| “ | We made pud | ” |
―Channel description, Aunty Donna (as of 1 July 2024) | ||
Aunty Dona is an Australian comedy group residing in Melbourne, Victoria[1] who have a YouTube channel, for which they are most well known. They also have a Netflix show, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun[2][3] (since 2020), and an ABC television series, Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe[4][5] (since 2023). The group comprises six individuals, performers and writers Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly (born: January 27, 1989[6]) and Zachary Ruane (born: December 15, 1989[7]), alongside writer and director Sam Lingham, director Max Miller and composer Thomas Zahariou[1] (formerly Tom Armstrong).
Background
Aunty Donna was formed in 2011 after its five original members (Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly, Joe Kosky, Sam Lingham, and Zachary Ruane) met at University of Ballarat's Arts Academy. Trained as actors, the group saw a lack of demand for independent theatre and decided to attempt comedy instead, beginning as live performers. Their first live show, Aunty Donna in Pantsuits, debuted in 2012 at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) and was nominated for a Golden Gibbo award, which pushed the group to continue making comedy. Kelly also recruited his high school friend, composer Thomas Zahariou (née Armstrong) soon after its founding. To perform at the festival, MICF required the group to film a selection of comedy sketches, for which they recruited director Max Miller, who Kelly and Zahariou knew from high school. They created sketches for C31 Melbourne, and began their YouTube channel in 2011 to upload the sketches from C31 and their MICF online.
Joe Kosky and later Adrian Dean departed Aunty Donna to pursue other ventures, bringing the group to the current six members. Their second live show, Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop, debuted at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2012, and won its People’s Choice Award.
2014 saw their third live show, World's Greatest Showbag, at the MICF, as well as a Best Of live show that debuted the group internationally at both the SF Sketchfest and Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
In 2015, the group created a self-titled half-hour television pilot for the ABC and Screen Australia as part of the inaugural Fresh Blood Pilot Season comedy initiative, but the series was not picked up. According to Kelly, the pilot was about the experience of Dean leaving the group. They released the sketch "Bikie Wars" on YouTube, featuring John Wood of Blue Heelers fame, which became their most popular video. The Sydney Morning Herald credited the group with successfully converting its online fanbase into "bums on seats" for their live shows, and Ruane also credited his group's YouTube following for their ability to sell out shows in London earlier in the year.
In 2016, the group released the web series 1999, based on the Y2K panic and funded by Screen Australia as part of their $100,000 Skip Ahead talent development initiative. They were also selected by Comedy Central for its Australian Not for TV web series platform, and were the first to be launched on the site. The group began the weekly Aunty Donna Podcast.
In 2017, the group released a second half-hour comedy pilot, Chaperones created with Australian online streaming service Stan and produced by Nel Minchin for In Films, in which the trio were entrusted with the care of a child star. The pilot was again not continued into a full series. In April, they starred in the music video for hip-hop duo Horrorshow's "Eat The Cake". They adopted the mantra "whatever's funniest", attempting to adapt their source material uniquely to different comedic formats such as their live shows and YouTube sketches. Their live show Big Boys was the group's first North American theater tour.
April 2018 saw the release of the group's first full-length studio album, The Album, which featured Montaigne, Matt Okine, Michelle Brasier, and Joey Walker of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and was followed by a national tour in November and October. The Album debuted at number 30 on the Australian charts and received an ARIA nomination for Best Comedy Release. They released a version of a past live show, New Show, on YouTube, filmed at the Enmore Theatre. Their production company, Haven't You Done Well Productions, was established. The group also released the sketch "Always Room for Christmas Pud", which the Australian Financial Review later said had become "something of a Millennial cultural touchstone in Australia". The sketch would become a running gag for the group, later receiving a family friendly re-release in 2022.
Making use of their production company, the group released the 16-part Glennridge Secondary College web series in 2019, which followed a fictional Australian secondary school. It was nominated for an AACTA Award for the best online drama or comedy.
