[imagesource: Netflix]

Comedy is, and I cannot stress this enough, subjective.

For example, I sat through more than two seasons of Schitt’s Creek, because people told me it was the funniest show on telly, and it just didn’t click.

It’s the same with shows like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and so on – I thought they were bang average, while others appear willing to die in order to defend their honour.

You do you, and I’ll do me, which is why I’m telling you about Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House Of Fun, which recently started streaming on Netflix.

The sketch comedy show is the brainchild of Aussie trio Aunty Donna (Mark Samual Bonanno, Broden Kelly, and Zachary Ruane), has been dubbed ‘absurdist comedy’ by many, and is never going to be everyone’s cup of tea (or morning brown, but more on that later).

You can watch the official trailer here, but let’s go one better and show you the opening sketch from the first Netflix episode.

If this doesn’t make you chuckle, you’re not going to like what comes next:

Utterly bonkers, and I dig it.

So does Nick Allen, who reviewed the show on Roger Ebert:

Here is a show particularly befitting its year of release. The dialogue is simply an interlude for the screaming or the sociopathic faces trying to have fun with whatever is nearby (“Everything’s a drum!” the bizarre opening song goes, as they bang on everything in their candy-colored home), and no premise is as simple as it initially looks.

Something unhinged is inevitably going to happen to break the very reality of the sketch; satire will collide with meta references and/or general freak outs; an existential crisis is nearby.

Delivered with such forceful energy (this show is always “on”) and an incredible amount of creativity (it’s nearly always funny), “Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun” is the sketch series for this year, and its madness is a blissful escape from our current reality.

Given that it’s almost entirely untethered from reality, it sure is an escape.

This might be my favourite sketch of all, containing plenty of foul language and general filth:

It’s like the absurd, Australian bloke version of ‘don’t talk to me until I’ve had my morning coffee’.

Am I recommending you watch this show? Maybe, sort of.

I thought some of the sketches were pretty average, but this hits the nail on the head:

In the end, trying to recommend something as unabashedly silly as this feels like explaining the science of an inside joke. But I can say that it’s very much worth the time for anyone who has previous sketch comedy jokes lodged deep in their brains (such as myself with Derrick Comedy and The Lonely Island in my formative past).

At the very least, it has the makings of something that I immediately wanted more of, especially to see such humor, and creativity, among such chaos.

Or you could watch three full seasons of Schitt’s Creek, in the hopes that it will eventually become worth your time.

You do you.

[source:rogerebert]