Australia vs Alabama
AAP report:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is in hot water with the governor of Alabama for his response to comedian Robin Williams’ “Australians are basically English rednecks” jibe.
Williams made the joke on the Dave Letterman TV talkshow in the US earlier in the week and Rudd, during a radio interview on Wednesday, hit back by recommending the comedian “spend a bit of time in Alabama before he frames comments about anyone being particularly redneck”.
Rudd has stuffed up quite majorly here.
First of all a Prime Minister doesn’t need to respond to a joke by Robin Williams on Letterman. You just look pompous and defesnive.
But secondly you don’t respond by insulting a state of another country. You’re not a comedian, you’re a head of government.
Rudd’s reference to Alabama and rednecks generated a terse response from Alabama governor Bob Riley.
“I’m not sure if Prime Minister Rudd has ever been to Alabama,” Alabama governor Bob Riley responded in a statement.
“If he has, he would know that Alabamians are decent, hard working, creative people.”
And to think Rudd used to be a diplomat.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:10 pm
just posted a comment about on a CNN report .. Rudd made an ass out himself here, what an idiot to slag off a US state suggesting they they were backward the Aussies
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Rudd, Letterman, Robin Williams…
Pfffttt…..
An ugh to the lot of them. I know someone from Alabama and not one of those three, a smug bullshitting thieving socialist, a sneering over paid elitist who shows utter contempt for concepts such as fidelity and honesty, and a raving unfunny doper from gangster ridden Chicago, would be fit to polish his shoes.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Still, at least we never had Helen Clark as Prime Minister for 9 years.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Did someone point out to Krudd that Robin Williams is a COMEDIAN!
It’s a joke when Williams pokes fun at the Aussies……..It’s an insult when Krudd opines about Alabama in the way he has.
If Krudd wants to engage in a battle of wits with Robin Williams…..well, that’s just like bringing a knife to gun fight.
This is what Williams had to say……..
“Meanwhile, Robin Williams says he loves Australia and has laughed off criticism from Rudd, poking fun at him in the process.
“Nice comeback, way to go K-Rudd. How’s the food on the plane? Good day,” Williams said, speaking on Australian radio yesterday.
“I was just there for two weeks; every time I’ve been in Australia it’s been wonderful. I love it down there. Helloooo!”
Williams offered this apology: “Mr Rudd, I apologise, it’s linguistics; I would like to modify my terminology and say: English Good Old Boy.
“If the term redneck is offensive forgive me sir …
“Please let me come back to Australia without a cavity search, and if not I’d love to go to a strip club with you in New York.”
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Rudd is an elitist snot eating arrogant and nasty prat.
He’s had an easy ride (generally) from the MSM as he is not J Howard.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Without getting into any whys and wherefores, isn’t the basic logical problem with Rudd’s rejoinder to Williams just that Williams was effectively granting that the US is full of rednecks, and then saying roughly that Australia was just like those red-state bits of the US. All of that’s disputable and very broad brush and vaguely offensive, but it’s just wit-less to retort, ‘But what about your red states?’ That was the original slightly offensive point!
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:25 pm
i liked the line from williams where he said that’ looking at the animals..
..it was obvious there was an open bar on the seventh day’..
(‘english good ol’ boys’..heh..!..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:27 pm
As a prime minister, Rudd should just go on Letterman himself. Have a boring chat and get the piss taken out of his country face to face. It does wonders for the prestiege of not only the man, but also the position of Prime Minster and the country as a whole.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I still don’t know why they would want to “tie me kangaroo down sport” .. wtf is that all about?
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I don’t know why he’d even bother responding. Robin Williams may have been funny a long time ago, but he’s funny no longer. Now he just seems to rely on his manic presence and the audience laughing where expected because that’s what they’re supposed to do. He doesn’t rely on actual humour content. David Letterman’s show is pretty banal. It’s not like there’s much substance, and the writers just seem to be phoning it in. I guess it’s not all that surprising given how long those two have been around. It must get harder to maintain a good level of humour after a while.