In November 2020, Aunty Donna released their Netflix series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, produced by Ed Helms' Pacific Electric Picture Company and Scott Aukerman's Comedy Bang! Bang!, and featuring guest appearances from Helms, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Antony Starr, Kristen Schaal, Paul F. Tompkins, and others. To promote the show, the group erected a replica of the Utah monolith in Melbourne with help from YouTubers I Did a Thing and Aleksa Vulović. Neil Patrick Harris and RuPaul both praised the show. In March 2021, Aunty Donna hosted the Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow at the MICF. They made a cameo appearance on season 1 of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under in June.
2022 saw The Magical Dead Cat Tour, the group's first live tour in three years after it was delayed by COVID-19 lockdowns, covering Australia and New Zealand. Later in the year, the group released Always Room for Christmas Pud, a picture book published by Penguin Books and illustrated by James Fosdike, based on their popular YouTube video of the same name. They hosted the musical comedy gala at Sydney's Just for Laughs comedy festival in December. For Christmas, the group released a real "$30 Bottle Of Wine", in reference to their 2016 sketch of the same name.
In August 2022, the group announced that they had been signed by ABC to create a new sitcom TV series depicting them running a café in the Melbourne laneways. The show was later named Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe and was released on the 12 April 2023. Alongside the main members of the group, the series starred Gaby Seow, Sally-Anne Upton, Michelle Brasier, Vidya Rajan, and Mish Wittrup, while several guest stars made an appearance including Richard Roxburgh, Pia Miranda, Nazeem Hussain, Miranda Tapsell, Shaun Micallef, Tony Martin, Melanie Bracewell, Steven Oliver, Sam Pang and Sammy J.
In 2023, The trio provided voices for characters in the Australian version of the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. They continued the Dead Cat Tour in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the United States. After returning from the tour, the group began to release a three-hour Dungeons & Dragons campaign via Patreon in November, hosted by Bonanno and titled The McMuffin MacGuffin. However, the hard drive holding the footage was destroyed, leading to the release of only one episode and the filming of a second campaign featuring writer Sam Lingham.
Content
The first video uploaded to the channel was GPS tries to kill man., uploaded on 26 February 2012 being just over 4 minutes in duration, as of 1 July 2024 the video has over 178K views, 4.2K likes, and 206 comments[8]. In the video Broden Kelly is seen using his GPS to guide him to a pub, however the GPS' has other ideas. Leading Broden past the pub and into a secluded road where the GPS (named Tung-tung) begins flying (via fishing wire) and orders Broden to dig a hole 50m away, this hole is only a few centimeters deep but the GPS continues. Dousing Broden in petrol, but just before the GPS ignites Broden, a Melbourne street directory shoves the GPS to the ground allowing Broden to escape, the final shot features a group of confused people who wonder off having puppeteered the entire scene. The video is not only unique for being the first made by Aunty Donna but also due to Broden Kelly having hair, unlike all his future appearances in which he is characteristically bald.
The most popular video on the channel as of 1 July 2024 with over 4 million views is Being Bigoted in the Workplace (Bigoted Bill Song - Aunty Donna 1999) uploaded on 12 February 2016, a two minute, 35 second clip[9] of a sketch, being episode one of 1999 (AKA Aunty Donna 1999)[10], featuring, who new employee Mark Bonanno thinks is "Bigoted" Bill, guide him through the office, being warned by secretary Susan (played by Michelle Brasier[10]) that he is racist, sexist, ableist, and all-round bigoted. However during the song, Bill maintains that he loves Vipull's (played by Hayden McKertish[10]) curry from his shop, and Janet because of here good qualifications, he likes Gerry (played by Sammy J[10]) and his admiration for pouf furniture, and he is jealous of a golfer (played by Stuart Daulman[10]) in the office who has a low handicap in golf. It is revealed at the songs conclusion that the person guiding mark is in fact not "Bigoted" Bill but actually "Regular" Bill, the scene revealing the real "Bigoted" Bill (played by Zachary Ruane[10]), a skinhead who yells profanity with a swastika on his arm, chest, and forehead. The video also serves as the official release of 1999's first episode and thus premier for the series[10].
