Aunty Jack was a comedy sketch show that aired on Australian television in the early seventies. It had surreal humour reminiscent of Monty Python and The Goon Show but not directly based on either. The titular character was a moustachioed transvestite who wore a singular gold boxing glove on her right hand and often threatened to "rip your bloody arms off". She was the brainchild of Graeme Bond, a native of Wollongong a town just to the south of Sydney, Australia. He and the small cast had a variety of characters they portrayed.
It was quite daring and racy for its time which probably explains why it was on The ABC.
It was released on DVD only a few years ago. The delay was due to copyright issues as unusually Bond and Donohue (the song writers) had managed to retain the copyrights. The series can is also available on Hulu
Also the characters later appeared in Wollongong The Brave, a series of one-off specials in 1975 and in a 5-minute skit which helped introduce colour TV to Australia, which is now in the National Archives of Australia, along with the rest of series. In 2006 there was a stage Reunion Show.
"Aunty Jack" contains examples of:
- Australian Brevity: There were only two seasons of seven, then six episodes.
- Automobile Opening: If you count a motorcycle with a side car and a dune buggy as automobiles.
- Berserk Button: Never say Aunty Jack is fat or that she looks like a man or...well you know
- Bragging Theme Tune
- Breakingthe Fourth Wall: Most of the time
- Character Blog: Aunty Jack owns a Twitter account.
- Catchphrase: Aunty Jack's I'll Rip Your Bloody Arms Off
- Coloring in the World: To celebrate the introduction of color to Australian television in 1975, the cast reunited for a skit in which Aunty Jack, Thin Arthur, and Kid Eager try in vain to stop the "color monster" from invading Wollongong. As the "color monster" floods their house, the scene gradually fills with color.
- Conspicuous Gloves: Aunty Jack's boxing glove
- Disney Death: Aunty Jack is revived during the specials and now has a Twitter account.
- Dumb Blonde: Flange Desire
- Framing Device: Aunty Jack and her gang
- Grand Finale: Aunty Jack dies in the final episode. Averted in the specials and on her Twitter account.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming
- Mama Bear: Try to bother or insult anyone who are friends with Aunty Jack and you will have arms ripped off. You will not survive and die in Australia.
- Mind Screw: Many sketches
- Never Mess with Granny: Make that Aunty
- Land of One City: Wollongong
- Put on a Bus: Narrator Neville in between the first and second seasons.
- Solemn Ending Theme: Farewell Aunty Jack, which was also a Number one single.
- Spin-Off: The Norman Gunston Show
- Stock Footage: Occasionally
- Subverted Kids' Show: It was orignally pitched as a kid's show, but executives thought the characters and songs were not family friendly.
- Those Two Guys: Errol and Neil
