Land Down Under: Difference between revisions

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In [[Real Life]], [[Australia (continent)|Australia]] is a vibrant, diverse and multicultural young country. Most of the population is concentrated in several large urban areas on the coast with a sparsely populated interior. [[Hollywood Atlas|In Hollywood]], Australia is a primitive barren wasteland consisting ''entirely'' of Outback desert, [[Australian Aborigines|aborigines]], dingoes, crocodiles, kangaroos and some other marsupials, and occasionally a couple of rural people who run around wielding bowie knives and boomerangs. People talk with a grating accent, apparently a blend of Cockney English, New Zealander and vaguely British extraction called "Ostrayan" or more concisely "Strine".

Australia's indigenous wildlife ''is'' unique (one of the handful of megadiverse lands in the world), being dominated by marsupials rather than placental mammals. The dangers of the native animals has been noted by many - US President [[Barack Obama]] [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-17/obama-visits-canberra-school/3677326 brought it up when he visited Australia]. In [[Real Life]], most of these creatures only live in remote areas. In Hollywood, [[Everything Trying to Kill You]], although [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|any sufficiently ''cute'' animal, no matter how wild, is inexplicably safe]]. This habit of making Australia a [[Death World]] often results in Australians being considered [[Awesome Aussie|ludicrously tough]] - though there's some [[Truth in Television|truth]] [[Aussies With Artillery|to that]]. Australia is the home of [[Everything's Better with Platypi|the Duck-Billed Platypus]]: best described as "you're not serious... right?" in animal form<ref>and also a noteworthy exception to the "inexplicably cute" rule, as their males are in possession of some disturbingly ''venomous'' spurs</ref>. Also home to box jellyfish, irukandji, and blue-ringed octopus, essentially animal forms of [[Demonic Spiders]], [[Nightmare Fuel]], and of course, koalas. And [[Kangaroos Represent Australia|kangaroos]].

For those fortunate enough to avoid being eaten by the aforementioned crocodiles, life is one long beach party and all meals consist of ''shrimp on the barbie'' (actually called 'Prawns') and Vegemite sandwiches (pronounced "veeeeejeemoit"). If these stereotypes are absent, the setting is likely [[Sydney]], Australia's most populous metropolis and bustling economic centre. It's the home of the famous Sydney Opera House, [[Eiffel Tower Effect|which all hotels naturally look onto]]. Australia's capital is actually Canberra, built between Sydney and the other major capital, Melbourne, as a concession to neither city being named the actual capital.

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[[New Zealand]] is largely interchangeable with Australia in western media. This is especially ironic given New Zealand has a different culture, history, even ecology - its indigenous ecology almost wholly lacks native mammals of any kind. Also, its location is even more remote, being one of the last major land masses colonized by humans: the Maori arrived only in the 13th century CE. <ref>To give you an idea, the Vikings by this point had not only spotted America, they had managed to establish a settlement, lose a war, and then abandon it...over two hundred years earlier. Just gives you an idea of how HUGE the Pacific is...</ref>

Australia's first European settlements were prison colonies. A fair few Australians claim convict ancestry with '''pride''', truthfully or otherwise. Of course, with [[Those Whove Come Across the Seas|one of the world's highest immigrant intakes]], Australians are, ethnically speaking, slowly becoming a sort of [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Convict/European/Asian/Middle-Eastern/Oceanian/Americas/African amalgamation]].

Complicating this trope is that a lot of Australian humour involves ''deliberately'' [[Deadpan Snarker|playing up or invoking these stereotypes]] [[N-Word Privileges|to mess with foreigners]]. Especially [[Eagle Land|Americans]].

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== Anime & Manga ==

* Balon ([[Spell My Name with an "S"|aka Valon, aka Varon]]) was given an Australian accent in the 4Kids dub of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]''.

** Jim Crocodile Cook in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]'', on the other had, actually is Australian.

* Epsilon, a character from Naoki Urasawa and [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s collaboration manga project ''[[Pluto]]'', was created, and lives, in Australia.

* Occurred in ''[[Black Jack]]'' when the title character head to the Outback investigating a disease outbreak.

* Australia is personified in the series ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]''. All we know of him so far is that he has [[Green Eyes]] and light brown hair, [[Fun Personified|wears a big grin]] and has a pet koala (that sports a [[Slasher Smile]] of sorts) and a dingo. [[Fanon]] usually portrays him as a [[Boisterous Bruiser]].