The current channel trailer (as of 1 July 2024) is Role Playing Games with Matthew Jackson [Trope RPG on @GrouseHouseTV] uploaded on 26 June 2024 as part of The Aunty Donna Podcast, being 1 hour and 7 minutes in length, it has over 15.2K views, 582 likes, and 72 comments as of 1 July 2024[11]. The description reads:
| “ | Trope RPG: Hush Valley's game director Matthew Jackson joins Broden Kelly and Zach Ruane for a special RPG episode of the Aunty Donna Podcast: 'An Arctic Circle RPG'.
Watch Trope RPG: Hush Valley every Monday at 7pm on @GrouseHouseTV - featuring Mark Bonanno, Mish Wittrup, Harry Jun, Pec Petraitis, and Matthew Jackson. |
” |
―Role Playing Games with Matthew Jackson [Trope RPG on @GrouseHouseTV], Aunty Donna | ||
Series
- Individual Sketches (2012[8], 2014 - present) - 29 videos (doesn't include "Make as We Go's" from late 2018)
- Rumpus Room (2012 - 2013, reuploads 2014) - 9 videos (+2 reuploads)[12]
- Aunty Donna and The Fax Machine Shop (2013) - 1 video
- Fortnightly Fap Off (2013) - 8 videos (including Nicknames MANBEAST[13])
- Live-shows (2013, 2016 - 2019) - 6 videos
- Live at the Enmore (2016 - 2017) - 11 videos
- Fapé in the Café (2013) - 6 videos
- Haven't You Done Well (2013 - 2020) - 11 videos
- Fresh Blood (2014) - 5 videos
- Roommates! (2015) - 2 videos
- Bargain Boyz (2015) - 2 videos
- Bloopers (2015, 2020, 2023) - 3 videos
- Aunty Donna: The Pilot (2015 - 2016, clips only) - 2 videos
- 1999 (2016) - 10 videos
- A Play in 3 Acts (2016) - 3 videos
- Trendy (2016) - 5 videos
- Promotional (2016, 2020 - present) - 16 videos
- Podcast-related (2016, 2018, 2020 - present) - 42 videos
- Ripper Aussie Summer (2017) - 7 videos
- Insert Coin (2017) - 3 videos (does not include Insert Coin channel exclusive original uploads)
- How To Do Things Good (2017) - 2 videos (doesn't include, episode 2, Haven't You Done Well 7: How to Apply Sunscreen Good)
- BEST CONTENT EVER!!1! (2017) - 5 videos
- The Album (2018) - 18 videos
- A Trip We Did (2018) - 7 videos
- Vlogs (2018, 2020 - 2022) - 4 videos
- Trailers (2018, 2020 - 2021, 2023) - 7 videos
- Camp Bush Camp! (2018) - 5 videos
- Behind the Scenes (2018) - 1 video
- "Make as we Go's" (MAWG) (2018, reupload 2020, reupload 2022, reupload 2023) - 10 videos (including Always Room for Christmas Pud 2020 reupload, 2022 reupload, and 2023 reupload)
- Glennridge Secondary College (2018) - 19 videos
- The Rove Tapes (2020) - 5 videos
- Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun (2020, clips only) - 4 videos
- Big Ol' House of Fun Watch Party! (2020 - 2021) - 8 videos
- Thank you (2020) - 1 video
- Announcements (2021 - 2023) - 3 videos
- Audio commentary (2022) - 1 video
- Family friendly version (2022) - 1 video
- Aunty Donna's Coffee Café (2023, clips only) - 6 videos
- Watch Mojo (2024) - 2 videos
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.auntydonna.com/bio
- ↑ https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81009617
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13316746/
- ↑ https://iview.abc.net.au/show/aunty-donna-s-coffee-cafe
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23804962/
- ↑ g.co/ kgs / nMJB39u
- ↑ g.co / kgs / 9wXSbU6
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULZlv5UKENQ
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_7WwPkqqvA
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 https://auntydonna.fandom.com/wiki/Being_Bigoted_in_the_Workplace
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCyBdJWw7m4
- ↑ https://auntydonna.fandom.com/wiki/Rumpus_Room
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMLaerERBV8