Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Australia Day overkill

Saw way too many of these flags on cars today. Up there with reindeer antlers in the tackiness stakes. And while I'm at it, equally tacky was the guy on the motorised scooter we saw with a green and gold mohawk wig over his motorbike helmet and the inflatable yellow and green kangaroo sitting behind him on the bike.

And let's throw in all the Australia Day merchandise with flags on it as well: tattoos, bikinis, towels, singlet tops, T shirts, stubbie holders etc. This morning I went to buy a public transport GoCard at a local convenience shop. I couldn't get any assistance when I first arrived because the young guy serving (of Indian appearance) was busy getting Australian tattoos put on his face by a crowd of young blonde girls clad in their Australia bikinis and super-short shorts. He couldn't even wait for me to put my card into the EFTPOS machine before he had to go and get them to peel the backing off his left cheek tattoo. Convenience and service were conspicuous in their absence.

You heard it here first: we'll be seeing the bunny ears start appearing on cars next week.


4 comments:

Deb said...

You know what? I don't mind it. Not the extremely tacky things but hey one's man tacky is another man's tongue-in-cheek reflection of Australian larrikan style. Nobody forces people to buy this stuff - they buy it because they think it's fun. It gives them a smile. It doesn't make you smile? That's okay. We all enjoy different stuff. I started my life in another country. I get it. I love being here. I'm so grateful I'm here. I don't mind if people go a little OTT.

Chris said...

I love Australia (hopefully without being blind to our faults). I passionately support the Australian cricket team, football team and get annoyed at the coca-colanisation of our society. But I look at the excess of flags with a degree of trepidation- for some reason, two words come to mind- "Cronulla" and the other one starts with "r" and ends with "iots". Obviously I shouldn't feel that way, but for some reason I do. Its not the tackiness- its just it seems some how unAustralian to carry that many Australian flags.

Chris said...

But of course its good that not everyone else feels that way. It would probably be better if I didn't.

Karen said...

One (or maybe two at a stretch) flags is fine. It's the flags everywhere else that got a bit much. For me it almost seems to denigrate the flag when I see it being used as bikini material. But upon reflection, perhaps I was just having a moment of being the fun police when I wrote that post...