Where’s Morningside? Locating bro’Town in the ethnic genealogy of New Zealand/Aotearoa

Abstract

This article uses discourse analysis to locate animated primetime cartoon comedy bro'Town in terms of ethnicity and identification in both a local New Zealand/Aotearoa (NZ) and a global, postmodern, postcolonial media environment. It analyses and problematises the polarisation of local ethnic discourse between conservative assimilationist and bicultural "politically correct" viewpoints by situating the text in global postmodern media environment and demonstrating the discursive interdependence of such binary oppositions. Finally it looks at the degree to which bro'Town's self-proclaimed status as "hilariously anti-PC" comedy works to both exploit and undermine polarities of ethnic representation through employing "reverse discourse". The overall aim of the paper is not to present a close reading or textual analysis, but to situate the text in larger discursive frameworks and thus offer a number of possible theoretical approaches.