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* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In "Blue Sky Thinking", just as Nat is about to get the council to sign off on a concept drawing for a new development, after having dealt with PoliticalOvercorrectness the whole way, one of the council members notices that there is dog that appears to be off-leash in the concept, causing Nat to mutter "Oh, fuck you all". Cue sign-language interpreter whose been behind her the whole scene translating this by ''[[FlippingTheBird flipping off the council]]'', with an expression that makes it clear she very much agrees with Nat.
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* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Australia does not actually have a department named the Nation Building Authority (but the name is exactly the kind of meaningless buzzword crap any Government in recent history would have come up with).
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* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Australia does not actually have a department named the Nation Building Authority (but the name is exactly the kind of meaningless buzzword crap any Government government in recent history would have come up with).
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* InhumanResources: Human Resources is shown to specialize in making problems where there are none, at one point turning Nat into a nervous wreck and trying to drive her to quit due to not liking her Myers-Briggs type.
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''Utopia'' is an Australian comedy series from Creator/WorkingDogProductions, which premiered on [[Creator/TheABC ABC1]] in August 2014. As of October 2019, it has run for four series of eight episodes each. It returned for a fifth series in June 2023.
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''Utopia'' is an Australian comedy series from Creator/WorkingDogProductions, which premiered on [[Creator/TheABC [[Creator/AustralianBroadcastingCorporation ABC1]] in August 2014. As of October 2019, it has run for four series of eight episodes each. It returned for a fifth series in June 2023.
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* AccidentalMisnaming: A RunningGag in "Smart Cities" involves the conference organizers getting Tony's name wrong and referring to him as 'Tony Woodley' rather than 'Tony Woodford'. The final scene has him being announced as 'Tony Woodley' as he takes the stage to give the keynote address.
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* AccidentalMisnaming: AccidentalMisnaming:
** A RunningGag in "Smart Cities" involves the conference organizers getting Tony's name wrong and referring to him as 'Tony Woodley' rather than 'Tony Woodford'. The final scene has him being announced as 'Tony Woodley' as he takes the stage to give the keynote address.
** A RunningGag in "Smart Cities" involves the conference organizers getting Tony's name wrong and referring to him as 'Tony Woodley' rather than 'Tony Woodford'. The final scene has him being announced as 'Tony Woodley' as he takes the stage to give the keynote address.
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* WithDueRespect: Exchanged between Tony and Beverly when he respectfully refuses to attend her "Respect in the Workplace" course and she respectfully asks him to reconsider. Katie comments on how "good at this" they are.
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* WithDueRespect: Exchanged between Tony and Beverly when he respectfully refuses to attend her "Respect in the Workplace" course and she respectfully asks him to reconsider. Katie comments on how "good at this" they are.are.
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* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Australia does not actually have a department named the Nation Building Authority (but the name is exactly the kind of meaningless buzzword crap the last few governments would have come up with).
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* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Australia does not actually have a department named the Nation Building Authority (but the name is exactly the kind of meaningless buzzword crap the last few governments any Government in recent history would have come up with).
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** Series 5 makes this a recurring theme, usually with HR or some other group intervening on the assumption ''might'' be offended by some issue.
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** Series 5 makes this a recurring theme, usually with HR or some other group intervening on the assumption that someone ''might'' be offended by some issue.issue, such as the decorations in Tony's office.
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* SloganYeiingMegaphoneGuy: Appears at a protest in "Wide Awoke": "What do we want?" "No wind farm!" "When do we want it?" "Now!" It eventually turns out that the wind farm they're protesting has nothing to do with the NBA, and they should have been protesting the building across the street.
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* SloganYeiingMegaphoneGuy: SloganYellingMegaphoneGuy: Appears at a protest in "Wide Awoke": "What do we want?" "No wind farm!" "When do we want it?" "Now!" It eventually turns out that the wind farm they're protesting has nothing to do with the NBA, and they should have been protesting the building across the street.
