The Last Laugh

We grew up with laugh lines!

– Sir Howard Morrison

The marae is not only the carved meeting house, but it’s the place where Māori gather often to celebrate the crisis of life. And as long as Māori gather together Māori humour will last forever.

– Hone Kaa

You always take the mickey out of your mates, and that’s all good and that’s kind of how a lot of relationships are with Māori…

– Stacey Daniels Morrison

Q. What do you call a plastic Māori? A. Prince Tui Tupperware!

– Billy T James

In a mixed audience you kind of got the feeling that maybe you were being laughed at.

– Hone Kaa on complicated reactions to Billy T James

Many of Māoridom's best known, older comedians, the documentary observes, found their way into humour through music. Sir Howard Morrison, Prince Tui Teka and [Billy T] James came from the tradition of the Māori show bands that emerged in the 60s and led on, certainly in James' case, to the jokes becoming more important than the music.

– Greg Dixon in an NZ Herald article on this documentary, 28 April 2002