Australian Prime Minister's Spoof "Apocalypse" Speech Goes Viral In China

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 13, 2012 @10:21PM from the believe-it-or-not dept.

brindafella writes "Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, recorded a spoof speech about the Mayan calendar apocalypse several days ago, for radio station "Triple J". Gillard said in part, 'Whether the final blow comes from flesh eating zombies, demonic hell beasts or from the total triumph of K-pop, if you know one thing about me it is this: I will always fight for you to the very end.' The speech has been picked up in China on Sina Weibo (China's Twitter) and has achieved well over 23,000 repeats, without anyone picking up the irony." This comes on the heels of the online version of China's Communist Party newspaper picking up an Onion story about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un being named the "Sexiest Man Alive."

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Stupid People by Nyder · 2012-12-13 22:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

will believe anything on the interwebs.

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Be seeing you...
Re:Erm.. by In+hydraulis · 2012-12-13 23:46 · Score: 3, Insightful

As an Aussie, you misspelled "fibre."
23,000 repeats by lucmove · 2012-12-13 23:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

23,000 repeats shouldn't mean much in China.
Re:What I would like to know... by abies · 2012-12-13 23:52 · Score: 2, Insightful

What I would like to know is how often we mistakenly take foreign news at face value.
I know plenty of people who are still treating thousands years old news in Aramaic at face value.
Who is missing whose sarcasm? by guanxi · 2012-12-14 01:32 · Score: 4, Insightful

Humor can be hard to translate. Maybe instead of the Chinese speakers missing the Aussie's sarcasm, it's visa-versa.