Looking for a new TV quiz show? Step into the backyard

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BIG BACKYARD QUIZ ★★★★

It’s taken exactly a year, but thank goodness this magnificently sardonic dose of healing humour, that burst onto the National Indigenous Television Network as a standalone special last NAIDOC Week, is back for a proper, 10-episode season. Testing celebrity contestants’ knowledge of First Nations history, food and culture, with creative games and challenges, Big Backyard Quiz extends an invitation to all Australians to squirm, laugh and learn.

10 News First’s Narelda Jacobs again takes up the mantle of cool, calm, and effortlessly funny quizmistress. And comedian and poet extraordinaire Steven Oliver who, in 2020, launched Australia’s first Indigenous quiz show with his SBS arts-focussed format Faboriginal, assumes his position on the floor, facilitating riotous segments such as song-lyric guessing game “Noongar Boodjaroke”, food identifying challenge “Gourmet Grub”, the bullshit-detecting “True God or Gammin” and the reverential “Make Aunty Tea”.

Together, they are the perfect hosting duo, his barely containable kinetic energy fizzing around the studio set that is laid with Astro turf and dressed to resemble a typical Australian suburban backyard, with washing on the line and outdoor lounges around a fire pit. At her podium – a plastic outdoor bar table in front of an ocean sunset backdrop – Jacobs holds court, allowing impromptu jokes time to settle as she keeps proceedings rolling along.

The beauty of the show is that it allows non-Indigenous Australians to have a chuckle at their discomfort, in this so very Australian, neutral setting. It is clear, however, exactly whose backyard we are in. There are First Nations in-jokes and language. Much of the humour comes from staring down differences, inequality, prejudice, and this nation’s shameful history.

Steven Oliver and Narelda Jacobs are back with a full season of Big Backyard Quiz.

Sometimes the gags are gaspingly close to a line, but in the hands of astute comedians, permission to laugh is granted. The first episode absolutely goes there with regard to racist violence, and the failed Voice to parliament referendum.

First to the party is Shari Sebbens, who is joined by Rhys Nicholson and Nina Oyama. On the opposing side, Meyne Wyatt has Emma Holland and Matt Okine. Having Indigenous team leaders almost have to apologise for the ignorance of their non-Indigenous charges poignantly flips the privilege dynamic.

Appearing later this season are Rove McManus, Ernie Dingo, Tasma Walton and Peter Rowsthorn.

Some of the games are designed to embarrass, in a good way. One, in which players must decide whether a commonly used word has Indigenous origins or not, yields surprising results. “Who Dis Mob”, where images of prominent Indigenous Australians must be correctly identified, is perhaps the most shocking, as it is such an irrefutable example of the relative invisibility of some remarkable shapers of this country. It’s in the aftermath of this game, that “Shame job!” – the slang term for well-deserved humiliation – is most often hurled, and contritely accepted, across the panel.

With guests popping in to present food, spin yarns or demand a perfect cup of tea, the atmosphere is of a relaxed gathering, held together by the good-natured battle for the Golden Tongs trophy. But it doesn’t really matter which team wins. As Sebbens remarks with a deliberately sugary grin at the end of her round, “The real winner was reconciliation”. She might have meant it sarcastically, but if laughter is the best medicine, then we might all do with a shot of Big Backyard Quiz.

Big Backyard Quiz premieres at 7.30pm on Saturday, July 12, on NITV.

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