You won’t hear as many kind words about Chris Lilley these days, but back in the naughties, his television series were a phenomenon. Recently, the majority of his comedy series’ have been taken off streaming services, following on from a crackdown on racial characterisations. Personally, I don’t believe in a blanket-ban on cultural stereotypes, including blackface. I think, as with depicting other sensitive and potentially inflammatory material – such as infant mortality, suicide, and rape – media should be able to tell their stories, while they better have a damn good reason for doing so, or suffer the righteous consequences of criticism. (Without blackface, you’d never get Robert Downey Jr.’s character in Tropic Thunder, for example, which actually provides brilliant discourse admonishing actors and those who think that blackface cannot be harmful. Plus, I’m not hearing a similar outcry on white face, nor do I want to (because Dave Chappelle’s white news anchor in Chappelle Show is hilarious), but how can we be equal if we aren’t treated the same?) Having said that, I’m more for diversity, and I see less and less tasteful reasoning to use blackface presently, when all cultures have more opportunities now than ever before to tell their own stories. But I don’t like taking any storytelling device off the table when I’m not privy to everyone’s unique creative genius.
Anyway, if you’ve come this far, I plan to rank all of Chris Lilley’s characters from worst to best, covering his six mini-series’; We Can Be Heroes, Summer Heights High, Angry Boys, Ja’mie: Private School Girl, Jonah From Tonga and Lunatics. I’ll factor in each individual character with how they fit in their series’, and their interactions with the supporting characters around them. Enjoy!
Chris Lilley Characters: Worst to Best
18. S. Mouse – Angry Boys
There’s a glimmer of a seed of something that could have made S. Mouse work really early in Angry Boys; he’s a laughingstock to the rest of the rap world, but somehow, he’s a big commercial success. But when his fans desert him, and he’s a talentless loser, why should we have to pay attention to him anymore? Like a lot of the material in Angry Boys (hot off the heels of Summer Heights High), I think S. Mouse is undercooked as a concept of a character. Moreover, for the controversy he creates, with Lilley impersonating an African American fellow, S. Mouse isn’t that funny, and he isn’t that insightful. It’s like Chris Lilley thinks that for S. Mouse to say ‘mother-fuck’ or ‘motherfucker’ at the end of every sentence counts as a punchline. I understand the controversy around S. Mouse; appropriating cultural stigmas when you’re not even part of that country, and ever since watching the show I’ve had ‘Squashed N**ga’ stuck in my head – the a song that normalises that word for a young audience without providing any context of the history behind it. But is it really the job of a comedy parody to teach historical lessons and morality? I don’t have a problem with the characterisation of S. Mouse, but he’s just not that funny or satirical; and and not funny or satirical enough of either to validate his existence.
17. Jen Okazaki – Angry Boys
My biggest problem with Jen is that thein a series is named Angry Boys, and she’s notnot a boy, and neither is her son, Tim, angry. Unlike the preceding We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High, where there was clear documentarian intent that worked to frame the series – to track the journey of some nominations for Australian of the Year, or detail the experiences in a public school system, respectively – I guess I’m not in on the joke with Jen Okazaki, because I’m thinking the crew researching ‘angry boys’ would pretty quickly realise that skateboarding star Tim Okazaki is being mistreated, and probably use the footage to help emancipate Tim from his overbearing mother. It’d be different if Tim wasn’t seeking help, just like Mr. G’s teacher friends and students in Summer Heights High, where the joke is that ‘people think this is normal’. I’m overthinking it, but it’s always bugged me about Angry Boys and so I reject Jen. As a character, at least she’s funny when swearing her head off in a hissy fit, telling Tim to ‘jerk off’ and flogging her Gay-Style merchandise. Some of that merch is wickedly prosperous.
16. Pat Mullins – We Can Be Heroes
Poor Pat Mullins: the comedic runt of We Can be Heroes. She’s sweet and quirky but compared to the rest of the talent in the first ground-breaking series, Pat leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps her part could have done more to show how her achievements in rolling had positively affected the community or had given the sport of rolling some national respect. Lilley tries to maximise the emotional impact of his first series through Pat, and it’s nowhere near as effective as what comes in subsequent series.
15. Blake Oakfield – Angry Boys
Hey, before re-watching Angry Boys recently, I completely forgot about Blake Oakfield. That must mean he’s the weakest of the lot, I thought, right? Blake brings up that he has no balls repeatedly, and the fat-boy surfing program is a bit of a re-tread of Jonah’s mentoring program in Summer Heights High. But I actually like the stuff about Blake’s surfing gang holding a grudge with the neighbouring town that they really should have outgrown – that’s an ‘angry boy’ that’s normalised his aggression under his surfer chill. I think Blake Oakfield has the advantage of being an Australian character too, with Chris Lilley not having to overreach to make Blake Oakfield relatable, where he was otherwise expanding internationally within Angry Boys. Blake is a naïve-go-lucky fella, with a wife who just wants him to settle down and prioritise his family over his mates; she works like a devoted groupie that out-matured her celebrity idol. Lastly, has best mate Hunter got a crush on Blake?