But none of this justifies Kevin Rudd coming out and being disparaging about Alabama, which had nothing to do with his problem. I guess it’s not that surprising though, given Rudd’s temperament. He’s probably mostly pissy because it was in another country and not just broadcast on the internet, so he couldn’t censor it.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Did anyone ever watch the Top Gear episode where they drove to New Orleans. From that it is obvious Rudd is correct, Alabama is redneck
April 2nd, 2010 at 3:00 pm
stepheng at 2:21 pm gets a gold star for correctly parsing Robin’s original statement. If only Rudd knew how to translate from English into his own language. Sounds to me like he’s been on the turps with a certain Auckland mayor.
April 2nd, 2010 at 3:02 pm
While both statements are massive generalisations, there is some truth to them both.
Exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=top+gear+alabama
April 2nd, 2010 at 3:18 pm
LOL -c’mon now, really, this slightly amusing “international” incident has media “beat-up” written all over it. It’s probably fair enough to conclude that Rudd’s remarks was not the wisest -he should be only too aware of how these things can end up being portrayed in the media. But if you listen to them in context however, I don’t see them as coming across as particularly aggressive or defensive -to my ears at least they sound like a good natured off the cuff comeback at Williams -I certainly don’t believe Rudd intended to offend Alabamians any more than Williams did Aussies. You can check out the audio here, if you are interested enough.
http://www.triplem.com.au/melbourne/shows/hot-breakfast-eddie-mcguire/podcasts
Notice also that the Alabama governor appears on the show the very next day -as I said, it would seem to be very much a “media-driven” incident.
What I also thought was interesting was the way it was covered on tvone news. In the reporting of Williams’ joke of Aussies being ‘basically English rednecks’ the reference to ‘English’ is more often than not excluded, at least for the attention grabbing headline or word bite. The tvone news also replayed Williams joke about Darwin arriving in Australia and realising his theory was wrong -but cut Williams off before it become too patently obvious he was referring to the unique Aussie wildlife and not the people, in the event that anyone watching may have been stupid enough to think that we was. The point is that Williams is a comedian -I’m pretty sure there were no political overtones to his remarks -nothing at all to do with asylum seekers or race relations. I’d suggest that the crux of the joke was along the lines that the English redneck is a very rare if non existent species, but if they did exist they would be like the Aussies. To most Americans the English are characterised by the like of Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Sir Ian McKellen, Posh and Becks, and other really sophisticated posh types -Aussies according to Williams being a more rustic version of that stereotype.
April 2nd, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Well at least Rudd didn’t insult his own country AND a US state at the same time.
That honour goes to Helen Clark during the election campaign of 99 I believe.
Slagged off the West Coast as a bunch of Kentuckyen red necks cause they didn’t agree with her bullying.
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:03 pm
” To most Americans the English are characterised by the like of Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Sir Ian McKellen, Posh and Becks, and other really sophisticated posh types ”
FFS..!!!
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
speaking of redknecks..
..look..!..there’s….
phil(whoar.co.nz)
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:10 pm
jivekitty..
you don’t think williams is funny..
(just as a barometor for us..)..who do you think ‘is funny’..?..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:11 pm
One has been speaks, another soon-to-be has been ripostes, neither of them are even slightly funny, it makes not a jot of difference, and most people find them both indelibly boring.
Hold on, are we talking about a debate between Key and Goff, or the Williams / Rudd thing…?
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Ive never seen more rasism anywhere else int eh world than when ive been in australia
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:41 pm
True menace, hell, even Americans think they’re bad.
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:53 pm
i had one guy there telling me that people with darker skin dont have the right genetics to digest food properly so they dont live as long.
April 2nd, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I read somewhere that Rudd was actually just a paper pusher diplomat, and this seems to prove it.