** The [[Little Miss Snarker|Principality of Wy]] give us this line when she realizes she's in Hutt River's house:

{{quote|'''Wy:''' ...Hm? A Rolls-Royce? Incredible clean and organized facilities? A bilby? We're in Australia!}}

* Chu in the English dub of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' is a [[Drunken Master|hard drinking]] okker aussie [[Boisterous Bruiser]].

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', the Chinese Federation, the Euro Universe, and the Britannian Empire are the three major superpowers fighting to take control of the entire world... except Australia, which from the colours shown in the maps of the series, appears to be neutral. Possibly Australia is devoid of delicious Sakuradite, or possibly the three superpowers were disinclined to waste Knightmares on a costly boondoggle for what basically amounts to "murderous desert, with the occasional arable land".

** Of course, at one point when Schneizel decides {{spoiler|that destroying lots of cities is a great way to achieve world peace, Sydney is among them.}} So something is there at least...

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* There was an issue of the ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' comic supposedly set in Australia, but which actually appeared to be taking place in the Wild West as everyone walked around with a pistol on their hip and there appeared to be no organised law enforcement of any kind.

* The story in which [[Spirou and Fantasio]] go to Australia is actually centered around the opal-mining industry.

* The goal of the main character Yorick throughout most of ''[[Y: The Last Man|Y the Last Man]]'' is to get to Australia to meet his girlfriend Beth, who was in Australia researching Aboriginal culture. In this universe, post-[[Gendercide]] Australia has become the single most powerful navy in the world, based on having the only female piloted submarines, and the entirety of Sydney has become a heroin addicted slum from south-east Asian pirates smuggling drugs into the country.

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* Commercials for Foster's beer spread the ''shrimp on the barbie'' image, though ironically Foster's (supposedly "Australian for beer") is quite possibly the most unpopular beer in Australia... and, of course, the fact that in Australia, "shrimp" are pretty much always known as "prawns".

** [[District 9|Fookin Prawns.]]

** Nowadays, Fosters is pretty much an American beer with an iconic Australian name.

** Foster's is Australian for "Foreigner's Excuse For Aussie Piss"; its very rare to find in six-pack form in the various liquor sellers, let alone being served in an Aussie pub. If an Australian is asking for Foster's, they're not homesick, they're just trying to determine if they're in another country.

* A Chinese airline tries and screws up by advertising its new flights to Australia with a picture of a woman playing with a kangaroo on the beach.

** Not automatically an error, a few places in Queensland and NSW do have kangaroos on the beaches.

** The playing part is possible, if you define playing as brutal lacerations...

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* ''[[Kangaroo Jack]]''

* The [[Nicole Kidman]]/[[Hugh Jackman]] snorefest ''[[Australia]]''. Sorry about that.

* ''[[The Man from Snowy River]]'' and ''Return To Snowy River''.

* ''Chasing the Sun'' involves a car race through the outback. In one scene, the protagonists are driving from Darwin to Alice Springs, and look out the window and see Ayers Rock to their left. The most glaring error, of course, is that Uluru is actually SOUTH of Alice Springs... but that's just the most glaring error. There are a good ten others.

* ''[[Point Break]]'' concludes on Bells Beach, Torquay - [[California Doubling|actually filmed in Oregon]]. The real Bells Beach is a good 2km from the nearest tree - and it's a eucalpyt, not a pine.

* ''Van Diemen's Land'' relates the largely true story of a convict who escaped from Macquarie Harbour (a prison on the edge of seriously inhospitable wilderness) with a number of companions, and survived his walk to more civilised parts by eating them.

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** The above-mentioned Discworld novel ''The Last Continent'' proposes that the perspective-altering beer is the ''cause'' of the Vegemite. Also, time travel.

* ''[[The Tomorrow Series]]'' by John Marsden, was a popular series of [[Young Adult]] novels released in the early 1990s, where Australia gets invaded and occupied during Australia Day by an unnamed foreign power (read: Indonesia) and a group of kids, who were out camping at the time, start a vicious campaign of guerrilla warfare against them. No, really. For books aimed at kids in high school, it leaned a good way towards the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|darker side of the scale]], giving readers a pretty frank war story featuring firefights, [[Anyone Can Die|death]] and sex (for which the schoolboys rejoiced). A movie has been made.

* In the third book of F.M. Busby's ''Rissa Kerguelen'' series, it's revealed that Australia managed to keep its independence from [[One Nation Under Copyright|UET]] by developing a '''very''' powerful weapon, which they demonstrated by [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroying one of the moons of Jupiter]]. Rissa and her husband Bran Tregare are in the process of overthrowing UET, and when Tregare hears about the weapon, he remarks, "When the time comes, remind me to be ''very'' polite to Australia." Rissa assures him there shouldn't be a problem: because he was '''born''' in Australia and he's done lots of damage to UET, "they celebrate your birthday as a national holiday!"