14. Keith Dick – Lunatics
Keith is the first of a new batch of character we see in Lunatics. First impressions of the show had me thinking of when Little Britain followed up with Come Fly with Me and managed a truly and freshly unique new cast of characters for the viewer – the pressure was on. Keith Dick is a bit of a cross between Mr. G and Phil Olivetti, but I grew to really enjoy Keith the more that MyD!ick was proving a success. I wish Keith and Karen all the best, and if Keith is coming in at fourteenth, then the quality of Lilley’s characters runs deep.
13. Quentin Cook – Lunatics
So, when I finally got around to Lunatics, I’d been waiting for Chris Lilley to deliver us a blokey blockhead and Quentin Cook is the man. Yeah, the boys! That might be mean, but c’mon, he’s so superficial, vaping and using ‘fuck’ like butter-icing on cake. I love the jealousy this Qunt displays for Harrison, who’s amazing at life and casually falls in line with his insecure boss. Quentin is a little low because I found the real-estate side of Quentin more interesting than the DJing side, and there is a lot of DJing – although, throwing pavlovas into the crowd at a club; what a tool 😊 Quentin has a big ass that troubles him, but it’s not as commonly referenced as Blake Oakfield’s missing testicles, which is a bonus. But the most unexpected hard-to-hate quality of Quentin Cook is his family, that love him unconditionally. They don’t even evaluate his antics as good or bad, because they just support him. Quentin’s brunette brother is perfect; one of the best supporting cast members all up.
12. Jana Melhoopen-Jonks – Lunatics
Well, first impressions again; Jana was going to be the weak spot of the Lunatics crop – nope! Her advantage is that she comes with so much material! She’s an animal whisperer, with a fair bit of evidence pointing towards her being a bullshietzer. She’s at least absurd, telling pet owners the most outlandish things, like how one movie star should go back to her television soap because her animal knows she’s not a good actress. Jana is a lesbian, in love with her helpful assistant Kylie, and envious that Kylie is about to get married to a man. She organises for her Victoria to undergo gender reassignment surgery. She gets her animals to paint. She has OCD. And if all that wasn’t enough, she’s hunting for her childhood pet aardvark in Zimbabwe. Gee whiz.
11. Becky Douglas – Lunatics
Becky is a tall girl. Becky is a very tall girl. The early challenge was to identify how her girlish antics were going to differ enough from Ja’mie. Braces and height aside, what has she got? But quickly, you realise that Becky is genuinely precious and every episode with her is going to be a car wreck; her early experiences at college are not good to her and you’re just waiting for the next bad thing to happen. I got invested in the story of Becky falling deeper and deeper into her crafts when the outside world was letting her down. Different from Ja’mie? She’s not a sociopath, but just a really sweet, really tall, girl.
10. Gavin McGregor – Lunatics
Dope as fuck. Hilarious! Gavin’s first-episode introduction was hilarious, seeing his mother at her wits-end, and watching Gavin trying to ‘tune’ his neighbour. Then, he goes abroad, and it takes a little while to really care about the Gayhurst scenario, but Gavin remains the most exciting part of his skit – I assume a lot of Chris Lilley’s dialogue is improvised but this kid’s got so much slang, it has to be previously prepared. And for all the songs Chris Lilley has created for his shows over the years, it’s perhaps the simplest one that is the best – ‘If you wanna fuck, let’s fuck fuck fuck!’
09. Phil Olivetti – We Can Be Heroes
Phil Olivetti is the narcists who wants to ride his 15 seconds of fame to the nth degree. He’s a one-note joke but he’s so funny at it. I love how Lilley was bold enough to have Phil miss out on a trip to Canberra but still have him drag his family to attendance out of desperation.
08. Joyce Jefferies – Lunatics
As far as Lunatics goes, Joyce is the star of the show. Captivating, drug fuelled daftness. At first, she feels stranger than fiction but becomes so relatable.
07. Gran – Angry Boys
In a show dedicated in name to angry boys, Gran is clearly the most explorative character of the series. As we’ll talk about later on with Jonah Takalua, I understand that Lilley likes to poke down at groups whilst also shuffling them into acceptance. Gran’s story is to show the culture within youth detention centres – she gets her racist and crude jabs in, but she’s got a heart of pure gold, and truly earns the inmate’s affections. Sometimes Lilley is progressive, providing spotlight for troubled subjects, and presenting them to a childish immature audience under the guise of a comedy show. It’s like being conned into eating your vegetables at times. I love the way Lilley stands with Gran, hand on wrist, kind’ve looking strong and weak at the same time.
