Shortland Street - The Podcast: The lighter side of Ferndale

The "Please tell me that's not your penis!" scene has become an iconic moment for Shorty St. Photo / South Pacific Pictures

Helicopter crashes, medical emergencies, serial killers and volcanic eruptions - Shortland Street is best known for its high drama, but the nation's favourite soap opera has squeezed in some funny characters between the cliffhangers.

On today's episode of Shortland Street - The Podcast, presented by NZME and iHeartRadio, host and Shorty star Kura Forrester is joined by Ben Barrington - better known as Drew McCaskill - and former actor turned writer Laura Hill - who starred as Toni Warner until 2008 - to discuss the funniest moments and characters from the show's past.

Barrington has gone down in history for one of the show's most iconic funny moments - when a backed-up sewage pipe saw Drew caught up in a "poo-nami".

Hill said that the prop department made "the most disgustingly realistic looking poo" to shower Barrington with.

"They come through to the production office or writers office some time, and go 'look what I made' and we go 'Wow, it's a poo!'"

The fake poos were made from honey, chopped nuts and digestive biscuits - and certainly would have been edible, Barrington said.

It’s a poo-nami! #ShortlandStreet pic.twitter.com/Vhv1T703Zy

— Shortland Street (@ShortlandTweet) April 30, 2018

While the scene has become one of the recent iconic moments from Shortland Street, Barrington said that it was a very physical scene with a lot of logistics, so it was actually an incredibly serious scene to film.

"At the time, it was really just a comedy scene like any other. Beforehand, it was really quite serious because if we had to do it more than once, it would have been a nightmare to reset," due to the number of props and water involved.

"And then it was literally just 'that's a buy, repo to triage'. I remember I ran off, got a towel, cleaned off, and probably got into a suit and tie and did another [scene]. It was just another day at the office."

Hill's on-screen son and former husband, Harry and Chris Warner, were also part of one of the other famous moments with the iconic "Please tell me that's not your penis!" line.

She said that while the scene became an instant classic, there was some annoyance when the international news coverage made it seem like the line was a mistake or not intended to be funny.

"Screw you, it was intentionally comic!"

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