Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

Shower Watch 132--14

.....The Aussie water phobia just rolls on and on.......Iraq have complained that the Aussie armpit constitutes a weapon of mass destruction...Still it keeps the flies off the beer......

Well as you may have noticed I have handed out (and taken) some stick over the past months. Through all of this the Aussies have shown great humour and sporting grace. I have grown to really love a lot of the people I have met...

Following Englands FANTASTIC win I was, as you can imagine, delighted. Boy did I dish it out and boy did they squirm... My favourite 'sparring' mate has been Jemma (Sister of Aussie Test Opener Justin) Here is what I did to her desk......







She, as always, smiled and showed great Aussie fairness..

This got me thinking about Aussie humour.

Australian humour has a long history that can be traced back to their origins as convict colonies.
(They are still strangely touchy about this...he he he) It is therefore no surprise that a national sense of humour quickly developed that responded to those conditions. This unique sense of humour is recognised (although maybe not always understood) the world over as being distinctly Australian.

Here are some of my findings

A black sense of humour
Australians can have a very black sense of humour. While in many cultures it is considered poor taste to find humour in difficult circumstances, Australians tend to look for this lighter side. This is perhaps our strongest reference to their brutal past, where humour was a means of coping with a bad situation. A brilliant (perhaps unintentional) example of this is the naming of the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Pool in Melbourne after a Prime Minister who disappeared whilst swimming in the ocean in 1967.

Mocking the wowser
Mocking the wowser is another common element in Australian humour. Wowser is a term that refers to a person who is highly moral or politically correct. In 2002, a lawyer called O'Sullivan expertly demonstrated this aspect of Australian humour in the courtroom. Defending his client, who was charged with baring his buttocks, or 'mooning', at a policeman, O'Sullivan argued that 'mooning was accepted Australian behaviour and should be seen as a national icon'. The prosecutor, Michael Purcell, responded in wowser fashion by asking 'whether bare buttocks should replace the emu and kangaroo on Australia's coat of arms.'

Self Mocking
Australians also have a strong tradition of targeting themselves as objects of humour. A regular on the stand-up circuit is comedian Steady Eddy, who has cerebral palsy and uses his disability as material for his routines. One of his jokes talks about how hard it is for him to find love – whenever he sees a beautiful woman, he finds himself wishing ' …if only she had a limp'.


Great...Sick.... but.... Great

Love

Stew