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Australian Prime Minister's Spoof "Apocalypse" Speech Goes Viral In China
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."
it was also play on a different date, 7-12-12.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Then the apocalypse is already upon us and I for one welcome our Korean overloads.
I personally can't wait until North korea finally gets this news and starts the widespread news about a flesh eating zombie outbreak in Australia.
will believe anything on the interwebs.
Be seeing you...
Why did nobody tell me demonic hell beasts were an option. Why am I always last to get the memo? I'm all geared up for zombies, vampires, ice ages, meteorite strikes, pandemics and alien invasions. Now I have to go study Alice Cooper videos for vulnerabilities. Is salt good or is that just ghosts? Damn!
Just like a sufficiently advanced parody can't be distinguished from a zealot, sarcasm doesn't translate. I'm sure they thought it funny and entertaining, but for completely different reasons than intended.
Learn to love Alaska
Bravo for the rare politician today willing to demonstrate some humour and humanity :). Can I get the hotline number in case those zombies show up?
This is on a different level from the Onion spoofs of world leaders like Obama or Kim Jung'Un. This is the real Australian Prime Minister doing the spoof. US presidents have been known to pardon Thanksgiving turkeys and part of running for public office in any democratic country is to show your "lighter side" in front of the media, but Gillard's "speech" goes beyond the realm of a simple practical joke. That or the producers of the show have done some nifty CGI work worthy of a Hollywood disaster movie.
Is it something lacking in Asia, or just in dictatorship?
Tomorrow is another day...
What I would like to know is how often we mistakenly take foreign news at face value.
It can be so hard to read the cues from a different culture.I wonder if that has been studied?
-- B.
This sig does in fact not have the property it claims not to have.
As an aussie. This was not funny the first time. And not funny the second on /.
Im just glad she listened to the right people when it comes to fiber.
...of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=789he-8T_-E
...this isn't even remotely the craziest thing the witch has managed to convince people of as fact.
Smoke my peg.
23,000 repeats shouldn't mean much in China.
You apparently never lived in totalitarian regime :D At least your total cluelessness suggests :D
I would say that people in "genuine democratic countries" are several times more easily fooled by media (or government) than people that have to filter the pieces of truth from streams of propaganda as part of their lifes.
medvedev also recently trolled a bit, in a seemingly "i don't know i'm off camera" moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHCSpm2kepo
There's a good point there though about the radio bullshit even if the poster got nationalities mixed up. Imagine a far right beyond the point of insanity, gay (yes despite the far right bit), woman hating, xenophobic suspected pedophile (rumoured to be quietly kicked out of several jobs as a teacher for that reason) that deliberately stirs up race riots and you've got what the leading "shock jock" in Australia appears to be. The pedophilla is just a string of yet unproven rumours since they tended to just move teachers on in those days at the first sign of suspicion (such as naked locker room antics with the football team which may have been innocent and may have been all that happened), but what comes out of his mouth is bad enough, and his political connections would make him untouchable perhaps even if it is true. So the message is put out there that truly vile and evil sells (even if he isn't really so evil) and it gets copied by others that want good ratings. Do we really need enough of a "shock" to stir up race riots, or on that other station, drive somebody to suicide with a pointless prank (let alone truly vile stuff from Kyle Sandilands from that same station that could have driven two other women to suicide if they were as fragile - joking about an underage girl's rape experience in front of them is going too far IMHO).
Luckily this is something that happens only with news stories.
So basically, when it comes to the internet, China is like my nan?
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
Humor can be hard to translate. Maybe instead of the Chinese speakers missing the Aussie's sarcasm, it's visa-versa.
Don't make fun of China, 'cuz Fox depends on people making the exact same assumption to get away with their bovine scat: "If it wasn't true, they wouldn't be allowed to say it."
When your government lets you down, you're a prime candidate to join the march of the lemmings.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
Useful to China, by the way - when the news spreads that it was just a spoof, it in turn spreads "Western journalism is all lies, and only Chinese journalism is trustworthy.". Between China's superior manipulations at home and their ally in News Corp abroad, they're winning on the propaganda front.
