The Bogan

"Bloody bogan!"

It's a comfy bloody country
'Cos we know what's in our heart
It's beer and boots, not wine and suits
Cricket — not art!

— Keating! The Musical

If there's a character from a Land Down Under, chances are they're the most crass character present. Basic concepts of decorum and "good manners" don't seem to matter to fictional Australians. Just as the continent is depicted as entirely composed of its famous wilderness, the people themselves are portrayed as lacking any semblance of sophisticated culture, consisting mostly of beer-drinking and "knife"-measuring contests.

If the character is heroically-inclined, they'll still be casually politically incorrect, prone to personal antagonism of everyone around them, dropping Cluster F-Bombs, diss any forms of culture, and Country Matters. If the character is a villain, expect them to go off the deep end and be a drooling, psychotic brute lacking anything close to resembling a filter.

In Australia itself, "bogan" is the local term for Lower-Class Lout (or people being compared to them). Synonyms include "yob(bo)", "derro", "ocker" and "westie" (since the western suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane tend to be lower-class. Inverted in Perth, where the eastern suburbs are the lower-class ones). Another term is "feral", which implies the negative aspects of the bogan but even more so, including things such as abusing or neglecting one's kids and being involved with meth^* Colloquially referred to as "ice" in the country. (either as a producer or user). Examples from media made in other countries tend to have less focus on socioeconomic class, with Australians in general being portrayed as brutish, crass, vulgar, and uncultured. This is potentially due to Australia's status as being founded originally as a British penal colony, therefore giving rise to the idea that every non-indigenous man, woman and child born there is descended from criminals. ^note Actually, Australia has the second-most diverse population in the world, outdone only by Israel The term has also seen use in neighbouring New Zealand, with residents of West Auckland - often referred to as "Westies" - most commonly associated with the stereotype.

Compare and contrast Awesome Aussie. Not to be confused with Bulk Bogan. Also has nothing to do with the word "Bogan" being used to describe The Dark Side of the Force. See also "Ugly American" Stereotype, Dublin Skanger, Half-Witted Hillbilly, Violent Glaswegian, Brooklyn Rage, Southies and Crass Canuck for their northern Anglophone cousins an ocean away. When it comes to their fellow Anglophones from the southern hemisphere, check out Amoral Afrikaner.

This should go without saying, but No Real Life Examples, Please! noreallife

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Examples:

Anime

• Pacific Rim: The Black: Invoked by "Bogan", a criminal organization that wanders the wastelands of fallen Australia to scavenge anything profitable (including Jaegers and Kaiju) and have no problem shooting anybody who is an obstacle to them in any way, shape or form.

Comedy

• Jim Jefferies leans heavily into this stereotype for his stand-up routines, employing much of the "bogan" vernacular (read: he says "cunt" a lot).
• Barry Humphries' first comedy character, Australian cultural attache Sir Les Patterson, is perpetually drunk, foul-mouthed, and obnoxious. In real life, Humphries is known for despising bogan culture, and much of his work is dedicated to mocking it.
• Before international success as "Crocodile" Dundee, Paul Hogan was a stand-up comedian (who later had a Tv sketch show) whose persona was pure bogan.
• Stand-up comedian Heath Franklin frequently imitates the real-life gangster Chopper Read in his skits.

Comic Books

• Astro City: There was an 80's cartoon In-Universe called "Queenslaw" that was about the adventures of a fictional Australian superhero team of which all the members were crude stereotypes.
• The Chronicles of Wormwood: Pope Jacko, the world's first Australian pope who starts his speeches to the masses with "G'DAY!" (and was only elected because the cardinals couldn't bring themselves to elect a black pope). He's a hideous, alcoholic, diseased Dirty Old Man who regularly has sex with nuns, is on friendly terms with the Devil, and eventually takes over Hell after he dies of AIDS. He's not an atheist, but given that God and Satan Are Both Jerks that'd actually be an improvement.
• The Flash: In his first appearances, Captain Boomerang was no worse than any other villain. However, in John Ostrander's Suicide Squad run, he became a sociopathic, racist and sexist Jerkass, and a Dirty Coward with a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder who nobody likes. In fact, he fits this trope so well that he is considered a stereotype In-Universe and even his fellow Australians want nothing to do with him. And while his characterization has been toned down a bit in recent years, he's still the biggest bastard in the groups he runs with.

