australian television information archive

Kath & Kim in America

Kath and Kim might be a comedy hit in Australia, but its slightly skewed view of life in the suburbs has left American students uncomfortable rather than amused, a Melbourne researcher has found.

Dr Julie Faulkner of RMIT University's School of Education conducted the study in conjunction with the University of Louisville in the US state of Kentucky, to investigate the link between humour and cultural understanding.

A small sample of students at the university were asked to view and respond to episodes of Kath and Kim, Dr Faulkner said.

The findings were preliminary, but Dr Faulkner said the US students felt uncomfortable viewing the way class issues were depicted on the program.

"It's not to say that they didn't get it, but that they thought we were laughing at (the characters) rather than with them," Dr Faulkner said.

"I was interested in looking at the extent to which cultural understanding informs our humour.

"It's not about whether they had a sense of humour or not, but about the extent to which they needed to know things to find Kath and Kim funny."

While Australians grew up with a wide range of western television, Americans had a more ethnocentric view of the world, Dr Faulkner said.

The average American's experience of Australian media was limited to the films Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max and TV programs Outback Jack and The Crocodile Hunter, she said.

"One person said that because Kath and Kim is filmed on hand-held cameras it made them feel like they were in the home with them, there was not all that much distance from the characters and that was what made them feel uncomfortable," Dr Faulkner said.

"They were taken into the home and asked to laugh at these people, and they talked about the lack of distance from the characters because of the documentary style of Kath and Kim.

"They thought we were laughing at the lower middle class but we understand that these are cartoon characters."

May 03, 2005
AAP