Black Comedy (TV series)

Black Comedy
Also known as	Don't Be Afraid of the Darkies [1]
Genre	Sketch comedy [2]
Written by	Nakkiah Lui Steven Oliver Adam Briggs and many others
Directed by	Beck Cole Craig Anderson Erica Glynn
Starring	Jon Bell Aaron Fa'aoso Nakkiah Lui Steven Oliver Bjorn Stewart Elizabeth Wymarra Adam Briggs Ian Zaro
Composers	Andrew Lancaster David McCormack Antony Partos Alejandro Gomez Sanchez Matteo Zingales
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	24
Production
Executive producer	Sally Riley
Producers	Kath Shelper Mark O'Toole
Cinematography	Eric Murray Lui
Production company	Scarlett Pictures
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	5 November 2014 (2014-11-05) – 11 March 2020 (2020-03-11)

Black Comedy is an Australian television sketch comedy program produced by Scarlett Pictures which first screened on ABC on 5 November 2014. Black Comedy combines a mix of observational and physical sketches, historical sketches and parodies of TV, film and commercials, looking at Australian culture through the eyes of Indigenous Australians. ^{[3] [4]}

A second series screened in 2016, ^[5] a third in 2018, ^[6] and a fourth in 2020. ^[7]

Cast

Main / regular

• Jon Bell
• Wayne Blair
• Adam Briggs
• Aaron Fa'aoso
• Nayuka Gorrie, who also wrote for seasons three and four ^{[8] [9]}
• Maci-Grace Johnson
• Rarriwuy Hick
• Nakkiah Lui ^[10]
• Steven Oliver
• Bjorn Stewart
• Dalara Williams
• Gabriel Willie
• David Woodhead
• Elizabeth Wymarra
• Ian Zaro

Guests

• Craig Anderson
• Christine Anu as Herself (4 episodes)
• Jimi Bani (2 episodes)
• Katie Beckett
• Luke Carroll
• Jack Charles
• Brendan Cowell as various roles (4 episodes)
• Matt Day as various roles (13 episodes)
• Maggie Dence as guest (2 episodes)
• Lasarus Ratuere
• Michael Dorman (1 episode)
• Guy Edmonds as guest (3 episodes)
• Bruce Spence
• Costa Georgiadis
• Chris Haywood as Elenco Invitado (1 episode)
• Anita Hegh as guest (5 episodes)
• Lisa Hensley as guest (7 episodes)
• Sacha Horler as guest (2 episodes)
• Jay Laga'aia as guest (1 episode)
• Robbie Magasiva as guest (1 episode)
• Deborah Mailman as guest (9 episodes)
• Jeff McMullen
• Leah Purcell
• Rupert Reid
• Brooke Satchwell
• Shari Sebbens
• Bruce Spence
• Miranda Tapsell
• Michael Veitch as guest (1 episode)
• Felix Williamson
• Meyne Wyatt

Episodes

Series	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	6		5 November 2014 (2014-11-05)	10 December 2014 (2014-12-10)
2	6		3 February 2016 (2016-02-03)	9 March 2016 (2016-03-09)
3	6		19 September 2018 (2018-09-19)	24 October 2018 (2018-10-24)
4	6		5 February 2020 (2020-02-05)	11 March 2020 (2020-03-11)

Series 1 (2014)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Aus. viewers (millions)
1	1	"Episode 1"	Beck Cole and Craig Anderson	Jon Bell, Steven Oliver, Elizabeth Wymarra, Nakkiah Lui and Bjorn Stewart	5 November 2014 (2014-11-05)	0.35 [11]
2	2	"Episode 2"	Beck Cole and Craig Anderson	Jon Bell, Steven Oliver, Nakkiah Lui, Elizabeth Wymarra, Moses Nelliman & Michael Passi	12 November 2014 (2014-11-12)	0.35 [12]
3	3	"Episode 3"	Beck Cole and Craig Anderson	Steven Oliver, Jon Bell, Elizabeth Wymarra, Nakkiah Lui and Bjorn Stewart	19 November 2014 (2014-11-19)	0.27 [13]
4	4	"Episode 4"	Beck Cole and Craig Anderson	Nakkiah Lui, Steven Oliver, Bjorn Stewart, Jon Bell and Elizabeth Wymarra	26 November 2014 (2014-11-26)	0.31 [14]
5	5	"Episode 5"	Beck Cole and Craig Anderson	Steven Oliver, Jon Bell, Nakkiah Lui, Moses Nelliman, Elizabeth Wymarra and Bjorn Stewart	3 December 2014 (2014-12-03)	N/A
6	6	"Episode 6"	Beck Cole and Craig Anderson	Steven Oliver, Nakkiah Lui, Jon Bell, Bjorn Stewart and Elizabeth Wymarra	10 December 2014 (2014-12-10)	N/A