Quite obviously they've honed playing the greed of the West's few to a fine art, and so are far, far ahead on the industrial infrastructure/defense arsenal and financial fronts.
It's been sad to watch, really...like watching Confucius pick on Western kindergartners.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
I don't know. From my point of view, both pairs of groups have more in common than not.
You shouldn't believe him, he is lying.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
When I was a kid there were many articles about how the increased number of UFO sightings was due in part to the anxiety of the Cold War and the bomb.
These days it isn't enough to have a simple apocalyptic movie/show with almost everyone dead. It isn't enough to have survivors battling mutants. Now, the survivors have escape walking corpses.
It would be interesting to read something about the unconscious hook zombie apocalypses have on us.
Well, any time there is an apocalypse story, I have to post a link to DoomsdayPie.com...
www.DIYTVAntennas.com
I had a Chinese friend, but she never understood my satire. While traveling on business I commented on how nice the pillows were. She agreed they were nice. Then I told her that's why I packed one into my luggage to take home. She really thought I was serious. I had to explain I was joking.
Culture plays a big role in how people react to things. For instance, don't pull a prank on a total stranger, like a random nurse in a hospital. Depending on their cultural background you might prompt them to kill themselves.
http://joeyskaggs.com/html/dog.html
No, Hell's tempure is 444c. Let’s try to be scientific here.
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/hell.htm
without anyone picking up the irony
You are either:
(1) a dumb ass fuck, and thinks this is actually true.
(2) a condescending dumb ass fuck, that thinks people can't see through your feeble attempt at waving your obviously tiny penis.
...
or (3) His Dick is so huge that you can only see a tiny fraction of it.
when they assume a certain level of stupidity for their non-asian counterparts...sarcasm is not the their first conclusion.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Although the hundreds of millions of Americans outside of the USA don't really feel this way...
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
fiber has been shown to improve throughput significantly...which is helpful when you have a lot stuff to push through
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
I'm starting to think The Onion has more power to bring down dictators than any military action.
"Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
- Deep Thought
May you enjoy a short article on the subject.
I have it on good authority that the preferred way of dealing with the Devil is to run him down. Getting a car might be a good idea.
Of course when dealing with the minions of hell in general I wouldn't have a healthier or more deeply-felt respect for any object in the universe than a shotgun. Or I'd just use a chaingun, the hell with respect! Whatever your approach is, you should have a good chance as long as your cause is just, your will is strong and your gun is very, very large.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
That is awesome. A Head of State acting like a human being. Surely, that is a sign of the Apocalypse.
Let the sarcasm begin:
* Ronald Reagan's microphone test ("We begin bombing in five minutes") is a case in point. That could have been read much more benignly, I think, if the Rusians had a more 'Western' sense of humour.
* North Korea's (Kim Jong-un's) recent launch of a satellite into orbit, passing over Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and Australia, could be read differently, too, if we folk from those countries had a better Korean sense of humour. Maybe the Chinese and Russians would have understood the North Koreans better, if the launch had been to the north.
Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.
In my professional life, I have seen the type of 'commercial' deals that NBNCo is doing. Definitely as case of "sign them up then forget them", from my personal observation. And... foreward thinking? 0%
Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.
Them Aussie's and their pranks. It's all fun and games until some packy nurse tops herself.
Good pick-up. My original post of this article drew the attention of readers to Gillard's speech being on the same day as the death of the Indian nurse as a result of 2Day FM's hoax call. The /. editors changed it to the North Korean link. Fair call, but the hoax in London also works. :-)
Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.
... my parents (born in China) have never made any sarcastic expressions in their life, they don't get sarcasm - they take everything anyone says at face value... It just doesn't exist in the culture.
Good point. Culture goes deeply through our life experience.
An American friend of mine regularly travels to China for her work. She is heavily involved in teaching English to her chinese acquaintances. I will ask her about her experiences of humour there.
Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.
The Chineese love a good joke. Even the one's they don't get!
This is hardly a new phnominum, they've been re-publishing Onion stories for years.
THINK! It's patriotic