Fan Works

• Dragonball Z Abridged: Jeice of the Ginyu Force is an inversion. He's actually the least antagonistic member of the Ginyus, bordering on Affably Evil. Though he does like to mention hes from "Space Australia" (Space Brisbane to be precise).
  "Go, Space Broncos!"
• The Discworld of A.A. Pessimal now has the expanded Air Watch, which draws in Witch-pilots from all over the Discworld. The siren call ^note or perhaps in context the Syren-call of unlimited flight on the best possible technomancy draws in a Fourecksian, called Darleen O'Hagan. Darleen is slovenly, foul-mouthed, crude, coarse - and as her commanding officer admits, is a bloody good pilot. The character is intended as an exaggerated take on Australians in uniform.

Films — Animation

• The scrapped Dreamworks film Larrikins (later reworked into Bilby) would have had one of its antagonists, Howard the crocodile, act like a crude xenophobe. In test footage showing a snippet of his Villain Song, he refers to the bilby protagonist as an "illegal alien" and says that letting them into his territory would be "quite un-Australian."

Films — Live-Action

• The title character in The Adventures of Barry McKenzie is a caricature of a stereotypical unrefined Australian "ocker", obsessed with beer, sex, and beautiful "sheilas".
• The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The three drag queens are prone to running into these type of Australians when they're crossing the country. For the most part, the bogans are harmless, but rude, spraying offensive remarks onto the side of their bus, but later on, Adam ends up angering a bunch of more dangerous blokes who promptly beat him up and try to rape him. Luckily, Bernadette is on hand to drive them off by subjecting their leader to a Groin Attack.
• The Castle: The Kerrigan family are depicted as being unsophisticated and having poor taste, but downplayed in that they are nowhere near as crass or rude as many on this list, lacking the casual racism of the stereotypical bogan (the daughter is married to a Greek Australian who is fully welcome in the family, and they also get along quite well with their Lebanese neighbour).
• Commando (1985): Bennett. Australian, Ax-Crazy, foul-mouthed, and in need of anger management therapy. His own men seem terrified of him.
• Played with in "Crocodile" Dundee: Mick "Crocodile" Dundee is a Knight in Shining Armor to his Love Interest and overall a nice guy, but most of the series' comedy lies in the fact that, as a man who lives in the Australian Outback, he is very direct, blunt, and on a few occasions even violent when all of the city folk are overly sensitive at best and two-faced at worst. The star Paul Hogan made his fame in Australia with comic exaggerated portrayals of typical bogan characters. (see Live Action TV) The rest of the inhabitants of Walkabout Creek play up the bogan stereotype even more, especially Nugget and Donk.
• In The Dry, Grant Dow embodies every negative stereotype of the small town, working class, macho Jerkass.
• Early on in The Locals, Grant accuses Paul of being a bogan, and he does show many on the classic signs. However, he pales in comparison to Nev and Tone; the two local revheads who run Grant and Paul of the road. They are sexist, boorish and seem to have no interests outside their souped-up car and girls (in that order).
• Ong-Bak: Big Bear, the white Australian fighter who Ting confronts in his first underground fight, is an unhygienic, obnoxious lout who thinks all Thai women are for sale.
• Pacific Rim: The Australian Jaeger Striker Eureka is piloted by father-son team Hercules and Chuck Hansen. Herc is actually alright, but Chuck is haughty, brash and so full of himself that he gets on everyone's nerves to the point that they only put up with him because he is very good at killing Kaiju. He actively antagonizes Raleigh throughout the film. But, he does get in a Heroic Sacrifice in the end, so maybe he's not so bad.
• The Royal Hotel: Set at a bar in the Australian Outback, almost every male character in the film is a blue collar Aussie machine that converts alcohol into casual misogyny.
• Suicide Squad: In a cast full of criminals and supervillains, Captain Boomerang manages to be even more crass, backstabbing and self-serving than the rest. Enforced, since Jai Courtney was told to tap into his "Inner Bogan" and play the character as nasty as possible.
• Wolf Creek: Mick Taylor embodies every negative stereotype of Outback Australians; he's rude, crass and foulmouthed. He also happens to be a sadistic and psychopathic Serial Killer.

