‘Australia has forgotten how to laugh,’ says Here Come The Habibs! co-creator Rob Shehadie

NINE’S controversial show Here Come The Habibs! is coming back, and its co-creator defends it, saying there was never an intention to offend anyone.

HERE Come The Habibs! co-creator Rob Shehadie believes “Australia is forgetting how to laugh.”

The Lebanese Australian, who appears on the popular Channel 9 series as loveable larrikin, Janesh, grew up on a TV diet of US sitcom favourites, including The Cosby Show, Family Ties and Married With Children, but says “now the kids are growing up on reality TV.”

While the show got off to a controversial start — accused of perpetuating negative racial stereotypes even before an episode had aired — Shehadie tells News Corp Australia there was never any intention to offend or polarise with the program, just to find common ground in comedy.

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Here Come the Habibs: Season 2. Cast: Rob Shehadie, Sam Alhaje, Tyler De Nawi and Kat Hoyos.

“The world is getting very serious … which is very serious,” Shehadie says. “We created this show purely for comedy reasons. We didn’t say, ‘let’s do a show to put some diversity on Australian TV.’ For us, it’s always been about the laughs.

“We don’t touch on religion, we don’t touch on politics — we’re careful not to. If you go down that road of offending people, that’s a cheap way of getting a laugh,” Shehadie argues.

Returning for a second season, viewers follow the ‘rags to riches’ story of the Habib family, who won the lottery and moved into a luxury harbour side mansion beside uptight, wealthy neighbours.

Shehadie and Habibs co-creator Tahir Bilgic. Picture: Gina Milicia

Despite the early outrage, the series averaged about 1.2 million viewers nationally each episode last year — a solid reward for Nine’s faith in Shehadie, his co-producer Tahir Bilgic and the comedy genre.

“I remember all the controversy when it first stared, we were thinking, ‘why are they like this? They should be supporting a locally made show,’ Bilgic says. “We’re here to make something local, give some local people jobs. We’re like …. Centrelink,” he jokes.

HERE COME THE HABIBS! airs 8pm, Monday on Nine.