Chris Lilley Is Making A ‘Summer Heights High’ Spinoff About Jonah

On a network that churns out cultural touchstones like they’re making elevator buttons, Chris Lilley’s are the rare HBO serieses that manage to fly slightly under the radar. Which honestly is probably for the best, because a couple shows ago he had a major character that was him in blackface. Nonetheless, they’re really goddamn funny, and Lilley is such a committed actor that you’ll eventually forget that he’s a 40-year-old man playing a teenage girl in a scene with an actor who’s an actual teenage boy.

Lilley’s HBO shows started with Summer Heights High, in which the gifted Australian comedy actor played a snotty girl, a gay theater teacher, and a thuggish islander at an Australian high school; which was followed by Angry Boys, in which Lilley played a series of characters, from an overbearing Asian mom to a pair of twins, one of whom was deaf, a surfer who got castrated in a gang fight, and a rich American rap guy (the blackface one). In late 2013, HBO broadcast Ja’mie: Private School Girl, a spinoff of Summer Heights High starring Lilley’s spoiled rich girl character, and on August 8th, Lilley returns with Jonah From Tonga, which is great news because Jonah was always my favorite Summer Heights High character. Puck you, miss! Yeah August 8th is a beautiful day.

The trailer for Jonah from Tonga is below, and I for one am incredibly excited. Maybe not as excited as this commenter, but pretty excited.

Contains some NSFW, so cover your freakin’ ears if you’re going to be a little puss about it.

He calls gingers “rangers,” btw, because it’s short for “orangutan.” Just FYI.

×