Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos

Background

Australia's Funniest Home Video Show premiered in 1990, and 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 couldn't be included into the programme due to its family-friendly nature; however, since the show's policy stated that videos sent in by viewers couldn't be sent back, videos that didn't make it to 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 Lisa Patrick'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 humour, 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.

Cancellation

Kerry Packer, the owner of the Nine Network at the time, was informed of the show's content by friends while having dinner. He tuned in to watch the show—which was being transmitted on TCN-9—and was so offended by its content that he phoned the studio operators and shouted, "Get that shit off the air!" Within minutes, the series was pulled. After the break, the Nine Network announced that it failed to continue airing the show, purportedly due to technical difficulties, and aired reruns of the American sitcom Cheers immediately afterwards to fill in the remaining airtime. In 2008, Bert Newton justified the broadcast explanation: "It's technically very difficult to keep a show on air with Mr. Packer on the phone, yelling at you."

Although the same bumper and announcement interrupted the show during every broadcast across Australia, it occurred in different parts of the programme 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 Mulray giving a monologue about "bosoms" or the aforementioned clip of a child grabbing a kangaroo's scrotum. The show was cancelled before it was scheduled to air in Perth, and thus its Nine Network affiliate showed a brief message mentioning that the special won't be aired, before beginning an episode of Cheers.

Despite Packer's objections to the series' content, it was popular among viewers. The special was recorded to a record studio audience. After the announcement, Nine reportedly received "thousands" of phone calls from viewers, with 65 percent of callers upset with the programme being pulled, in contrast to the 60 callers who called in during the show's broadcast, complaining about the show. 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 next day.

The day after the special aired, a furious Packer showed up at Nine's headquarters. He held meetings in which he loudly berated Nine's managers and censors, referring to the program as "disgusting and offensive shit." Mulray and many of the staff who were involved with the creation of the special were fired, and Mulray was banned for life from Channel Nine. On his radio show the next day, Mulray commented, "I am the first man in Australian history to be pulled off by Kerry Packer."

Rebroadcast

In 2008, a full copy of the show 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 died in 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 and the latter part of the special that never aired. Ironically, the re-airing was not uncensored; portions of Mulray's monologues (including jibes about "fat kids") were cut from the special because they were deemed to be "no longer acceptable".