April 2nd, 2010 at 6:44 pm
You really think Australia is the worst place? Check out this from the US. This is a recent left wing march. Looks much more racist to me than Australia.
http://www.ringospictures.com/photos/20100320/008.jpg
Full page here:
http://www.ringospictures.com/index.php?page=20100320
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:19 pm
@Philu: Sometimes you and Redbaiter provide me with amusement. But as to funny, I don’t know. I think most comedians are hit and miss.
I’ll group it under USA and the rest of the world.
USA:
* I think Robin Williams used to be funny, but is not any more.
* What I saw of the Dave Chappelle show was hit and miss, some was quite spot on, but other segments were boring and uninspired.
* I find Chris Rock yammers and has far more miss than hit.
* Denis Leary is again someone who is hit and miss.
* Bill Hicks, I also found hit and miss, but he did have some amusing material.
* Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, I find quite amusing, although it’s often a little unsubtle. John Oliver would probably be the favourite of the correspondents.
* Doug Stanhope’s “Voice of America” segments on Newswipe, I find quite amusing, but I haven’t seen anything else of his that takes my fancy.
The rest of the world:
* What I have seen of Newswipe with Charlie Brooker, I have found very good, but I have seen sweet fuck all.
* I am a big fan of the TV series, Absolute Power, with Stephen Fry and John Bird.
* I enjoyed The Young Ones on the whole, but didn’t like Bottom.
* I have been known to enjoy Blackadder, but Mr. Bean doesn’t do it for me. Not the 9 O’Clock news, I quite enjoyed also.
* Monty Python, I am quite enamoured with although I haven’t seen a lot of the series.
* I loved Black books. I also find Dylan Moran can be very funny, but it’s because he’s very good at playing one type of character and I haven’t seen enough, or don’t see his comedy regularly enough, for it to become tedious.
* Facelift, I have found highly amusing when on.
* Seven Periods with Mr. Gormsby I also found highly amusing.
Does that give you a satisfactory idea of my comedy preferences, Philu?
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:25 pm
I forwarded the NZ Herald article on this issue to a friend from Alabama (who coincidently spent several years working in Aust). His response:
“Robin is spot on and Rudd is tosser … we gave them forrest gump and this is how they thank us… shocking!!!
How come the kiwis always stay above the fray??? You guys gave us flight of the concords so you can do or say whatever you like”
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Proud to be a cantab redneck who thinks ockers and yanks are drop kick twits.
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:37 pm
proud to be a jafa..who thinks christchurch is a (cold) septic pit..
‘class’/caste-riddled..
..and full of racists and junkies..
your point..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Poor old 747kevin last of the little Aussie battlers, should of stuck to his knitting.
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:42 pm
How’s the super sewer going philu.
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:59 pm
you mean hide..?
how he’s stitching up auckland..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Surprise, Krudd is a antsy little tosser. I know deep down it won’t happen, but I want to see Abbott kick his pasty schoolboy arse in the elections this year.
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Viking2 (1447) Says:
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:35 am
A couple of other Fool jokes. Boy the Brisbane officials have shiity livers.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/toll-plan-for-kurilpa-bridge-20100331-reou.html
but Tourism Australia thought it was all good fun when the Kiwi’s hijacked their new campaign.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/3543314/Online-ambushes-hit-Tourism-Australia
But krudd really just does not have any sense of grace or humour.
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/people/krudd-i-love-australia-williams-redneck-row-comeback-20100402-rimy.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10635900
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/3541620/PM-fires-back-over-Robin-Williams-redneck-j
April 3rd, 2010 at 5:32 am
Well I heard Kevin Rudd whine about her…
I heard ol’ Kev put her down…
Well I hope Mr Rudd will remember…
Abbott’s gunna kick his ass anyhow.
April 3rd, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Robin Williams has always been an astute observer of human behaviour and all he’s done in this case is point out the blatantly obvious- in fact this could be a great opportunity for the Ausies to enter into a sister-state relationship. Queensland and Alabama are like banjo-playing, cousin-lovin’, bunny-throwin’ soul mates.