06. Ricky Wong – We Can Be Heroes
The boy from Melbourne who just wants to be an actor. Ricky is great for his example of celebrating cultures – Chris Lilley, as a white man, is playing in an Asian community, that wants to celebrate the Australian heritage of the indigenous. I don’t see the final scene as funny, when Ricky wants to be on Home & Away; but eye opening at their lack of Australian diversity, even if the show is set on a coastal town.
05&04. Nathan & Daniel Sims – We Can Be Heroes, Angry Boys
I may be cheating a bit putting Nathan and Daniel together, but like Frank Sinatra will tell you of ‘love and marriage’ in his famous song, ‘you can’t have one without the other.’ It’s difficult to say if they are the best part of We Can Be Heroes, but considering Lilley decided to take them out of the toybox to play with them again for Angry Boys, it elevates them above most. In We Can Be Heroes, they are really sweet brothers, despite being quite rough around the edges, and they want to do good by each other and their family. I have problems with their representation in Angry Boys though – Daniel becomes less respectful and really narcissistic. However, Nathan gets to do more, showing he’s a hit with the ladies and wants to go to deaf school. It’s sad when his ear implant operation isn’t successful. I get the idea behind Daniel in the return – his world is changing; he’s no longer the ‘man of the house’ and even Nathan is moving away – but he was never mean before, and these two brothers also seriously suffer from the Angry Boys series being way too long. Yet the ending for Angry Boys is pretty cool, with all the characters coming together, and it’s made possible because of these two central figures.
03. Mr. G – Summer Heights High
I first saw Chris Lilley on Big Bite as Mr. G, and it was always the highlight of the show. Mr. G is a quirky self-important teacher, with a sharp tongue and a blunt set of manners. Unlike S. Mouse, he is a wacko that’s said to be thriving in his community, despite being a completely shallow asshole. From the temper tantrums to the acutely bombastic artist interpretations, Mr. G is a character to point and laugh at in the highest order – while you feel sorry for those unsuspectingly in his orbit. I commend the Mr. G segments that include Toby, who becomes a pivotal part of the final production. And the songs of Summer Heights High are a bop, said to be written by Mr. G, for when “girls take drugs, and then they die”. Who didn’t know every word of these songs growing up? Mr. G is a wonderful character, good enough to be number 01 on this list, if not for two of Chris Lilley’s other favourites.
02. Ja’mie King – We Can Be Heroes, Summer Heights High, Ja’mie: Private School Girl
Oh, I’ve surprised myself going back over Lilley’s work and recognising how much I love Ja’mie. Obviously, a favourite for Lilley too, as the first character to appear in two series, and then to appear in three. I always considered Ja’mie the weakest element of Summer Heights High, but I’ve changed my mind. Ja’mie has a lot of depth to play with; her conceitedness, snobbery and downright sociopathic tendencies that really come through in her own series. Because she’s intelligent and does great work for the community (if only for the wrong reasons), teachers and adults seem like they only want to keep her onside, validating her behaviour, while the fellow girls that follow her around just try to keep up with her. She’s ah… she’s a handful. For a while, I feel like Ja’mie: Private School Girl meanders around, but I respect the ending, with Ja’mie and her friends making their own misguided stance at assembly; the CGI vision and all.
01. Jonah Takalua – Summer Heights High, Jonah From Tonga
It’s Lilley’s tenderness with Jonah that allowed the Australian comedian to get away with a shot at a terrible character like S. Mouse, in the hindsight of my opinion. I always knew something was off with Ms. Wheatley watching Summer Heights High as a teenager, but from the rewatch it’s clear that she is the one that exacerbates most of Jonah’s attention problems, taking personal offence to Jonah’s disruption, and is just plain disgusted that he is in her classroom. Because, on the other hand, you’ve got Ms. Palmer who can smile through Jonah’s antagonism and jokes and really get through to him. It’s so sweet, when Jonah goes back to Gumnut Cottage to read his story, thanks Mr. Peterson for doing what he could, and even avoids causing more trouble with Keiran on his way out. Leon is also a realistic supporting character, who feels natural when riding off the improvisation of Lilley as Jonah. Jonah is a fantastic example of a creation crossing over cultural fences to provide a valuable insight into the people on the other side. I might look at troublesome teenagers differently, recognising the chips on their shoulders, and trying my darndest not to be part of the mass that judges them before understanding. It’s criminal that Jonah could not fit into Angry Boys, but then Jonah from Tonga comes along, and although it reestablishes Jonah back in an Australian public school, it’s different enough. And for the joy that results from Jonah’s high energy and thoughtless antics, Lilley doesn’t let Jonah get away with anything. There is a dark side to his reckless behaviour. But if Jonah is nothing but a problem to you, then …puck…you… with a P!
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