Literature

• The Last Continent: A meta example, in that the book is about a fantasy version of Australia that exists on Discworld called Fourecks; named for a popular brand of beer in Australia (or, at least, a brand of Australian beer popular in the UK, and claimed to be popular in Australia in advertising). Also parodied with a character Rincewind meets who fits the Bogan stereotype while being at pains to point out FourEcks does have culture:
  Wombat: An' I expect you don't even know that we happen to produce some partic'ly fine wines, our Chardonnays bein' 'specially worthy of attention and compet'tively priced, not to mention the rich, firmly structur'd Rusted Dunny Valley Semillons, which are a tangily refreshin' discovery for the connesewer... yew bastard?
• Whateley Universe
  • Once Jack 'Razorback' Carlyle was brought in from going feral for two years and hiding out in the Outback, he became the Detention King of his freshman year, and was still considered one of the most dangerous Ultra-Violent students afterwards. When not provoked into a lethal frenzy ("clawed, whirlwind of death" is one description), he's a Bully Hunter, incorrigible prankster, and all-around irreverent bloke.
  • Spider hates her official Code Name (Koala, given to her by a less-than-friendly MCO officer), hates that her mutation makes her look like one of the 'verse's super-elves, and is very touchy about both. She can become destructively inventive when provoked. Good friends with Jack.
    "No Spider you're right, Ninimeth is absolutely a poncy name that sounds like a bad Tolkien reference. Calm down, and let's think rationally... no, you can't force-ration oxygen to arrogance. It's not legal Spider! No, Caitlin is not loaning you her sidearm collection!"
  • Played with in "Reinforce: Don't Call Me a Pretty", set in the Gen 2 period. Jack's younger brother, Adam Carlyle, has a devil-may-care attitude towards most things, but stands his ground when it comes to authorities or aggressors. Tossing him into the deep end of a pool isn't recommended.
  • Fracas is a brawny, loutish brawler who is one of She-Beast's more irritating admirers. In the Gen 2 stories he shows up as a mercenary, getting into yet another fight (this time with Those Wacky Nazis) over a supposed power item.
  • Essemmelle (Kareela Greer) is a diminutive, under-educated, ill-tempered, and foul-mouthed ESPer who dislikes short jokes (when other people tell them - she's more than happy to do so herself, hence her Code Name).[1] Of them all, she lives down to the bogan stereotype the most.

Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: JT James, aka "Hellfire," an Inhuman who can make things explode by touching them. Before he is introduced, he was invited to live in Afterlife, but pissed them off by snooping around and was kicked out. When he is introduced, he's a slovenly hermit living in a trailer and pointing a shotgun at anyone who approaches. After undergoing terrigenesis and gaining his powers, he is taken over by Hive, but actually seems to enjoy doing the HYDRA God's bidding moreso than Hive's other thralls. After being freed from Hive, he ends up joining The Watchdogs having come to believe Inhumans should not be allowed to exist, and tries to kill Daisy and Simmons before Robbie shows up in the nick of time.
• In Black Snow (2022), Billy and Tasha Hopkins are a brother-sister pair of dimwitted louts (Billy's an ex-con, while Tasha's a junkie) who take advantage of the re-opened investigation into the murder of their high-school classmate to try and blackmail the Wolcott family, whose patriarch is a suspect in the murder.
• In the late '80s, the Sketch Comedy program The Comedy Company introduced Australians to Kylie Mole, an obnoxious lower-class schoolgirl who is often credited with nationally popularizing the word "bogan" and the related stereotypes.
• Flight of the Conchords: In the episode "Unnatural Love", Jermaine sleeps with an Australian girl named Keitha ("It's like Keith, but with an A at the end"). She is depicted as slovenly, uncultured (her recipe for making a cup of tea involves Froot Loops), and extremely crass (her first line after "G'day" is "Jeezus, got a tongue like a badger's arsehole").
• Paul Hogan, of "Crocodile" Dundee fame, started out as a stand-up comedian and TV sketch-show actor. The Paul Hogan Show and the characters Hogan created were, in their way, both a celebration of and an awful warning about bogan culture.
• Kim of Kath & Kim is rude, obnoxious, boorish, and deeply uneducated/ignorant. The entire series’ premise is to lampoon cashed-up bogans — and it’s bloody hilarious.
• Housos: The entire premise of the show is exploring the daily life of a group of people who embody this trope to an exaggerated degree.
• The Magicians: Gavin, the traveller who works for the Library. Despite Zelda's attempt to justify his behaviour as "roguish belligerence" being a common trait among travellers (main character Penny is also one, and likewise has a chip on his shoulder), Gavin takes it to whole other level, casually referring to Alice as "booktard", showing total disregard for anyone's feelings surrounding Penny's apparent death, and after the Library collapses, he just abandons the contract and goes to work for Marina.
• The Bruces Sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus features a group of stereotypical aussies who are all wearing identical safari outfits, exchanging dirty jokes, drinking heavily, eating raw meat, are vocally against "pooftas", oppose harassment of Aboriginal people only when others are watching, give patriotic accolades at the drop of a hat and are all named Bruce. They are all members of the philosophy department of a university, and when they introduce a philosophy teacher that had just transferred from England, they ask if they could call him "Bruce" because calling him anything else would "cause a little confusion", and that he can teach anything about socialist-philosophy as long as he clarifies that they were wrong. The characters even wrote a song based on famous philosophers ("Bruce's Philosophers Song") and all it's about is those philosophers drinking.
• Sean Moody from A Moody Christmas and The Moodys is by far the most boorish member of his family. He's slovenly, unreliable, immature and not above committing criminal acts against anyone who gives him attitude. During Australia Day he even wore the Australian flag as a cape, knowing that it makes him look like a white supremacist (though in the same episode he's seen sympathising with an Aboriginal man, so he's probably not as racist as the stereotype would imply).
• Australian soap opera Neighbours had the Timmins family - cousins of Toady Rebecchi - who embody all the typical bogan traits. The most prominent member is Scott aka Stingray, who establishes himself by streaking during a football game and acting like a general nuisance before character development sets in.
• Outrageous Fortune and its prequel West Side are a couple of New Zealand examples, centering around the West crime family who reside in west Auckland. In this context, the real-life term "Westie" is synonymous with "bogan".
• In one episode of Peep Show, Mark meets an Australian woman named Saz while speed dating and lets her sleep at his apartment. While there, she has a wild party with her cocaine-using friends and keeps shouting out embarrassing things when his ex-wife Sophie comes by to drop off some of Mark's belongings.
• Pizza, by the same writer as Housos. Davo Dinkum, the only white Australian working at Big Pizza Pizzas, is pretty uncultured, but the "LET'S GET 'EM!!" Aussie Pub Bloke is even more crass. He openly declares war on a bunch of Lebanese people who he thinks are taking over the beach (and that itself was an accident due to mishearing from Lifesaver Les, who qualifies as a lesser example of this].
• Sense8: A couple examples.
  • Bambi, Shuggs' nominally Australian girlfriend. She is obnoxious, insensitive, crass, loud-mouthed and even references her nationality as the reason for her personality.
  • Puck, fellow sensate from another cluster. He manages to outdo Bambi in the insufferable department, while also giving Riley the creeps. Bonus points for changing his hairstyle to match hers later on, then expecting 'thank you' sex after having rescued Sun. He is an ally to the group, but just barely.
• Swift & Shift Couriers, by the same writer as Housos and Pizza.
• The Wheeler family on Upper Middle Bogan, as the title suggests, are the "cashed-up" variant who live in a McMansion and run a drag racing team.

Music

• Area 7 released "Nobody Likes a Bogan" in 2001.
• "Bloke" by Chris Franklin, a parody of Meredith Brooks' "Bitch", has an unabashed bogan as its protagonist.
• TISM, "Yob".
  If it's different, punch
  If it's lager, lunch
  If it moves, root
  If it quacks, shoot

Roleplay

• Irwin Dundee on NoPixel is a textbook example of a bogan; he's loud, crass, violent, and addicted to drugs.

Theatre

• Keating! The Musical: Paul Keating's predecessor, Bob Hawke has shades of this trope; when he shows up, he's wearing a loud "Australia" blazer (like one that he really did wear when Australia won the America's Cup), he flirts with women in the audience, and at one point looks like he's reading a financial newspaper when it's revealed that he's really reading a horse racing paper (he was called "The Silver Bodgie" in real life, and was particularly proud of having set a drinking record while he was in college...). Keating's successor, John Howard, is depicted as a more "manufactured" version of this trope, with him at one point looking like he's wearing a farmer's outfit which is in reality just a cheap costume. Both of these contrast with Paul Keating's Bourgeois Bohemian mannerisms and dress sense.
  Hawke: Of course, he's quite peculiar, if that's for me to say,
  a little, erm... un-Australian, in his own endearing way...
  I take him to the Footie, and his eyes aren't on the ball!
  And in his private parlor, he plays the works of Mahler,
  the strangest sounds cascading down the hall!
  It doesn't sound like Billy Thorpe at all!

Video Games

• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! takes place in Pandora's moon Elpis, which is referred as "The Land Up Over". While both the honest citizens and the bandit-like Scavs are depicted as Australian-equivalent (accents, cork hats, local dialogue like "billabong" and "cuppa", etc).
  • Special mention goes to "The Boganella", a special shotgun containing the rudest, most foul-mouthed backwoods redneck AI who makes surly Football Hooligans look pleasant in comparison. She takes pleasure in just plain being mean. Bonus points for being voiced by Elle Dawe, best known for playing Shazza.
• Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped: Dingodile has an Australian accent and is a sadistic pyromaniac who threatens to torch a penguin for fun.
  —"BREAK OUT THE BUTTER, I'M GONNA MAKE TOAST!"
• Far Cry 3: Bambi "Buck" Hughes is an Australian Psycho for Hire and former Sociopathic Soldier who works for Hoyt Volker on the Rook Islands. He's foul-mouthed, Faux Affably Evil, and spends most of his time lounging around in the sunshine or downing beer, at the same time as forcing Jason to collect a rare ancient Chinese knife for him. Buck is also a Depraved Homosexual, and he's keeping Jason's friend Keith as a Sex Slave to prevent Jason from betraying him. Funnily enough, Buck doesn't fit the "uncultured" aspect of the Bogan, as he can quote Robert Frost's poetry and is fairly knowledgeable about ancient Chinese history (or, at least, the parts of it relevant to finding his coveted knife).
• Fear Effect: Jacob "Deke" Decourt is the lone Aussie of the team, and is depicted to be a hulking, muscular brute who's the least classy among the playable characters, and unlike Hana or Glas whom are Anti-Hero at worst, Deke tends to have sadistic tendencies and takes delight in performing executions in cold blood.
• Mortal Kombat: Kano manages to be the rudest and crudest character of the entire series by far, and was originally supposed to be Japanese before The Movie made him an Australian, complete with the accent. Mortal Kombat 11 brings it even further — he's a drunken, public-urinating, foul-mouthed dickhead even before you start to address his criminal activities. His default Battle Intro is him pissing on the battlefield!
• Overwatch: The cackling Australian thief Junkrat and his muscle Roadhog (who may or may not be Kiwi) are characterized as the coarsest and most destructive of the cast, even compared to actual terrorists like Talon. Junkrat's specialty is explosives, while Roadhog's is his hook and scrap gun that shoots literal garbage. Much of Australia is said to have become an irradiated wasteland after a rebellious insurrection exploded an important fusion core, with scrap cities like Junkertown harboring robbers and mecha Gladiator Games.
• Kelli "Sydney" King from PAYDAY 2 is the resident Australian heister, and one of the most crass and foul-mouthed people on the team.
• The Sniper from Team Fortress 2, not only is he a Cold Sniper, but his domination lines are nothing short of disrespectful towards his enemies. One of his responses after successfully scoring a kill with his rifle is a spiteful "bloody bogan!"
• The Australian-accented Ghondor from Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a rare female example of this trope, having the most abrasive personality and colourful language of all of the Hero characters in the game. She refers to her mother as 'bitchqueen' to her face, and is not one to sugarcoat her opinions on things. Despite this, however, she's still a heroic character.

