When comedy group Aunty Donna made a short video about eating too much pudding at Christmas, they didn’t think too much about it. “Cumulatively it had maybe three hours of thought put in to it, from filming, to editing, to putting it up,” says Broden Kelly.
Since then, it has grown into its own beast. The clip on YouTube has had over 2.5 million views, it’s inspired tattoos, played a not insignificant part of their recent live tour – and has now been reimagined as a book titled, same as the original video, Always Room for Christmas Pud.
Comedy group Aunty Donna (L-R) Broden Kelly, Zachary Ruane and Mark Bonanno ahead of the release of their picture book, Always Room for Christmas Pud.Credit: Jason South
“The joke is that we won’t let this go,” says Mark Samual Bonanno. “It’s all based on the reaction – we’ve just been riding the wave of how people have reacted to this, and we find it funny to keep pushing it.”
In the week before the book is released I meet with Kelly, Bonanno, and Zachary Ruane, who alongside Sam Lingham, Max Miller and Tom Armstong make up the comedy collective known as Aunty Donna.
It’s been a busy few years for the team who are known for their surreal comedy. In 2021, they premiered a TV show on Netflix and thus are touring a live show across Australia and New Zealand. They’ve also just wrapped up filming on a new series that will air on ABC, all while balancing individual projects as performers and artists.
On the table between us is a neat stack of hardcover books with yellow trim that look for all intents and purposes like any other children’s storybook. But that’s part of the joke.
Always Room for Christmas Pud by Aunty Donna, published by Penguin.
The bulk of Always Room for Christmas Pud is a singsong poem that takes the story of the original clip – where Kelly, Ruane and Bonanno eat far too much Christmas pudding – and puts it into rhyme, accompanied by original illustrations.
It was written “in that pursuit of could someone pick this up and think it was all legit?” says Bonanno. The story itself does slot itself neatly among other books written with children in mind – it’s the things around the edges that give it a surreal kick, that show the comedy group making the most of a new medium.
Always Room for Christmas Pud leaves certainty and reality at the door. Written less than a year ago it is proudly emblazoned with a 30th anniversary sticker. It opens with what on the surface looks like run-of-the-mill content – an “about the author” section, a foreword, even book club notes – but on closer reading is an absurdist exercise in fiction and world-building.
The “author” is Aunty Donna – not the comedy group but a woman who had a falling out with her publisher Mr Penguin, after she accused him of being a penguin. The comedy group is represented here too, with an invented origin story accompanied by a plea for Aunty Donna – the woman – to please stop suing them.
A page from Aunty Donna’s Always Room for Christmas Pud.Credit: illustrated by James Fosdike. Courtesy of Penguin.
“When you put it together, you start to form a narrative happening underneath it, which I thought was really fun,” says Ruane.
“I loved the idea that in 20 years time this could be on a bookshelf at some house and a kid who’d never heard of Aunty Donna never heard of the sketch, never seen our faces, picks it out and thinks it’s a legitimate book,” says Ruane. “We worked really, really hard to have it work as a standalone piece.”
For Aunty Donna writing the book fits into their ethos of not wanting to ever be tied down by one thing. “Except pud,” Bonanno intercepts.
“All of us have always wanted to do a picture storybook – like everyone at some point in Donna has had an idea for one,” he adds.
Mark Samual Bonanno in a page from Aunty Donna’s Always Room for Christmas Pud.Credit: Illustrated by James Fosdike. Courtesy of Penguin
“That was a big thing with this book that we wanted people to know – it’s not just like merch, it’s not just a thing on the side. It’s just another way we can reach an audience,” Ruane adds. “I think we’ve always found it odd that people would define themselves by their platform or the way they reach an audience. We’ve always just wanted to do what we do and be driven by the fun and the funny – and put it out there in any which way that works best.”
When asked if they would consider turning any of their other clips into books, Kelly answers immediately, with deadpan delivery, “no, but we would turn it into a wine,” to which the room erupts into laughter. He’s not joking though – I think. He references a clip from 2016 and, fighting to be heard through the giggles, says: “We have a video called $30 Bottle of Wine – and we have a wine coming out at Christmas called $30 bottle of wine.”
By the end of the conversation the trio are brainstorming new book ideas. Ruane puts forward The Good, the Bad and the Cowdoy, while Kelly suggests a new pud book every year, including one set in the zoo.
What’s real and what’s not? That Penguin is run by a penguin in a suit? Probably not. The list of endorsements at the front of the book that include Grace Tame, Tracy Spicer and Shaun Micallef? Genuine. That there will be more Aunty Donna books on the way? Guess we’ll see.
A cultural guide to going out and loving your city. Sign up to our Culture Fix newsletter here.