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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

An Audience with the King

Mike King

TV2 (New Zealand) · 2002

A deliberately offensive hour from a New Zealand television fixture.

Mike King steps onto the stage at Auckland’s St James Theatre to deliver a specifically New Zealand brand of hostility. Clad in his trademark leather jacket, King works through a deliberately non-PC hour, leaning hard into a bad-boy persona that operates on cultural bluntness. He runs through material on Westie pick-up lines, sports, and childbirth, notably opening the set by casually referring to women as “bush pigs”. It is a high-friction act built entirely around provocation.

Recorded at the end of his 2001 Laugh Out Loud national tour and broadcast the following year, the hour captured the comedian at the peak of his local television ubiquity. He had outgrown his role as the host of Pulp Comedy and was on the verge of launching his own late-night chat show. The program earned two nominations at the New Zealand Television Awards. It also drew a formal complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority from a viewer concerned about the Friday night swearing. The board ultimately dismissed the grievance, concluding the 9:30 PM time slot excused the language.

The set list

2 bits

  1. A Maori, a Samoan and a Tongan are in a Commodore - who's driving?

    Delivered as a joke 'you can't tell at work on Monday', with the punchline being 'A Policeman'.

  2. Regional cultural observations across New Zealand

    Recounting cultural nuances from Hamilton ('4WDs with mud on them!') to East Coast hongi.

How it plays

Tone
Risqué, non-PC, and irreverent.
On stage
Signature 'bad boy' persona marked by swearing, non-PC humor, and playing heavily on his Māori background.
About
Cultural subtleties in New Zealand, Māori and Pacific Island stereotypes, Westie pick-up lines, Sport, Childbirth

What the critics said

Subject to a Broadcasting Standards Authority complaint alleging offensive language, racist, and gutter humour; the BSA declined to uphold the complaint, noting its broadcast after the adult watershed, pre-show warnings, and King's background as a Māori comic tackling cultural stereotypes.

In the room: Recorded before a live audience at the St James Theatre.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: bsa.govt.nz, nzonscreen.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

The final stop of The Mike King Laugh Out Loud Tour across Aotearoa; broadcast on TV2 in October 2002, where it attracted a formal complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority regarding offensive language and suitability for younger viewers.

Details

Released
Taped
2001, St James Theatre, Auckland
Where
TV2 (New Zealand)
Honors
Nominated twice at the 2002 NZ Television Awards
Topics

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