DAAS Kapital

Lore & Background

The series is set in the year 2000, within a scenario where the Shitsu Tonka Unitocracy has taken over the world by 1998. The Doug Anthony All Stars are placed in a submarine with all the world's artwork and treasures, tasked to catalogue history. They become lost, their whereabouts unknown, and their existence denied by the Shitsu Tonka Corp. In the final episode of season 1, it is revealed that Shitsu Tonka sabotaged the ship, placing Richard on board as a robot with a bomb intended to destroy history; the blast instead propels the submarine into space, allowing for sci-fi storylines in season 2. The ship returns to the ocean in the season 2 finale.

Reader's Guide

DAAS Kapital is notable for its unconventional structure, described by Tim Ferguson as 'a cross between Land of Giants, Marine Boy and Jacques Cousteau on speed.' Each scripted episode included cutaways to fictional television shows and commercials—such as Shitsu Tonka News, Troy The Invincible, and Wayne Kerr—along with guest appearances, stop-motion animation, and original songs performed by the Doug Anthony All Stars. The show's two seasons were named after the seven deadly sins (season 1) and the seven heavenly virtues (season 2). A scriptbook collecting season 1 scripts was published in 1992. The series was released on DVD on 20 March 2013 with audio commentary and a new original song; the All Stars reunited for a one-off show on 13 April 2013 to celebrate the DVD launch.

Did You Know?

• The title references Karl Marx's economic treatise Das Kapital.
• Each episode of season 1 is named after one of the seven deadly sins; season 2 episodes are named after the seven heavenly virtues.
• The DVD release on 20 March 2013 included a new original song because the cover of 'Sunday Morning' was omitted due to contractual reasons.
• The series aired in 18 countries including Japan, Britain, USA and Germany.

A Genre-Defying Format

DAAS Kapital resisted easy categorisation, braiding together sitcom, sketch comedy, and variety-show elements within a single episode. Each story was built around a deliberately simple narrative premise—perhaps a pest infestation aboard the vessel or a Cinderella-style retelling—but that thin skeleton was fleshed out with rapid-fire jokes, stories narrated directly by the trio, and cutaway segments to fictional television programs such as Shitsu Tonka News, Troy the Invincible, and Wayne Kerr. Stop-motion animation sequences and original songs performed by the All Stars added further layers of texture to every half of the runtime. Tim Ferguson himself summarised the tonal cocktail as "a cross between Land of Giants, Marine Boy and Jacques Cousteau on speed," a description that captures the show's manic, genre-hopping energy. The result was a comedy that never settled into one register, constantly shifting between ranting monologues, absurdist spectacle, and musical interlude within the span of a single scene.

The Shitsu Tonka Universe and Its Cast

The show's fictional world was anchored by the Shitsu Tonka Unitocracy, a regime that by 1998 had absorbed all nations under a single "Common Cents" currency and homogenised the world's populations into one imposed macrosociety. The All Stars find themselves aboard a submarine tasked with cataloguing the world's artwork and history, only to become lost and have their existence officially denied by the corporation. Within this satirical framework, a colourful cast of recurring characters populated both the ship and the Shitsu Tonka broadcast network. Paul Livingston played Flacco, a high-pitched alien who converses with his animated cockroach Ross, while Michael Petroni delivered Psycho Bob's unhinged monologues to camera. The animated giant monster Thulgore lurked in the engine room, and Khym Lam fronted the news bulletins. Ferguson, McDermott, and Fidler each doubled as characters in the network's programming—Wayne Kerr, Troy the Invincible, and Uncle Biff Happy respectively—creating a dense web of in-universe media that the trio simultaneously performed and consumed.

Production, Broadcast, and the Title's Double Meaning

The title DAAS Kapital is a deliberate pun, fusing the trio's well-known acronym with Karl Marx's seminal economic text Das Kapital, signalling from the outset that the show would blend political satire with absurdist comedy. Written by and starring Paul McDermott, Tim Ferguson, and Richard Fidler, the series debuted on Australia's ABC network on 15 July 1991, with its season finale transmitted on 7 July 1992. The show's structural conceit was equally pointed: Season 1 episodes were each named after one of the seven deadly sins, while Season 2 drew on the seven heavenly virtues, framing the comedy within a moral taxonomy. Despite its very Australian sensibility, DAAS Kapital found an audience well beyond home shores, airing in eighteen countries including Japan, Britain, the United States, and Germany. Supporting cast members Paul Livingston, Michael Petroni, Bob Downe, and Khym Lam rounded out the ensemble, lending the production a collaborative, ensemble-driven feel that distinguished it from a straightforward three-man sketch vehicle.

Legacy, Reunion, and the Long Road to DVD

For over two decades after its 1992 finale, DAAS Kapital existed primarily as a cult memory, preserved in a 1992 scriptbook that collected Season 1 scripts alongside on-set photographs and illustrations by the All Stars. The show's home-media journey finally materialised when Tim Ferguson announced via Twitter on 1 November 2012 that a DVD was in production. The set arrived on 20 March 2013, featuring audio commentary from the trio and a brand-new original song, "Saturday (mourning)," which replaced the Velvet Underground cover "Sunday Morning" that had opened the first episode—McDermott noted the omission was due to contractual reasons and the fact that they had never actually paid for the licence. To mark the release, the All Stars reunited on 13 April 2013 for a one-off live show celebrating the DVD launch, a rare public gathering that underscored how long fans had awaited the series' return to a watchable format.

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