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* IWasJustJoking: Jim has a tendency to take statements from Tony as suggestions, no matter what context they were delivered in. In "The Whole Enchilada", Tony gives him a detailed analysis of a long-running project that has never yielded worthwhile results and probably never will even with a lot more money wasted on it and concludes by proposing that it be shelved. Jim misses the point and essentially takes "waste a lot more money on it" to be Tony's alternative option.
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* IWasJustJoking: Jim has a tendency to take statements from Tony as suggestions, no matter what context they were delivered in. in.
** In "Onwards and Upwards", Tony sarcastically suggests trying to pass off a building as a "landmark development" to get it past height restrictions, which works.
** In "The Whole Enchilada", Tony gives him a detailed analysis of a long-running project that has never yielded worthwhile results and probably never will even with a lot more money wasted on it and concludes by proposing that it be shelved. Jim misses the point and essentially takes "waste a lot more money on it" to be Tony's alternativeoption.option.
** In "Frequently Avoided Questions", Tony, fed up with Jim and Rhonda's obvious attempts to delay responding a freight report, gives a prediction of how they're going to keep pushing it back. Again, it's taken as a suggestion.
** In "Onwards and Upwards", Tony sarcastically suggests trying to pass off a building as a "landmark development" to get it past height restrictions, which works.
** In "The Whole Enchilada", Tony gives him a detailed analysis of a long-running project that has never yielded worthwhile results and probably never will even with a lot more money wasted on it and concludes by proposing that it be shelved. Jim misses the point and essentially takes "waste a lot more money on it" to be Tony's alternative
** In "Frequently Avoided Questions", Tony, fed up with Jim and Rhonda's obvious attempts to delay responding a freight report, gives a prediction of how they're going to keep pushing it back. Again, it's taken as a suggestion.
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* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: In "Onwards and Upwards", the entire performance review scene, much to Nat's frustration.
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* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: MeaninglessMeaningfulWords:
** In "Onwards and Upwards", the entire performance review scene, much to Nat's frustration.
** In "Onwards and Upwards", the entire performance review scene, much to Nat's frustration.
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* PoliticalOvercorrectness: Parodied in "Blue Sky Thinking" when before they could start work on a new council development Nat needed sign off on a 3D mock up on what it would look like (not the exact plans, just a conceptual interpretation of the layout). She then kept having to change it because different government departments got involved and noticed things like that the generic library template didn't have a wheelchair ramp or all of the generic fake people were white men (one of which even gets a complaint that "he doesn't look like a parent").
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* PoliticalOvercorrectness: PoliticalOvercorrectness:
** Parodied in "Blue Sky Thinking" when before they could start work on a new council development Nat needed sign off on a 3D mock up on what it would look like (not the exact plans, just a conceptual interpretation of the layout). She then kept having to change it because different government departments got involved and noticed things like that the generic library template didn't have a wheelchair ramp or all of the generic fake people were white men (one ofwhich which, depicted with a child, even gets a complaint that "he doesn't look like a parent").
** Parodied in "Blue Sky Thinking" when before they could start work on a new council development Nat needed sign off on a 3D mock up on what it would look like (not the exact plans, just a conceptual interpretation of the layout). She then kept having to change it because different government departments got involved and noticed things like that the generic library template didn't have a wheelchair ramp or all of the generic fake people were white men (one of
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** Series 5 makes this a recurring theme, usually with HR or some other group intervening on the assumption ''might'' be offended by some issue.
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* SloganYeiingMegaphoneGuy: Appears at a protest in "Wide Awoke": "What do we want?" "No wind farm!" "When do we want it?" "Now!" It eventually turns out that the wind farm they're protesting has nothing to do with the NBA, and they should have been protesting the building across the street.
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* GrammarCorrectionGag: In "Wide Awoke", Tony keeps noting spelling errors on the protestors' signs ("turbine" and "moratorium") and Katie keeps going outside to inform them.
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* MistakenForSubculture: In "Wide Awoke", Brian goes out to search a group of elderly protestors after he sees what he thinks is a hate symbol on one of their signs. It turns out to be a badly drawn windmill.
