ABSTRACT
A great deal of Australian comedy, in cabaret and stand-up performance, in the mainstream and alternative theatres, on television and in the cinema, has been about an ambivalent relation to authority. All comedy is to some extent about power, involves elements of aggression and malice, and is often rebellious or debunking. It therefore seems an ideal form in which to explore issues of authority in a society that, since the mid-1950s, has been engaged in a process of decolonisation and which, during the same period, has become one of the most culturally heterogeneous in the world.
