Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos
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 It's shocking that one of Australia's most beloved networks would go on to make something extremely disturbing. Thanks to this, this is why some people say that Australia's TV Media is bad thanks to Nine Network but at least they got the name right this show is naughty.
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Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos is an Australian television comedy special hosted by Australian comedian Doug Mulray. Being an adults-only spin-off of Australia's Funniest Home Video Show (itself being an Aussie adaptation of America's Funniest Home Videos), the show included inappropriate content all in the means of comedy. It was deemed to be so inappropriate that the owner of Nine Network at the time, Kerry Packer, ordered the studio to pull it off the air. It was broadcast in its entirety in 2008 (3 years after Kerry Packer's death), though a scene where Doug Mulray makes fun of fat children was edited out.
Background
Australia's Funniest Home Video Show premiered in 1990, and it was similar in concept to the 1989 American special (and later series) America's Funniest Home Videos: viewers would send in amateur-shot videos that were unintentionally humorous, and the video deemed the "funniest" by the studio audience was awarded a prize at the end of the show.
The producers often received racy or risqué videos that could not be included into the program due to its family-friendly nature, and since the show's policy stated that videos sent in by viewers could not be sent back, videos that did not make it onto the program were still kept by the station. The producers decided to compile these videos into a one-off special aimed at an adult audience.
It differed from Australia's Funniest Home Video Show in more than just the content of the videos. It had a different opening, a modified version of the Australia's Funniest Home Video Show's theme song, and a slightly modified set. It was hosted by Australian radio personality Doug Mulray. Due to the difference in content, the show aired at 8:30 PM and was preceded by a short message warning viewers of the show's content and informing them that it was a one-off special that was different from Australia's Funniest Home Video Show.
Content
The show followed the same structure of Australia's Funniest Home Video Show, in which the videos were shown in short blocks, interspersed with humorous monologues written and delivered by Mulray. Mulray often poked fun at the content of the videos, which he described as "The most sensational collection of home videos since Rodney King nicked out for a pizza recently." Mulray also did humorous voice-overs as the videos were shown, similar to Danny McMaster's on Australia's Funniest Home Video Show.
The content of the videos included shots of animal genitalia, humans or animals humorously engaging in sexual intercourse, people who get accidentally and humorously disrobed, and other situations that often relied on ribald humor, including a child grabbing a kangaroo's testicles, a man lifting a barbell with his penis, a man getting his head squeezed between an erotic dancer's large breasts, an elderly woman removing an envelope from a stripper's undergarments with her dentures, two people running into water with flaming pieces of toilet paper hanging from their buttocks, and two people filmed having sex in the middle of a park.
Why It's Too Naughty (and NOT in a Good Way)
- To get the Elephant-In-The-Room: The show is infamous for featuring video clips with uncensored sex and nudity, even for the show's intended adult audience.
- Now yes, there have been media previously that had nudity humor (e.g. Loony Tunes and Mr. Bean), but they never go too far with that choice of humor and knew when to Censer It in many ways.
- Poor and laughable narration.
- Some of the scenes never tried to make it feel like a comedy or at least make it funny.
- Much like Turn-On, it was so disturbing and inappropriate that it was taken off air part-way through the broadcast of its first and only episode.
- To add insult to injury, in 2008, Nine aired the full special, but with a disclaimer.
- As mentioned above, despite being based on Australia's Funniest Home Video Show, which in return is based on America's Funniest Home Videos, this special decided not to copy the charm of said show or the source material, instead completely throwing it out the window in favor of making a gross-out show.
- The aforementioned scene where Doug Mulray makes fun of fat children is very offensive and fat-shaming. It was removed and edited from the 2008 rebroadcast to prevent complaints from people.
- It even caused him to get fired and banned from the Nine Network, although he would later return to Nine to be a judge on StarStruck.
- Some of the jokes used are incredibly tasteless as well, like how Doug Mulray makes a joke about Rodney King and how he became a victim of police brutality due to his drunk driving, which comes off as tasteless and insensitive due to this show airing months after he was beaten by police, an action that sparked the L.A. riots of 1992.
- The infamous bestiality clip that shows a young girl grabbing a kangaroo's testicles.
- Some clips also feature incredibly disturbing and unpleasant imagery, even for the show's intended adult audience, such as one where a galah bird bites an old lady's right nipple.
- Misleading rating: This got a PG during its re-airing despite the content being enough to receive an MA15+ or even an R18+. Sadly, the Australian Classification Board gave many anime games with fanservice and games with some sexual themes like Fable Anniversary an R18+ rating (due to sex being connected to a reward), even though most have tamer sexual themes/content than this.
Reception and cancellation
While in the middle of eating dinner, then-Nine Network owner Kerry Packer was told about the special by some of his friends. He tuned in to watch it and was so offended, he dialed the studio and screamed "Get that shit off the air!". The special was immediately pulled from the airwaves and replaced with a message saying there was a technical problem. To fill up the remaining airtime, repeats of Cheers were played to fill the remaining 24 minutes from the special.
Despite the same announcement and bumper playing in the middle of the airing of ANHV across Australia, it occurred in different parts of the program depending on the area it was airing in, due to time differences. In Melbourne and Brisbane, the station simply started airing an episode of Cheers after a scheduled commercial break. In other areas, the last part of the show broadcast was of Doug Mulray giving a monologue about "bosoms" or the infamous clip of a young girl grabbing a kangaroo's genitals. The special was canceled before it was scheduled to air in Perth, and thus its Nine Network affiliate showed a brief message mentioning that the special wouldn't be aired, before beginning an episode of Cheers.
Despite Packer's opinions on the special and its content, it was very popular among its audience. After the announcement, Nine reportedly (and allegedly) received "thousands" of phone calls from viewers, with 65 percent of callers upset with the program being pulled, in contrast to the 60 callers who called in during the show's broadcast, complaining about its content. Viewers were generally bewildered by the sudden interruption and the cut to Cheers, not knowing about the show's cancellation until it was widely reported by the Australian media outlets the very next day. Packer was so disgusted by the special, it is sometimes known as "The Show Kerry Packer Didn't Want You to See".
The show was finally aired in its entirety on Channel Nine in 2008, hosted by the late Aussie broadcasting legend Bert Newton. Newton quipped "The reason for the show going off was "technical difficulties", which was accurate. Because it's TECHNICALLY very DIFFICULT to keep a show on air...with Mr. Packer on the phone YELLING at you."
Rebroadcast
In 2001, the original tape of the show hidden by Noble was located by Nine's head of factual television.
It was aired in its entirety at 8:30 PM on 28 August 2008, one week short of sixteen years after the original special, and at the same time. Promoted as "the show Kerry Packer didn't want you to see", it featured commentary from Bert Newton; Packer had died in December 2005, and Mulray refused Nine's request to host the special.
The special was interrupted by the Channel Nine bumper and "technical difficulties" announcement 36 minutes in, cutting to the Cheers opening credits before resuming to a monologue by Newton, who referenced the incident by saying "Instead, they got that announcement of 'technical difficulties' which you heard, which was true...it's TECHNICALLY very DIFFICULT to keep a show on air...with Mr. Packer on the phone YELLING at you!" The latter part of the special that never aired was then broadcast. However, the re-airing was censored, with portions of Mulray's monologues (including jibes about "fat kids") being cut from the special as they were deemed to be "no longer acceptable".
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