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* TheKeyIsBehindTheLock: In "Frequently Avoided Questions" the security on Tony's computer is upgraded so he can't unlock it without a code that's sent to his phone. Unfortunately, he can't unlock his phone without a code that's been sent to his computer.
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* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Parodied in "Tunnel Vision" when Brendan keeps colour-coding reports with barely-distinguishable variants of ''the same'' colour (e.g, using purple, lilac, mauve and turquoise in one report.), despite Tony's attempts to tell him this isn't helping.
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* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Parodied in "Tunnel Vision" when Brendan keeps colour-coding reports with barely-distinguishable variants of ''the same'' colour (e.g, using purple, lilac, mauve and turquoise in one report.), report), despite Tony's attempts to tell him this isn't helping.
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* IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou: In "Grand Designs", Scott keeps telling Tony not to read the articles attacking him and the NBA, only to then read them aloud in front of him.
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: In "Story Time", Beverly tells Nat that her apology for supposed cultural appropriation has to be "sincere and from the heart". She then gives Nat the apology speech she'd already prepared for her.
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: In "Story Time", Beverly tells Nat that her apology for supposed cultural appropriation has to be "sincere and from the heart". She then gives Nat the apology speech she'd already prepared for her.
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* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: In "Mission Creeps", Scott announces the the pilot for the NBA's new podcast had debuted at no. 4. In the public infrastructure category.
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* OpinionOverride: In "Story Time", Nat gets in trouble when an old photo of her in a sombrero resurfaces online, leading to accusations of cultural appropriation which Beverly insists on having her address, culminating in a YoutuberApologyParody. It eventually becomes apparent that none of the people claiming to be offended are actually Mexican, while the actual local Mexican community don't have a problem with it, to the point that Nat ends up being invited to Cinco de Mayo at the Mexican Embassy. At one point Beverly complains that the Mexicans "don't even know how to be offended".
* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: In "Mission Creeps", Scott announcesthe that the pilot for the NBA's new podcast had debuted at no. 4. In the public infrastructure category.
* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: In "Mission Creeps", Scott announces
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* IsThisThingStillOn: In "Lights, Camera, Inaction", Nat and Ash are setting up a teleconference with Olaf Olafson from UNESCO. Nat asks "Why do Norwegian people always look like they've got of the shower?" and then tells Ash to turn the mute off, only for Olaf to say "I can hear you". After the prickly meeting ends, Ash shuts off the link and Nat says "Well, he was a barrel of laughs" and then Olaf's voice comes back "And if you need anything else, just call".
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* EmbarrassingSlide: In "The Promise Land", during a workplace respect seminar, an incorrectly synced computer starts shown pictures of animals in factory farms from Katie's Animal Rights Party display instead of the proper slides.
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* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: In "Tunnel Vision", Jim is attempting to persuade Tony not to award a conract for a train tunnel to a Chinese company and keeps arranging increasingly clandestine meeting with him. In one of these, Tony turns up to a bench in a public park to find Jim wearing a black trench coat, fedora and sunglasses and sticking out like a sore thumb.
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* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: In "Tunnel Vision", Jim is attempting to persuade Tony not to award a conract for a train tunnel to a Chinese company and keeps arranging increasingly clandestine meeting with him.him, including in the NBA's ParkingGarage. In one of these, Tony turns up to a bench in a public park to find Jim wearing a black trench coat, fedora and sunglasses and sticking out like a sore thumb.
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* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: In "Tunnel Vision", Jim is attempting to persuade Tony not to award a conract for a train tunnel to a Chinese company and keeps arranging increasingly clandestine meeting with him. In one of these, Tony turns up to a bench in a public park to find Jim wearing a black trench coat, fedora and sunglasses amd sticling out like a sore thumb.
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* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Parodied in "Tunnel Vision" when Brendan keeps colour-coding reports with barely-distinguishable variants of ''the same'' colour (e.g, using purple, lilac, mauve and turquoise in one report.), despite Tony's attempts to tell him this isn't helping.
* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: In "Tunnel Vision", Jim is attempting to persuade Tony not to award a conract for a train tunnel to a Chinese company and keeps arranging increasingly clandestine meeting with him. In one of these, Tony turns up to a bench in a public park to find Jim wearing a black trench coat, fedora and sunglassesamd sticling and sticking out like a sore thumb.
* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: In "Tunnel Vision", Jim is attempting to persuade Tony not to award a conract for a train tunnel to a Chinese company and keeps arranging increasingly clandestine meeting with him. In one of these, Tony turns up to a bench in a public park to find Jim wearing a black trench coat, fedora and sunglasses
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* ObstructiveBureaucrat: While bureaucracy is just one of the many barriers to actually getting anything done for the NBA, HR in particular is presented as being in a league of their own. If you want to hire someone, fire someone or promote someone you can guarantee they'll have a lengthy process to follow (which won't work). "Smart Cities" had Tony attempt to get Nat promoted acknowledging the great work she did and that she deserved it. HR then stepped in and required her to complete a lengthy evaluation to prove she was qualified. Of course, they couldn't accept Tony as her boss saying that she should be promoted because there was no paperwork on it. In the end, after looking through all the paperwork, HR decide to demote her.
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* ObstructiveBureaucrat: ObstructiveBureaucrat:
** While bureaucracy is just one of the many barriers to actually getting anything done for the NBA, HR in particular is presented as being in a league of their own. If you want to hire someone, fire someone or promote someone you can guarantee they'll have a lengthy process to follow (which won't work). "Smart Cities" had Tony attempt to get Nat promoted acknowledging the great work she did and that she deserved it. HR then stepped in and required her to complete a lengthy evaluation to prove she was qualified. Of course, they couldn't accept Tony as her boss saying that she should be promoted because there was no paperwork on it. In the end, after looking through all the paperwork, HR decide to demoteher. her.
** In "The Buck Stops Where", Beverly takes over planning the farewell party of a staffer whose contract wasn't renewed, due to semi-justified concerns of the party triggering a wrongful termination lawsuit in some way. She ends up going so far as to have the cake's message redacted.
** While bureaucracy is just one of the many barriers to actually getting anything done for the NBA, HR in particular is presented as being in a league of their own. If you want to hire someone, fire someone or promote someone you can guarantee they'll have a lengthy process to follow (which won't work). "Smart Cities" had Tony attempt to get Nat promoted acknowledging the great work she did and that she deserved it. HR then stepped in and required her to complete a lengthy evaluation to prove she was qualified. Of course, they couldn't accept Tony as her boss saying that she should be promoted because there was no paperwork on it. In the end, after looking through all the paperwork, HR decide to demote
** In "The Buck Stops Where", Beverly takes over planning the farewell party of a staffer whose contract wasn't renewed, due to semi-justified concerns of the party triggering a wrongful termination lawsuit in some way. She ends up going so far as to have the cake's message redacted.
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* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: In "Tunnel Vision", Jim is attempting to persuade Tony not to award a conract for a train tunnel to a Chinese company and keeps arranging increasingly clandestine meeting with him. In one of these, Tony turns up to a bench in a public park to find Jim wearing a black trench coat, fedora and sunglasses amd sticling out like a sore thumb.
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* EatTheEvidence: In "Tunnel Vision", Jim, who is currently paranoid about Chinese eavesdropping, writes a message to Tony on a Post-It note, shows it to him, and then immediately eats it. A bewildered Tony then asks "Did you just eat a Post-It note?"
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''Utopia'' is an Australian comedy series from Creator/WorkingDogProductions, which premiered on [[Creator/TheABC ABC1]] in August 2014. As of October 2019, it has run for four series of eight episodes each. It is set to return for a fifth series in June 2023.
