Back of the Y Masterpiece Television - Series One

We don't want to be associated at all with that programme. We haven't seen it but we understand it pushes the limits of sleaze, and that's not the kind of image we want for our organisation at all.

– YMCA Chief Executive Geoff Woolford, in The NZ Herald, 13 July 2001

Viewer discretion is useless.

– Show intro

It's a dangerous stunt no matter how you look at it ... especially with an angry monkey to contend with. And Randy's crew are making sure that this ape is as angry as possible.

– Narration from the show

Bloopers — the lowest, lowest form of humour.

– Presenter Danny Parker (Matt Heath) in episode six

We made a few phone calls, pursued a television executive, bunged together a pilot and now we have our own show. Now we get to do all we've ever wanted to do — buy cars and wreck them and get more swearing on television.

– Matt Heath in The Evening Post, 2 July 2001, page 13

This is guerrilla film-making at its best and we do not drag our knuckles.

– Presenter Danny Parker (Matt Heath), in episode five

Yes, Chris Stapp and Matt Health are as mad as cut snakes but have created something unique. Their show is so stupid, so disgusting and so puerile that it's good. I love it for the all same reasons I loved The Young Ones when it first showed its ugly head back in 1984.

– Reviewer Greg Dixon in The NZ Herald, 19 October 2001

People want non-stop action and people hurting themselves and this is what we provide. Randy is New Zealand's greatest daredevil stuntman and each week he puts his life on the line to entertain the boring gits at home.

– Co-creator Chris Stapp, The Evening Post, 2 July 2001

From post-apocalyptic video nasties to schoolroom docu-dramas and weed-smoking road movies, Back of the Y has got something for everyone.

– TV2 Publicity for Back of the Y Masterpiece Television

Like a pair of bogan Peter Pans, Matt Heath and Chris Stapp live every boy's fantasy, making the kind of TV that gets its giggles from downright disgusting toilet humour, as many explosions as possible and stunts that always go horribly wrong.

– Sunday Star-Times story on Back of the Y, 9 October 2007

Suddenly, the stunt goes horribly wrong.

– One of the show's mantras

...the end of episode six when he [Chris Stapp] drove a car through the set, to do that ... he just fanged into the studio full pace and slammed the car through, jumped over, overshot the mark ... then smashed to the ground and managed to skid to a halt just before he hit the back wall of the studio ... If you watch the episode, when he jumps out, we've got to immediately go up and ... beat the crap out of him just after the stunt. But his joy of making it, I think, and still being alive is so palpable when you watch. He gets out and goes, "Yes! Yes!"

– Matt Heath on the final scene of episode six, in an extended interview for 2019 TV series Funny As: The Story of New Zealand Comedy

A lot of the fights were pretty real, in that the contact was real anyway.

– Matt Heath in the DVD commentary track for episode two

Back of the Y: great scriptwriting, hot stars, sexy sexy gags. But what really sets it apart are its high production values and its amazing, groundbreaking special effects.

– Back of the Y regular Piers Graham takes us behind the scenes, in episode seven

From very early on people thought our stuff was funny, so that's what kept us going. We mainly did it for fun for years and years with no chance of making money. We just liked filming stuff with our mates then watching it back and laughing. These days it's just as fun, but instead of being a hobby it's kind of like — gainful employment or something.

– Co-creator Matt Heath on website The Big Idea, 22 August 2022

...a pig-out of semi-digested trash-televison culture projectile vomited directly onto the screen, without the wit and sophistication of, say, South Park.

– Back of the Y demonstrates just how some of the reviews compared the show to South Park, during episode seven

Look at this! Badow! He's got an ass for a face!

– Chris Stapp introduces Arse/Off, in the DVD commentary for episode six

...and then "bam ouch", and then I had a broken leg there — that really hurt — and then that sucked, and then that I got all wet, and then that, that was sweet.

– Chris Stapp summarises some of his stunts, in the DVD commentary for the last episode