Yeah, we liked Son of a Donkey

We’ve watched too much Australian comedy over the years to be picky about what makes us laugh. You want a prime-time program that’s a polished product with quality performances and absolutely no decent jokes? Our review of Ghosts Australia is just around the corner. While we wait, there’s Son of a Donkey, which is packed with dumb shit that made us laugh.

In the past we’ve praised Theodore and Nathan Saidden’s Superwog for coming up with comedy that only seems stupid. if you can get past the comedy accents, face pulling and physical abuse, there’s often been some pretty smart stuff going on. With the six-part Son of a Donkey, their first original series for Netflix, they seem to have decided it’s time to take things back to basics.

Superwog (now renamed Theo) and best mate Jimmy (Nathan) are on a quest to get back Theo’s car after a shitload of fines sees it confiscated by the cops. Earning money isn’t easy for these two, especially when an office job sees time going backwards and an attempt at begging soon has them trapped on the Illuminati’s pedophile island. Hang on, wasn’t that a plot on the final season of Fat Pizza?

Meanwhile Wog Dad (Nathan) has decided he’s going to get all his food from the dump. Unsurprisingly, this results in his kidneys exploding, sending him on a quest to get new ones. Theo’s kidneys, a random pig’s kidneys – it doesn’t matter. And Wog Mum (Nathan) has finally decided she’s had enough and (under intense pressure from her parents) it’s time to move on. Will massive amounts of plastic surgery help her find a new man?

So yeah, not exactly highbrow material. Previous series mixed satire and smart insights with a lot of shouting and getting smacked around the head. This has scaled back the satire while keeping the laundry basket labelled “poo stained undies” front and center. So it’s a step down? Yeah, nah.

Surprisingly for their biggest effort to date, this feels a lot more focused than their earlier stand-alone episodes. They’ve chosen to go all-in with the physical comedy. Nathan as Wog Dad is constantly re-defining the art of face pulling, seemingly fearless when it comes to trashing his dignity for a laugh.

Even if this kind of comedy isn’t for you – in which case you should take a good hard look at yourself – you’ve got to respect the commitment to the bit. Especially when the bit is playing some kind of primeval man-beast who is as at home mud wrestling pigs and demolishing his own house as he is assaulting random strangers and guzzling juice from smashed open trash fruit.

This time around the team are keeping it simple for the international* audience. The comedy targets are broad. We’re talking boring fast food jobs, boring office jobs, decadent rich folk (the Prince Andrew gags are pretty timely), creepy sex pests, online masculinity hustlers. In between there’s bum jokes, dick jokes, vomit jokes, poo jokes, lube jokes, and the occasional old lady giving the finger. You know, the classics.

Speaking of comedy classics, Google AI decided to give us the rundown on this series:

At least they got the Netflix part right. He’s holding a pig you gronk!

Things do start to flag a little around the middle stretch. The office job episode is a highlight; pedophile island not so much, even if the way you get there was pretty funny. By the end, when Theo and Johnny are on a quest to bash Dad Wog by the use of “superhuman semen power”, the whole thing has become a twisted parody of online masculinity. Only, you know, with a Skibidi Toilet reference.

Calling Son of a Donkey the best scripted Australian comedy of 2025 is not what you’d call high praise. Far be it for us to name and shame the other pissweak contenders for that title. But unless you’re the kind of comedy fan that values class above laughs in their comedy, you’ve got to admit: Son of a Donkey, for good or (very) ill, is the one to beat.

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*while the series is filmed in Melbourne, there’s occasional references to it being set in Sydney (there’s a Sydney rail map on a train wall in the final episode, even though they’re clearly on a Melbourne train). Maybe Sydney has more international appeal?