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''Utopia'' is an Australian comedy series from Creator/WorkingDogProductions, which premiered on [[Creator/TheABC ABC1]] in August 2014. As of October 2019, it has run for four series of eight episodes each. It is set to return returned for a fifth series in June 2023.
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* ForInconveniencePressOne: The absurdly complicated registration system for the solar panels scheme Scott attempts to sign Tony up for in "Grand Designs".
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* ForInconveniencePressOne: The absurdly complicated registration system for the solar panels scheme Scott attempts to sign Tony up for in "Grand Designs". Sadly not a huge exaggeration of some actual websites.
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* ReassignedToAntarctica: In "The Buck Stops Where?", a cabinet reshuffle lands NBA with an Assistant Minister for Infrastructure, who has been demoted from Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Nat and Ashan spend the entire episode attempting to brief him on NBA's priorities, but cannot get his attention for more than three minutes. At the end of the episode, another reshuffle removes him; leading the characters to comment that he can't have been moved somewhere less important than Assistant Minister for Infrastructure. Then the final scene shows he is now Assistant Minister to the Minister for Territories and Regions, and is giving a press conference from Norfolk Island, and still can't make it through the conference without being distracted.[[note]]There is an additional level to the joke for those who know Australian politics, as Minister for Veteran's Affairs is considered the worst cabinet position and is essentially a political death sentence. So he was too incompetent to even hold the worst ministry.[[/note]]
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* ReassignedToAntarctica: In "The Buck Stops Where?", a cabinet reshuffle lands NBA with an Assistant Minister for Infrastructure, who has been demoted from Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Nat and Ashan spend the entire episode attempting to brief him on NBA's priorities, but cannot get his attention for more than three minutes. At the end of the episode, another reshuffle removes him; leading the characters to comment that he can't have been moved somewhere less important than Assistant Minister for Infrastructure. Then the final scene shows he is now Assistant Minister to the Minister for Territories and Regions, and is giving a press conference from Norfolk Island, and still can't make it through the conference without being distracted.[[note]]There is an additional level to the joke for those who know Australian politics, UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics, as Minister for Veteran's Affairs is considered the worst cabinet position and is essentially a political death sentence. So he was too incompetent to even hold the worst ministry.[[/note]]
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* {{Satire}}.... kind of.
* TheScapegoat: In 'The Blame Game", Jim and Rhonda repeatedly try to spin things to blame the NBA for a failed project even when presented with documented evidence that Tony had argued against it at every stage.
* TheScapegoat: In 'The Blame Game", Jim and Rhonda repeatedly try to spin things to blame the NBA for a failed project even when presented with documented evidence that Tony had argued against it at every stage.
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* {{Satire}}.... kind {{Satire}}: ...Kind of.
*TheScapegoat: TheScapegoat:
** In 'The Blame Game", Jim and Rhonda repeatedly try to spin things to blame the NBA for a failed project even when presented with documented evidence that Tony had argued against it at everystage.stage.
** In "Grand Designs", the NBA gets the blame for a failed solar panel scheme, even though the bigger problem was the [[ForInconveniencePressOne poorly-implemented website]], which they had nothing to do with.
*
** In 'The Blame Game", Jim and Rhonda repeatedly try to spin things to blame the NBA for a failed project even when presented with documented evidence that Tony had argued against it at every
** In "Grand Designs", the NBA gets the blame for a failed solar panel scheme, even though the bigger problem was the [[ForInconveniencePressOne poorly-implemented website]], which they had nothing to do with.
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* ShaggyDogStory: Several episodes, but "Protected Species" most obviously.
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* ShaggyDogStory: Several episodes, but "Protected Species" most obviously.obviously.
* WithDueRespect: Exchanged between Tony and Beverly when he respectfully refuses to attend her "Respect in the Workplace" course and she respectfully asks him to reconsider. Katie comments on how "good at this" they are.
* WithDueRespect: Exchanged between Tony and Beverly when he respectfully refuses to attend her "Respect in the Workplace" course and she respectfully asks him to reconsider. Katie comments on how "good at this" they are.
