Getting the Joke: Self -Deprecating Humor in Anh Do’s The Happiest Refugee

Abstract

Self-deprecating humor, the comedic act of making oneself the butt of the joke, is a staple of the Australian comedy industry and part of Australia’s national self-concept. Vietnamese Australian Anh Do is one of Australia’s most famous migrant comedians and performs self-deprecating humor while drawing on sometimes traumatic experiences from his personal life as part of his stand-up comedy sets. This essay examines how Do’s style of self-deprecating comedy extends from his stand-up comedy to his national bestselling memoir The Happiest Refugee (2010). The author argues that Do’s self-deprecating humor smuggles trauma to Australian audiences through laughs, and she explores the ambiguity in Do’s ability to occupy opposing identities of the “Other” and the “Aussie kid|bogan” simultaneously. Additionally, the author discusses how Do’s use of humor in his life narrative negotiates model-minority expectations leveled against Asian Australians to turn, in a subtle way, what appears to be a joke on him into a joke about the audience.

Keywords:

• memoir
• humor
• self-deprecation
• migrant
• model minority

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author

Notes

1 Do, The Happiest Refugee.

2 Fukui, “No,” 69.

3 Khoo, Banana Bending, 18–21.

4 Fukui, “No,” 72.

5 Fukui, “No,” 73.

6 Fukui, “No,” 73–74.

7 Fukui, “No,” 68.

8 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 138.

9 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 45.

10 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 109.

11 Whitlock, Soft Weapons, 3.

12 Schaffer and Smith, Human Rights, 25.

13 Gilmore, Tainted Witness, 91.

14 Fukui, “No,” 70–71.

15 Pung, “Introduction,” 4.

16 Law, “The Refugees Are Coming!”

17 Tumarkin, “Stories without Borders.”

18 Yu, “Twenty-Three Years,” 37–42.

19 Graham, “Alice Pung’s Growing Up,” 72.

20 Brophy, “What I’m Reading.”

21 Double, “Tragedy Plus Time,” 149.

22 Double, “Tragedy Plus Time,” 152.

23 Gilmore, Tainted Witness, 101.

24 McCallum, “Cringe and Strut,” 210–214.

25 DeCamp, “Negotiating Race,” 328.

26 Gilbert, Performing Marginality, 18.

27 Weaver, “The ‘Other’ Laughs Back.”

28 Gilmore, “Limit Cases,” 131; Tainted Witness, 83–95.

29 Gilmore, “Limit Cases,” 131.

30 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 36.

31 Gadsby, Nanette; Ryzik, “Comedy-Destroying.”

32 Double, “Tragedy Plus Time,” 152.

33 Luckhurst and Rae, “Diversity Agendas.”

34 “Anh Do.”

35 Luckhurst and Rae, “Diversity Agendas.”

36 Double, “Tragedy Plus Time,” 149.

37 Gilmore, The Limits of Autobiography, 22–23.

38 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 182.

39 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 182.

40 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 182.

41 Tumarkin, “Stories without Borders,” 29; Do, The Happiest Refugee, 182.

42 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 183.

43 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 183.

44 Eakin, “Self and Self-Representation,” 12.

45 Khoo, cited in Fukui, “No,” 71.

46 Fukui, “No,” 71, 72.

47 Fukui, “No,” 72.

48 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 229.