You Can’t Ask That
You Can’t Ask That – Asking the most outrageous and uncomfortable questions to uncover the truth behind what it’s like for marginalized and misunderstood Australians.
Audiences have responded enthusiastically to You Can’t Ask That’s pared-back format, particularly online, where the show became the most played non-children’s program on iView last year.
It is also, with its minimal technical requirements and low costs, an appealing prospect for producers.
According to the ABC, it has six international versions so far with options signed for an additional 10 territories worldwide.
The no-frills approach also allows the directors to take their show on the road. Unbeknownst to audiences, episodes have been filmed in a variety of places, including town halls, offices and hotel rooms.
“Wherever we can block out the light, we can shoot the show,” says Docker, the simplicity of the set allowing the film-makers to “pack it down to 10 bags and jump on a plane”.
More important, though, is the sense of intimacy the set provides: “By having that simple space – the focus being on the participant, not on where they’re from or what’s around them – you can’t judge them on anything but what they’re saying,” Docker continues.
Storyline for You Can’t Ask That
The show is about breaking down stereotypes and offering genuine insight into the lives of people who live with labels.
You Can’t Ask That gives an unmediated platform to some of the most misunderstood or marginalized people in our country: short statured, wheelchair users, transgender, Muslims, ex-prisoners, fat, Indigenous, sex workers, terminally ill, and people in polyamorous relationships.
Australians were asked to anonymously send in the naive, cheeky or uncomfortable questions they wish they could ask these groups of people, but never had the courage to ask in person.
By putting these questions directly to our guests features confronting, moving and surprising answers to the awkward questions we often judge people by.
You Can’t Ask that is insightful and refreshingly inappropriate, offering some of the most judged and least understood people in our community a platform to speak directly to Australia
Episodes of You Can’t Ask That
S1.E1 ∙ Short Statured
Setting the record straight about what it’s really like to be short statured, find out the answers to the questions Australians wanted to ask but were too embarrassed or afraid to ever ask in person.
S1.E2 ∙ Wheelchair Users
Misunderstood, marginalized Australians answering anonymous, online questions. Insightful, irreverent and moving this episode sets the record straight of what it’s really like to be a wheelchair user.
S1.E3 ∙ Transgender
An insightful, irreverent, moving and unpredictable episode that sets the record straight about what it’s really like to be transgender.
S1.E4 ∙ Muslims
Muslims answer the questions Australians wanted to ask but were too embarrassed or afraid to ever ask in person
S1.E5 ∙ Polyamorous
Polyamorous Australians, people in a relationship with multiple partners, answer the questions Australians wanted to ask but were too embarrassed or afraid to ever ask in person.
