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Story: The New Zealanders

Fred Dagg

Video file

In the early 1970s the satirist John Clarke invented the comic figure of the black-singletted, gumboot- wearing Fred Dagg. As urban culture began to develop, some people began to laugh at these traditional stereotypes.

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TVNZ Television New Zealand

Reference: P 100

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How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, The New Zealanders – Ordinary blokes and extraordinary sheilas, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/1981/fred-dagg (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 May 2015.