Australia's new wave of 'wog humour' is about class as much as race

"Why can't more non-Anglo characters be doctors or lawyers?"

In debates about racial representations on screen, this is a perennial refrain. According to some critics, the blue collar jobs of fictional Mediterranean migrants are gratingly stereotypical (and insufficiently inspiring).

Never mind that a law degree is the archetype of white, middle class respectability. For a new breed of "wog" humorists, such assessments ring hollow.

Sooshi Mango's Carlo and Jo Salanitri with Andrew Manfre.Credit: Paul Jeffers

"I don't think comic characters should necessarily be held up as role models," says Sooshi Mango member Carlo Salanitri, who writes and performs short sketches with brother Joe and friends Andrew Manfre and Michael Kambouridis.

Since making their first video in 2015, the Melbourne-based group has notched up 50 million views across YouTube and Facebook. (Their most popular skits include Shit Ethnic Dads Say and If Wogs Were On Gogglebox.) In August, they'll start a live tour with Acropolis Now stars Nick Giannopoulos and Mary Coustas.

The Salanitris believe their primary job as satirists is to make people laugh – not teach them lessons. Even so, their characters are a tribute to the Sicilian relatives who inspired them. "Growing up, these were our role models," Joe says. "What they went through was tough."

As a general rule, Mediterranean migrants – having fled the deprivations of war-ravaged Europe, while speaking almost no English – did not step into professional jobs upon arriving in Australia. Rather, they worked long hours in factories, shops and restaurants.

This reality informs most Sooshi Mango characters: pensioners obsessed with Chemist Warehouse, for instance, or fathers aghast at the prospect of their children spending $25 at Grill'd. ("You no go anywhere! We make hamboorgar here!") Occasionally, the racism they endured is re-directed at other ethnic groups. (One old Italian man accuses another motorist of driving "like a Chinese", oblivious to his own dreadful road skills.) But mostly, it's channelled into a defiant pride.

"What we show in the videos is genuinely based on our experiences," Joe says. "And a lot of people seem to relate."

The same can be said of Sydney brothers Nathan and Theo Saidden, whose Superwog videos have accumulated more than 180 million YouTube views. A six-part ABC series is now in production and will debut later this year.

'Superwog' brothers Theo and Nathan Saidden are developing a six-part comedy for ABC.Credit: ABC

"It's raw, blue and dirty," says ABC's comedy chief, Rick Kalowski. "But the crassness isn't a substitution for comedy. It's always funny."

Superwog  revolves around a teenager and his best friend, struggling to cope with life in the suburbs. It's something the Saidden brothers can relate to, having attended a "colonial and regimented" elitist private school. Indeed, many of their jokes are at the expense of uptight white people.

Kalowski is rankled by accusations of stereotyping. "There are endless examples of god-awful Australian films that seem custom-built to get five-star reviews or be included in a festival," he says. "They're just as stereotypical as so-called 'wog' comedy and it's interesting no one singles them out."

Sooshi MangoCredit: Paul Jeffers

Like Sooshi Mango, Superwog's rise was enabled by the internet. In 2008, their homemade videos went viral, prompting Theo (a lawyer) and Nathan (a courier driver) to throw in their day jobs.

"My suspicion," Kalowski says, "is that this style of comedy has not been adequately tapped for broadcast or streaming markets."

Rob Shehadie agrees. Over the past two decades, he's worked on SBS comedies Pizza, Swift and Shift Couriers and Housos. When Channel Nine commissioned his sitcom Here Come the Habibs, pre-emptive outrage ensued. Having seen only a 40-second promo, Twitter users predicted this "racist" show would flop. Instead, the first season averaged 1.8 million viewers.

Despite pre-emptive social media outrage, Here Come the Habibs was a ratings success.Credit: Nine

The premise was simple: a Lebanese family from Sydney's West wins the lottery, then moves to Vaucluse. Like all sitcoms, it trafficked in stereotypes. Including one of Shehadie's favourite characters, Olivia (Helen Dallimore) – a wealthy white lady who treats her new neighbours as interlopers.

"A lot of people of Asian and Indian background loved the show," he says. "And we found that kids were driving the ratings because they were pushing their parents to watch."

Shehadie hates the "ethnic" humour label: "What we're doing is Australian comedy. We talk about our lives and our experiences – like all comedians do."