Series 2 (2016)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Aus. viewers (millions)
7	1	"Episode 1"	Beck Cole and Erica Glynn	Adam Briggs, Steven Oliver, Nakkiah Lui, Karen Edwards, Andy Williams and Kiara Milera	3 February 2016 (2016-02-03)	0.58 [15]
8	2	"Episode 2"	Beck Cole and Erica Glynn	Adam Briggs, Steven Oliver, Nakkiah Lui, Paul Ryan and Kiara Milera	10 February 2016 (2016-02-10)	0.36 [16]
9	3	"Episode 3"	Beck Cole and Erica Glynn	Adam Briggs, Steven Oliver, Nakkiah Lui and Kiara Milera	17 February 2016 (2016-02-17)	0.34 [17]
10	4	"Episode 4"	Beck Cole and Erica Glynn	Nakkiah Lui, Adam Briggs, Steven Oliver, Ian Zaro, Dylan River and Kiara Milera	24 February 2016 (2016-02-24)	N/A
11	5	"Episode 5"	Beck Cole and Erica Glynn	Nakkiah Lui, Steven Oliver, Ian Zaro and Kiara Milera	2 March 2016 (2016-03-02)	0.28 [18]
12	6	"Episode 6"	Beck Cole and Erica Glynn	Steven Oliver, Nakkiah Lui, Paul Ryan, Ian Zaro, Adam Briggs and Kiara Milera	9 March 2016 (2016-03-09)	0.33 [19]

Series 3 (2018)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Aus. viewers (millions)
13	1	"Episode 1"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2018 (2018-01-01)	N/A
14	2	"Episode 2"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2018 (2018-01-01)	N/A
15	3	"Episode 3"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2018 (2018-01-01)	N/A
16	4	"Episode 4"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2018 (2018-01-01)	N/A
17	5	"Episode 5"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2018 (2018-01-01)	N/A
18	6	"Episode 6"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2018 (2018-01-01)	N/A

Series 4 (2020)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Aus. viewers (millions)
19	1	"Episode 1"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2020 (2020-01-01)	N/A
20	2	"Episode 2"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2020 (2020-01-01)	N/A
21	3	"Episode 3"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2020 (2020-01-01)	N/A
22	4	"Episode 4"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2020 (2020-01-01)	N/A
23	5	"Episode 5"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2020 (2020-01-01)	N/A
24	6	"Episode 6"	Unknown	Unknown	1 January 2020 (2020-01-01)	N/A

Promotion

Prior to the premiere of Black Comedy in November, ABC released a sketch, "Race Card Platinum" on the Friday Night Crack Up on 10 October 2014 as part of the ABC's "MentalAs" campaign to raise money and awareness for mental health issues. The sketch was introduced by series writer/actor Elizabeth Wymarra and series actor Aaron Fa'aoso and featured actor, Kyas Sherriff in a mock-advertising campaign for the fictitious "Race Card Platinum". ^[20]

References

1. Knox, David (2 December 2012). "ABC 2013: full programming". Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
2. Yu, Juliana (4 February 2016). "Indigenous sketch show Black Comedy "bigger and blacker" for second season". Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
3. Houston, Melinda (November 2014). "Black Comedy a super comedy for ABC television". Archived from the original on 20 July 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
4. Yu, Juliana (3 February 2016). "Indigenous sketch show Black Comedy "bigger and blacker" for second season". Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
5. Knox, David (24 August 2015). "Renewed: Black Comedy". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
6. "Black Comedy series 3 (2018) - The Screen Guide - Screen Australia". www.screenaustralia.gov.au. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
7. "Black Comedy". ABC TV. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
8. Yorta Yorta freelance (26 July 2019). "Nayuka Gorrie". Kill Your Darlings . Archived from the original on 19 August 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
9. Forrest, Sonya (16 July 2021). "Deadly Aboriginal Artists". Koori Curriculum. Archived from the original on 19 August 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
10. "Black Comedy: How Indigenous humour is driving social change". ABC News. 26 April 2016. Archived from the original on 28 April 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
11. Knox, David (6 November 2014). "Multichannels help Seven catch Nine's cricket". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
12. Knox, David (13 November 2014). "Media Circus scores as Big Brother falls". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
13. Knox, David (20 November 2014). "Nine's cricket catches Wednesday win". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
14. Knox, David (27 November 2014). "Big Brother finale tops demos –but can't avoid new low". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
15. Knox, David (4 February 2016). "Seven ahead with strong Wednesday". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 7 February 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
16. Knox, David (11 February 2016). "Winning streak for Seven on Wednesday". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
17. Knox, David (3 March 2016). "MKR, First Dates a match made in Seven". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
18. Knox, David (3 March 2016). "First Dates delivers Wednesday win". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
19. Knox, David (10 March 2016). "MKR, First Dates take Seven to the win". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
20. "ABC Indigenous - Sneak preview, Black Comedy sketch "Race... - Facebook". Facebook .

External links

• Official website
• Black Comedy at IMDb