Aunty Donna are an absurdist Australian comedy group hailing from Melbourne. They met at the University of Ballarat's Arts Academy some time in the late 2000s and decided to form a comedy group in 2011, making their debut at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival the next year with their debut show, Aunty Donna in Pantsuits. The group are composed of performers Broden Kelly (best known for his portrayals of Aunty Donna staple characters Manbeast and Cowdoy), Zachary Ruane (Mr Bull and "MI NAME'S JAN AND I'VE GOT SOME LOVELY JIMS") and Mark Bonnano (every single Italian character ever). They also count director Max Miller, head writer Sam Lingham and composer Tom Armstrong as members. Performers Joe Kosky and Adrian Dean were part of the group in their earliest years, but have since left to pursue other projects.
Since 2011, the group have started a YouTube channel (garnering some 400,000 subscribers), a podcast and have toured extensively in their home country and across the globe. In November 2020, their debut Netflix series, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, started screening in every single country across the world (except mainland China and North Korea). In 2023 they starred in a 6-part series called Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe, where they try their hand at selling coffee in-between many, many distractions.
Tropes that can be found in Aunty Donna's sketches:
- Black Comedy: "Man Grieves Over Dead Wife. You Won't Believe What Happens Next!
" - Christmas Episode: "Always Room for Christmas Pud" was uploaded in December, is set at Christmas, and revolves around the group eating as much Christmas pudding as they can.
- Freudian Excuse: One of the lines sung by the cartoonishly evil "Bikie" in "Bikie Wars" implies he became a violent, morally bankrupt drug dealer because he was sexually assaulted as a child.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Many of their songs, like "Morning Brown" "Bigoted Bill" and "Bikie Wars" blend upbeat and jovial melodies with mature subject matter.note
- Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: Their content can border on nonsensical at times, with some sketches quickly descending into madness.
- Mood Whiplash: Several sketches, but midway through "Everything's a Drum" Broden and Mark immediately stop singing and turn on each other after Zach messes up playing a pot.
- "Forgetting the Reusable Bags" snaps from jovial vlog-style to something straight out of HBO the second Zach notices an errant price-tag.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Happens several times in "Don't Get In The Kiln". It's clearly happening In-Universe as well, as Mr Broden is confused every time it happens.
- Slave to PR: "Subway Crisis Meeting" concerns the executives' hilariously callous attempt to find a sandwich that can distract the public from the Jared Fogle scandal.
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Almost every line in "Bigoted Bill" is setting up the titular Bill to say something horribly insensitive, only for him to break the rhyme he just set up and say something that reinforces his progressive nature. It's later revealed he isn't Bigoted Bill, showing the new hire the actual Bigoted Bill, who then sings several censored slurs in quick succession.
- Take That!: Real Estate Agents are a pack of cunts.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Used as part of the punchline of "Always Room for Christmas Pud".
- With Friends Like These...: "Ultimate Camping Pranks" features Broden and Zachary tormenting Mark in increasingly sadistic ways.
Big Ol' House of Fun
- Beatnik: Zachary and Mark talk like this for a bit in Big Ol House, which culminates in this moment:Zachary: You need to stop being such a...(traces the outline of a square)...cunt.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: During the song "Morning Brown", Mark, Zach and Broden brag about needing coffee due to the fact they were up all the previous night having sex. It is never stated who they were having sex with, nor if any intercourse actually took place.
- Modern Minstrelsy: After playing a very exaggerated Italian stereotype, Mark has a moment of introspection. Broden reassures him that having Italian heritage makes it okay for him to go all out, but Mark figures he should talk to his mother about this. His mother is played Mark (beard and all) and she sounds exactly like the Italian stereotype he was playing.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: The anti-doping agent repeatedly insists that he won't drink Zachary and Mark's urine samples, which makes them immediately suspicious of his true motives. Confirmed when he mixes their urine into a tiki glass, adds a fruit skewer for garnish and clears his palate by sniffing coffee beans. Oh, and he wears a bib saying "I drink piss".
Coffee Cafe
- Ass Shove: One of us has a vibrator in our bottom. Oh, which one of us could it be? It's Zachary.
- I Am Not Shazam: One episode has a courtroom sketch guest-starring Richard Roxburgh, who repeatedly introduces himself as Rake despite characters In-Universe pointing out that the character's name is Cleaver Greene.
