This article focuses on the sketch show Australia You're Standing In It in order to trace the contribution of the ABC to the revitalisation of the comedy landscape of Australian television during the 1980s and beyond. I argue that when Australia You're Standing In It was screened on the ABC in 1983, it revived the identification of ABC television with comic invention and heralded a subsequent explosion of TV sketch and stand-up comedy. For the national broadcaster, the long-term benefits of the show's modest success were an increasing confidence in the place of comedy at the ABC — a confidence underpinned by the vitality of the new Melbourne-based Light Entertainment Unit.
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