His mother's sacrifice was an inspiration to Anh and he worked hard during his teenage years to help her make ends meet, also managing to graduate high school and then university.Īnother inspiration was the comedian Anh met when he was about to sign on for a 60-hour a week corporate job. Things got harder when their father left home when Anh was thirteen - they felt his loss very deeply and their mother struggled to support the family on her own. But there was a loving extended family, and always friends and play and something to laugh about for Anh, his brother Khoa and their sister Tram. Life in Australia was hard, an endless succession of back-breaking work, crowded rooms, ruthless landlords and make-do everything. But nothing - not murderous pirates, nor the imminent threat of death by hunger, disease or dehydration as they drifted for days - could quench their desire to make a better life in a country where freedom existed. His entire family came close to losing their lives on the sea as they escaped from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat.

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.ġ9 Graham, “Alice Pung’s Growing Up,” 72.Ģ4 McCallum, “Cringe and Strut,” 210–214.Ģ8 Gilmore, “Limit Cases,” 131 Tainted Witness, 83–95.ģ1 Gadsby, Nanette Ryzik, “Comedy-Destroying.”ģ3 Luckhurst and Rae, “Diversity Agendas.”ģ5 Luckhurst and Rae, “Diversity Agendas.”ģ7 Gilmore, The Limits of Autobiography, 22–23.Ĥ1 Tumarkin, “Stories without Borders,” 29 Do, The Happiest Refugee, 182.Ĥ4 Eakin, “Self and Self-Representation,” 12.Anh Do nearly didn't make it to Australia. 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. 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). 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. 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.

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