Comments on: Australian Senator Discusses Oil Spill [funny]

By: 5 Reasons to Love Mosquitoes: Confessions of a Vegetarian Mosquito Killer : Sustainablog

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:47:40 +0000

[...] Australian Senator Discusses Oil Spill [funny] [...]

By: Gene Eggers

Gene Eggers — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:27:40 +0000

In August 2007, an oil tanker off the coast of Australia split in two dumping 20,000 tons of crude oil. An Australian MP quickly appeared on a TV news program to reassure the Australian public with soothing rhetoric. This is NOT an actual interview with this Australian Parliament member but a funny satire done on something like Australia’s version of an American “Saturday Night Live” skit. In fact as a comedy sketch, the parts of the politician and interviewer are played by Australian television comedy duo John Clarke and Brian Dawe (the former reportedly engaging here in a parody of Peter Cook, the former Australian Minister for Shipping and Aviation Support and Minister for Trade / see website: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clarke_and_Dawe ). Clarke and Dawe’s stock-in-trade is presenting satirical takes on current events, often in the form of mock interviews in which Clarke assumes the role of a beleaguered politician (or other prominent public figure) attempting to explain away some blunder while being grilled by interviewer Dawe.

However, while as a spoof explaining an actual event, this video clip humorously illustrates how politicians everywhere often try to put a CYA (Cover-Your-Ass) spin on things using political double-speak and language to down play tragic events or circumstances to the public in effort to mitigate or deflect blame or criticism of their government (or from themself).

By: Gene Eggers

Gene Eggers — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:27:00 +0000

By: Timothy B. Hurst

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:45:16 +0000

I know, I really liked the ‘beyond the environment’ line. Totally silly, yet so very poignant.

By: Timothy B. Hurst

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:45:00 +0000

I know, I really liked the ‘beyond the environment’ line. Totally silly, yet so very poignant.

By: SantaFeKate

SantaFeKate — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:36:12 +0000

I loved it! It got funnier and funnier as it went along–I especially like the description that the ship was no longer in the environment–it was towed “beyond the environment”.

By: SantaFeKate

SantaFeKate — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:36:00 +0000

I loved it! It got funnier and funnier as it went along–I especially like the description that the ship was no longer in the environment–it was towed “beyond the environment”.