Visual Novels

• Max's Big Bust: A Captain Nekorai Tale: Police Commissioner Pandarai. He's rude to Max and the rest of the officers in her division, has a huge grudge against Captain Nekorai, refuses to help during a murder investigation because there's a football game on, and is generally kind of an ass. Max and her coworkers even refer to him as a bogan on several occasions.

Web Animation

• Damo and Darren is an animated series about the adventures of a pair of suburban bogans. True to form, both of them are ugly, stupid, belligerent, lazy, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and racist.
  • Michael Cusack's animation in general often includes a host of bogan characters. Rick and Morty: Bushworld Adventures, for instance, features an alternate version of Rick who's been metaphorically pushed through a bogan-esque filter.
• Gen. Arak Attack, and his attack bugs Crikey and Chunder from The Grossery Gang webseries. The three of them are gross soldiers that will stop at nothing to get the Grosseries out of Cheap Town, because they want the filthy city for themselves. While Crikey and Chunder are slightly more polite than their boss, Arak Attack is crude, willing to attack his own teammates for falling out of line, and can even slip into Australian slang so heavily that he may as well be speaking Javanese. The company that created The Grossery Gang line, Moose Toys, is an Australian company.
• Helluva Boss: Prince of Greed Mammon is an exploitative, misogynistic, short-tempered, foul-mouthed bastard. With an Australian accent.

Web Original

• Australian-based content series Keep Et Classy is known for usually bringing bogans into conversations, often with anecdotes and quotes

Web Video

• Referenced by Regular Car Reviews, whose creators, though thoroughly Pennsylvanian, adore Antipodean culture. They play with the stereotype whenever they review an Australian car, including the time they went to New Zealand to make some videos. They have also explicitly called the Subaru WRX STI a "cashed-up bogan" of a car.

Western Animation

• The Garfield Show: Dirk Dinklum is an Australian Egomaniac Hunter who is extremely proud of being one of the most repugnant human beings on the planet, even getting two Villain Songs throughout the show ("Bad Boy" and "Go Away") that show him going way out of his way to bully everybody he meets, from stealing food and kids' candy to vandalizing a painting being exhibited in a museum.
• In the episode "Bart Vs. Australia" of The Simpsons, Australian farmer Bruno Drundridge (who Bart causes to have a $900 collect call billed to) is depicted as crude and short-tempered. In addition, when he goes to tell his local Member of Parliament about what happened, he finds his MP in a nearby pigsty, feeding pigs. When the two of them go to see the Prime Minister, they find him in a nearby river, floating naked on an innertube with a can of beer in his hand.
• Smiling Friends features Pim's family - an obnoxious bunch with Australian accents where the younger kids run wild to the point of being almost completely feral, the parents drink and scream at each other, and the older siblings are jerks.
• South Park has the memorable Show Within a Show Fighting 'Round The World With Russell Crowe, in which Russell Crowe travels in a tugboat to different cities and picks fights with local inhabitants.
• The titular Thong family of The Flamin' Thongs embody just about every negative Australian stereotype.
• Codename: Kids Next Door gives us Numbuh Four, the Hot-Blooded Blood Knight who's almost always holding the Jerkass Ball in any given ep.

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