The Doug Anthony Allstars - loud, irreverent and cheeky, they burst onto the Australian comedy scene in the late 80s where they were regulars on The Big Gig. Their act combined slapstick with political satire, merrily stabbing to death any sacred cows they found and they'd finish their act with a song of their own composition - like Commies for Christ or the really-not-politically-correct I Wanna Spill The Blood of a Hippy which still makes me laugh.

And then one night, they stood up there and gave us this:


Simply beautiful.



The Big Gig was hosted on the ABC, which is the national broadcaster here and consequently they can get away with a lot more than the commercial channels, who have to answer to sponsors. It's always been a bit left-wing (and our current conservative government is talking about clipping their wings!) but it has never been afraid to criticise the government of the day.

The Big Gig really stretched the envelope at the time of its airing; I can recall being amazed by some of the stuff they got away with.

One of my favourite characters was Pate Biscuit, who read fairy tales with the help of her stuffed toy Bongo. Pate was played by a man, Glyn Nicholas, who used to present a children's morning tv show (Here's Humphrey, for any Aussies who may be reading) and I would watch Humphrey just for him; he added an extra level of meaning to everything he did. On The Big Gig, however, he didn't have to hold back.



Pretty tame nowadays, all of this, but back then it was a big deal.