A Loving Ode To ‘Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures’, The Most Chaotically Australian Show Ever Made
There’s a lot of great Australian TV, but it’s time we recognised the best show ever made in this country. Let’s unpack the chaotically Australian energy of Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures.
A parody of travel adventure shows and a satire of stereotypical Australian culture, All Aussie Adventures followed a self-proclaimed wildlife and survival expert as he travelled across the Australian outback leaving a trail of chaos and destruction in his wake.
very much support the group of girls who are going out in the city in costume this evening, six of which are Disney princesses and one who appears to be Russell Coight
— steph panecasio ✨ (@StephPanecasio) November 7, 2019
“G’day, I’m Russell Coight, and this is my backyard: the Aussie outback,” he’d say at the start of every episode, before flooring his quad bike in reverse, almost falling in a river, burning himself with hot coffee or setting fire to a historic diary.
“Let’s get cracking on another all Aussie adventure.”
All Aussie Adventures starred Glenn Robbins before he became our favourite hunk of spunk as Kel Knight in Kath & Kim. But you wouldn’t know it, because the the only place Robbins is mentioned is when he’s thanked in the end credits for “Additional Material”. Coight is credited as the host and creator, and even sings the opening theme song.
He’s a mockery of the Awesome Aussie TV trope, which can be summed up perfectly as “über-masculine rough-and-tumble supermen, champion outdoorsmen who tear up the outback in their Jeeps and have never met a crocodile they couldn’t wrestle.”
[media_embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WSA4NqpZYc[/media_embed]Coight so desperately wants to be this character, but Robbins brilliantly subverts all of the tropes. Coight falls off his chair, gets caught in fences and misfires his rifle most of the time. He’s more likely to leave the handbrake off than tear up the outback in his Jeep. And instead of wrestling a croc, Coight gets beat up by a cute wallaby.
Before Kath & Kim mocked suburban Australia and long before Get Krackin’ parodied morning TV, All Aussie Adventures ran wild with every weird Australian stereotype and set a new standard for Aussie comedy.
“The Red Centre of Australia. A land as old as time, and almost as timeless.”
Everything about this show screams of a first draft that accidentally got published.
The best recurring joke is, famously, Coight shaking people’s hands. Every time our intrepid adventurer meets a new character, the show cuts to a close up of them shaking hands. And every time, literally every single time, the footage will be wildly incorrect.
[media_embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV_biqemT1M[/media_embed]The show loves to use stock footage and audio, but loves even more to use incorrect stock footage and audio. Footage is constantly reused and clips of conversations that have obviously been stage are jammed into scenes.
It paints a picture of a documentary film crew who couldn’t be bothered getting enough footage and video editors who filled in the blanks without really trying, and that’s quality television.
Russell Coight, meme machine.
In these cursed times we turn to memes, and Russell Coight is fair game for shitposters. Even though the show was off the air for sixteen years until its glorious return in 2018, its endlessly quotable lead character, recurring jokes and iconic theme song inspired multiple meme pages.
But the show’s most enduring contribution to our meme culture? Russell Coight dancing.
His dancing transcends All Aussie Adventures. Even if you’ve never seen the show, you’ve seen him tearing up the dirt dance floor in a remix, a Billie Eilish ‘Bad Guy’ meme or a TikTok challenge.
Truly, it seems we’re not done with Russell Coight yet, despite there being no plans for a season four at the moment. When everyone’s quarantined at home to try and contain the spread of coronavirus, we can turn to Coight and join him on another all Aussie adventure.
(Lead image: Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures / Network Ten)
