DAMN THOSE AUSTRIANS ! ! !

Speaking for myself all i heard was (another) stupid American. I know not all americans are stupid lke that so it just made me chuckle.
Some people use a "put down" to make themselves feel good. The clip works in almost the same way.

I just wondered if its because racial sterotyping does not play (a big part or as big a part as it does for americans) in Australian culture.

Weird, this is way worse American stupidity to me than the recent stuff that didn't just elicit a chuckle and it's been going on for about my entire life!

You calling Australians werid now bub!

c. (Thats as close as i can come to the sarcasm icon)

It got VERY wearying, but the people who do it are being as nice as they know how, so it didn't make me feel angry....I guess it IS just weary acceptance.

Because I don't think being whatever the hell is the description of the whole Hogan etc. image thing is as bad as being thought of as racist.

Anyway, it was an Australian agency that made that ad to lure in Americans, so it's by no means just the US's fault.

That goddam film (which led to the ad) came out in 1986...so it's been for a significant part of your life.

I wonder if we even rated a stereotype in the US before that?

The ads came first, but what is with that guy's ability to start a meme? The "that's not a knife" meme is another enduring one.

Good grief...you're right...re the ads being first.

Well, I guess he fitted in with how USians saw Australians anyway (if they did).

Hogan was a great comedian, pre-Hollywood...and I think the film and the ad were cleverly crafted to appeal to their target audience, and they did.

anyhow* is another meme or catchphrase he created. It came from a ciggarette commercial waaaay back.

Yeah, but before it was the whole Waltzing Matilda, tough guys on the sheep station, The Sundowners stereotype (if you're familiar with that film, which was made in about 1960). There had arisen, though, in the 1980s a stereotype based on Mad Max (which initially became a cult classic on late night movie programs, having largely flopped in the theaters). The whole Hogan thing was an attempt to exploit the sudden new popularity of things Australian, although i doubt that he became more popular than Gibson and the Mad Max franchise. It was responsible, though for a flourishing of the Australian indy film industry, which got attention they might not have gotten had Mad Max not been so popular world wide. It did well in theaters outside the U.S., and when it became popular on late night teevee, American film release companies hurried to put it in the theaters, but it wasn't successful, because so many people had already seen it on teevee, or had bought the video. Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome did well on the big screen in the U.S., though--so much so that some idiot decided it would be a good idea to cast Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian. As Mencken observed, no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

The success of Mad Max made it possible for films like Breaker Morant to get serious attention abroad. Unfortunately, though, although Mad Max was a more successful franchise product (i've heard they're making another one), the Paul Hogan thing became the basis for the current shallow American stereotype--which i'm sure you know is not held by all Americans, just the one's who consider television a source of serious culture.

Same ad agency.

auzzie music popped up in top 40 thereabouts as well...

men at work.

flock of seagulls.

the budgie...

The "Anyhow, have a Winfield" ones right? I hadn't known that that was the genesis of the "anyhow" popularity.

Maybe someone was aggressively marketing Australian pop culture about then. When "grunge" became popular, i actually had idiots telling me that the Pacific Northwest was a source for unprecedented musical innovation, because they didn't realize that industrial rock was all over the country, but that the A & R and promo guys had descended on Seattle. I think a little of the same thing happened with Australian singers, actors, movies, groups, etc. in the 80s. It would be interesting to know if that was the product of a successful promotional campaign.

I have a dim memory of some US sitcom with "anyhow" as a catchphrase...but I might be dreaming.

There was a cultural "thing" happening...a renaissance of the Oz film industry, (strongly featuring the South Australian Film Commission....South Australia had benefited from a lot of arts spending and leadership by then Premier, Don Dunstan) which had been very strong in the early days, and we were attacking the international market quite deliberately.

Well, i'm glad to think it was successful. Do you think Men at Work, Midnight Oil, Olivia Clueless John and such musical phenoms benefited from that as well? Unfortunately, it seems the Hogan character emerged as the new stereotype. I suspect that was because he had broader appeal. Crocodile Dundee had a love story in it, too, and little old ladies and middle aged manly men could identify with the Paul Hogan character, whereas Mad Max was all weird and post apocalyptic.

I enjoyed a lot of the fil-ums, and some of the music.

I was very careful to post the picture of them taken from behind. There is another pic of them from the front. See how considerate I am?

ummm.

thanks ed?


(grrrr.)

I think they benefited from the whole shebang, and earlier musical breakthroughs,...from people like (wait for it!) The Seekers.

We just got more confident and prepared to take our stuff out there.

There was a lot of classical stuff, like opera and theatre and dance, being taken out there, too. Heck, our little local dance company was internationally renowned, until the Arts Minister took a snit a few years back, and didn't renew the director's contract!!!

I think Hoges emerged as the new stereotype in the US, mainly (at which it was aimed) ...I don't know that it's as important elsewhere...it's not come up so much, anyway.

The Brits got a lot more of our stuff, and they have a whole range of stereotypes!

Most of the rest of the west isn't as insular as the US, I don't think, so I think there is more stuff for them to pick from, when working out national stereotypes.