Robert Phiddian – Smith’s Weekly and the larrikin tradition in Australian cartoons

Australians congratulate themselves on the glories “larrikin humour”, a major source for which is the raucous Sydney journal, Smith’s Weekly (1919–50). In this talk, Robert Phiddian explores cartoons from Smith’s as an account of its preoccupations, and its role in the Australian cartooning tradition. Phiddian tests the validity of the claim of a distinctive ‘larrikin’ humour, and contrasts it with a more cosmopolitan thread in many of the cartoons.

Robert Phiddian, Ross Steele AM Fellow at the SLNSW, is Professor of English at Flinders University. He studies and writes about political satire, particularly the satire in Australian political cartoons, and in eighteenth century writers like Jonathan Swift.

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