | imdb: 5.7
      wikipedia | who was involved?

For unknown reasons, a young man cannot keep women away, an "affliction" that he gets him into trouble at school then as he enters the workforce. You may not laugh, but Australians will enjoy images of Australia in the early 1970s. Prude alert: sexual content. As for the sequel (Alvin Purple Rides Again), the same story goes on a road trip, but it gets stranded in the weakest of casino robbery plots—firmly in the "Don't Bother Watching" category. (Last viewed: May 2010)

More About Alvin Purple:
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Emoh Ruo DVDEmoh Ruo
      1985 | Australia | Laughs: 5.1 (Watch Once) | imdb: 7.2
      who was involved?

A young couple lives in a caravan by a gorgeous beach, but the young lady starts to dream "the Great Australian Dream"—moving the family into their very own house. When the couple manages to secure a mortgage and buy a house, everything goes wrong. If you're told that the title is "Our Home" in reverse, you might start to suspect that this movie's jokes are not exactly side-splitting. Charming shots of 1970s Australia; for serious students of Australiana only. (Last viewed: May 2010)

More About Emoh Ruo:
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      laughDB's full page for Emoh Ruo


Welcome to Woop Woop posterWelcome to Woop Woop
      1997 | Australia | Laughs: 4.5 (Watch Once) | imdb: 5.7
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

Deep in the Australian outback, a young New Yorker gives a lift to an equally young female hitch-hiker who seduces him then abducts him to a remote community where her father rules the scraggly populace and its kangaroo-meat-processing factory with an arm of fist—and shotguns. The situation provides an excuse for a funny and sometimes horrifying portrait of how Australians see themselves in their worst moments. (Last viewed: Aug 2001 October 2014)

More About Welcome to Woop Woop:
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      laughDB's full page for Welcome to Woop Woop


The Coca-Cola Kid posterThe Coca-Cola Kid
      1985 | Australia | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.0
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A corporate star is sent from the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia to troubleshoot operations in Australia. He soon discovers a sore spot: a valley where a soft-drink bottler has been keeping Coke out of the market for decades.

This is not a laugh-out-loud comedy, but it is funny all-right, what with the fish-out-of-water scenario and the yankee's terrific Southern accent. It has outstanding production value for an Australian movie. First, the plot manages to stay together for most of the film while incorporating a great number of offbeat moments. It has great sound—including a terrific Coke jingle and a compelling rendition of Waltzing Matilda. And it has visual appeal, by which I am referring to the landscapes and overall composition, though the blokes of the time must have enjoyed the eye candy thrown their way in the form of female nudity, which was common in contemporary films. The female in question later played the Italian mom in another Australian classic, Looking for Alibrandi.

Although this is not a roarer, it's an easy watch and a Down-Under classic which has aged remarkably well—so don't let the vintage label keep you away. (Last viewed: April 2014)

More About The Coca-Cola Kid:
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      laughDB's full page for The Coca-Cola Kid


Charlie & Boots posterCharlie & Boots
      2009 | Australia | Laughs: 2.6 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.4
      wikipedia | who was involved?

This is not the kind of movie I call a "comedy", though it is certainly light-hearted.

The two main actors from Crocodile Dundee and Kenny together in an Australian road trip movie: that's a big draw, a formula that promises entertainment, fine landscapes, a good yarn, laughs and lots of smiles. But I'm sure you sure know that when the studios think they have a winning formula in hand, they under-deliver. The landscapes are there, the actors do a great job, the movie is sweet— but the story is very thin indeed. The film cruises on the skill (or looks) of the actors and the beauty of the landscapes, which are conveniently devoid of the hordes of retired baby boomers living in caravans filled with made-in-China junk—the hordes that litter every Australian back-road these days. A silent documentary would have done the trick. (Last viewed: January 2014)

More About Charlie & Boots:
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      laughDB's full page for Charlie & Boots


He Died with a Felafel in His Hand posterHe Died with a Felafel in His Hand
      2001 | Australia | Laughs: 2.5 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.1
      wikipedia | who was involved?

When debt collectors get too close, an aspiring writer moves from a bad shared housing situation to the next. This by now classic Aussie comedy is a pleasant watch, but don't expect big laughs as the humor largely stays on the level of understated irony. (Last viewed: Mar 2002 February 2016)

More About He Died with a Felafel in His Hand:
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      laughDB's full page for He Died with a Felafel in His Hand


Muggers posterMuggers
      2000 | Australia | Laughs: 2.0 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 5.6
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Strapped for the cash they need to study in comfortable conditions, two promising medical students resort to harvesting kidneys from live patients and selling them to a private clinic. I liked the premise and the cast. Sadly, that's probably all it took for the Australian Film Commission (or whoever was involved) to give the green light, and the final product is one of those two-legged stools that are all too common in Aussie theaters. I was glad to see one of the actors from the terrific TV series Rake, but the movie failed to deliver in the laughs department. (Last viewed: December 2014)

More About Muggers:
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      laughDB's full page for Muggers


Danny Deckchair posterDanny Deckchair
      2003 | Australia | Laughs: 2.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.7
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A man in dire need of escaping the tedium of his suburban life ties air balloons to a chair to see if they will lift him in the air, to discover that his cooky idea works all too well as he is carried high into the skies, to finally land in a country town where, incognito and while half the country is looking for him, he starts to live a blissful life among fast friends.

Don't expect big laughs out of this cute little rom-com—even though every viewer knows this moment is coming all along, my biggest chuckle was when the chair is airlifted—but I expect you'll find it entertaining enough for the demands of a movie date. The lead character has that constant smirk that most will find charming and a few irritating. Although not in the same league as The Castle and The Wog Boy, it is a worthwhile window into Australian culture.

I'm not sure how I managed to miss the movie when it came out—I was living in a suburb of Sydney then—but watching the film fifteen years later arouses nostalgia for a country that has known such growth and other changes that in many respects it is no longer recognizable. (Last viewed: May 2018)

More About Danny Deckchair:
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      laughDB's full page for Danny Deckchair


Love and Other Catastrophes posterLove and Other Catastrophes
      1996 | Australia | Laughs: 1.0 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 6.3
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Over the course of a day, several university students wrestle with their respective anxieties over relationships before coming to a temporary resolution. I enjoyed seeing one of the lead actors from the terrific TV series Rake. What else can be said in favor of this movie? The acting is decent; it's cute; it has a terrific title. (For some reason I always thought this was a Hugh Grant movie. If you can explain the connection, please post a comment.) Sadly, this film is also extraordinarily boring and should be viewed only by those who have a personal reason for doing so — for instance if their mom was one of the lead actors. (Last viewed: December 2014)

More About Love and Other Catastrophes:
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1-1 of 1 Threads
Rachel DuBois – Scotland
February 24, 2017 - 22:26
Subject: I'd add Danny Deckchair to the list

…of funniest Australian films. It's a charming comedy and worth a mention.
Reply to Rachel DuBois
Andy
February 26, 2017 - 17:00
Subject: RE: I'd add Danny Deckchair to the list

Thank you for the tip Rachel, I'll try to locate a copy.


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