Almanac Olympics: Raygun
Social media’s abuzz, aflame, on bloody fire! “Disgrace!” they cry. “Embarrassing!” they wail. Then rant smugly, in best brain-dead, goose-stepping mob form, from their keyboards, radio’s, host’s seats.
”That Raygun!”
“Humiliating!”
Their arguments tire me. “How did she get in?”, “Never live it down!”, “Her husband was in the tank.”
They’re all forgetting one thing; IT WAS BLOODY HILARIOUS!
To me, it went to the very heart of what it means, or used to, to be an Aussie. Humour, Irreverence. “Who gives a poo, it made me laugh.”
The thing, I believe, that defines our nation above all else, is a laconic disregard for norms. The ability to laugh at ourselves, to keep it all in perspective, and not take anything too seriously. I blame a bird.
We were born with kookaburras laughing at us every morning we woke up shitty and suicidal at the thought of another hard day’s labour. Laughed at by them every night, when we came home bone weary. Laughed at like drains, with the inability to do anything other than go with it.
Who’d waste their energy getting mad at a kookaburra? Why bother? “You ain’t half bad, ya mongrel…”
We did it with the Little Aussie Bleeder, we did it with Dame Edna, we did it with Fat Pizza, with Kath and Kim.
We SHOULD be doing it with Raygun! It. Was. H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S! She had a crack! Woo, woo, woo, woo, wooing around on her head like a tired, fragile Homer Simpson. Worthy of Andy Kaufman. But straight up! This year’s Eddy Eagle! That African dude in the pool who almost drowned himself.
Humanity! Oh, humanity! We love it! We NEED it!
It takes the cork out of our bums. How else will we relieve the pressure of existence?
Be aggressive towards the town cry of the OUTRAGED wowser; “My taxes paid for that!” What a shit excuse to be mad about anything. Just think of all the pointless things your taxes happily pay for. This made us cringe and laugh and stick it up the stuffed shirts.
It was glorious!
Be FURIOUS on social media, in the papers comments section, when people say; “On behalf of my fellow Australians, I’d like to apologise for that.”
Not on my behalf! How DARE you! I’m not the mob – humourless, colourless, obsessed with what others think of me. I’m not American or British. I’m a descendent of convicts.
I’m an Aussie. Dinky di! Good on ya, Raygun! Keep taking the piss out of ‘em!
Read more from Matt Zurbo HERE
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Beautiful sentiments Matt. Oh how Norman enriched my life. Go your hardest Raygun!
Delightful Mat.
Haters are going to hate.
I didn’t see any of the breakdancing, but good on her.
In the end, who cares what she did?
It wasn’t life and death.
I agree.
All this outrage, yet our local Sunday paper published a writers poll that rated ‘Kath & Kim’ as our best ever local television show!
‘Frontline’ came in second with ‘Mother & Son’ just outside the top 20.
It would have been fitting if ‘The Games’ had just missed the bronze medal spot (came in at 35).
Settle down people.
Now some Newscorp/Sky journo is writing pieces criticising her academic work!
Fair go son!
Get your own house in order before you have a crack at others.
Good on her!
I would have given her the 3 votes just for pulling out the Homer Simpson move.
I can see both sides of this re the aussie sense of humour taking the mickey absolutely brilliant and has marketed herself superbly on the other hand her selection is more than a tad doubtful if I was having a crack at the sport and the competitor chosen is just taking the piss I’d be spewing to
Ahh, Old Dog this is a honeypot for hot takes.
I hadn’t thought of it as a pisstake. But it works.
A mate over coffees on Sunday likened the whole thing to teaching kids and the education system generally. “Get out there, have ago, be curious, be yourself. Versus: you need to stop being yourself and instead steer yourself between these very narrow posts because we are only interested in people who can do that.” Where is the value? What is valued? etc.
I like Roy & HG’s take: https://youtube.com/shorts/MfkRJHhc89E?si=QZQPFcgiI25RRTsD
E.Rehnans, mate, did you know the HG stands for Jelen Garner? Wow! Trivia! They were both a part of the Pram Factory scene in the late 70s.
I see RayGun as our Napoleon Dynamite!!!
100% ….I loved it and laughed hard …
But I also admired her for giving it a crack and being a proud Aussie.
I’ve become more outraged and embarrassed by the number of people taking all of this too serious and raging about it – talk about cringe. The whingers and petition signers are not bein g very “Aussie” at all in my opinion.
Own it, and (to quote Teddy Whitten) “stick it right up em” RayGunn.