== Live-Action TV ==

* British [[Work Com]] ''[[Supernova]]'' is set in the outback. This makes sense, though, because the setting is an observatory which would benefit from being in the outback what with the lack of light pollution.

* ''[[Lost]]'' is notorious among Australian fans for its completely incorrect accents (with the exception of Emilie de Ravin, who is Australian, and even then she has drawn criticism), its [[Artistic License Geography|hilarious geography goofs]] (judging from the view out the window, Boone's hotel room seems to be hung in mid-air over the harbour) and the fact that anyone in Australia (shown in flashbacks) seems to be less intelligent and with less common sense than the main characters. To be fair, the idea that characters on ''Lost'', of ''any'' nationality, display common sense is one that could be vigorously disputed. (The most level-headed and sensible guy in the entire cast is an ''Iraqi ex-torturer''.)

** The problem was mainly in the show's first season. They began to improve in the later seasons, casting authentic Australian actors for minor roles (such as the undertaker in "?"). However, in season 4, they cast a British actress as Claire's mother, who has arguably the worst Australian accent on the show.

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** It generally portrays Australians as [[Jerkass|inherently unpleasant and mean-spirited towards New Zealanders]] (even the Australian ambassador makes a crack about a sheep being Miss New Zealand). The one seeming exception is an Australian woman who Jemaine had a drunken tryst with who, despite being rather grungy and unusually proud of her heritage as the descendant of a prostitute and a convicted rapist, seems rather pleasant. {{spoiler|Until she and her roommates steal all of Bret and Jemaine's stuff}}.

** This is reasonably grounded in reality as most Australians see New Zealanders as their slightly poofy younger siblings and taunt them mercilessly (despite the fact that they're actually rather fond of them.)

** Also features a nice Crocodile Dundee Parody when the pair are being mugged in the states

{{quote|'''Brett''': You call that a knife? That's not a knife.

'''Jamie''': Umm yeah it is.

'''Brett''': Oh, yeah it is. Run away. }}

* ''[[Farscape]]'' was filmed in Australia, and one episode where John Crichton returns to Earth {{spoiler|(well, not really, but he doesn't know that at the time)}} has him crashing on a beach outside Sydney- where most of the episode's action takes place.

* The best moment occurs in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', where a friendly [[Mook]] decides he wants to flee to Tasmania (The little island off the bottom of Australia.), before exclaiming and cocking his gun: "It's probably raining in Tasmania anyway!" * chick-chick*

** Which is kinda like saying "I want to flee to Newfoundland, or far north Scotland."

** While on the subject of Star Trek, it appears that the Vulcan embassy to Earth is in Canberra. Vulcans and Australians living in close quarters could be... interesting.

*** Particularly as the depictions of Vulcan basically maker it look like depictions of Australia on steroids: Desert where everything is poisonous and actively trying to kill and eat you (including a significant portion of what plant life there is), but this is a whole PLANET of it. And ALL of the people are experts at living in the wilderness, or they don't live to see their ninth birthday.

* Sally uses Australia as an analogy for her relationship to Steve on ''[[Coupling]]''. As his girlfriend's best friend, Sally tells Steve that she is like Australia - mysterious, distant and with areas of great danger. Steve thought she meant that she had a lot of convicts.

* The "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA Three Bruces]" sketch from ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', with Philosophy professors from the University of Woolloomooloo Australia.

* Then of course we have Daniel Osbourne in [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]], or Oz. The name of the band he's in? ''Dingoes Ate My Baby,'' after the Azaria Chamberlain case.

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== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

* [[Awesome Aussie|Outback Jack]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R25e00dLcIU is coming!]

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** [[Word of God]] states that Sonic himself is an Australian.

** Not to mention Knuckles is an echidna, an Australian monotreme.

** And the Coconut Crew, also from ''[[Sonic Rush Series]] Adventure'', are koalas (who have [[Non Standard Character Design|very different eyes]] from other Sonic characters, by the way).

** And the Coconut Crew, also from ''[[Sonic Rush Series]] Adventure'', are koalas (who have [[Non-Standard Character Design|very different eyes]] from other Sonic characters, by the way).

* ''[[Ty the Tasmanian Tiger]]'', a [[Platform Game|platformer]] series, is set in a fictionalized, [[Funny Animal]] version of Australia. However, having been developed by actual Aussies, it manages to pull off an Australia that's not all outback and sheep. There's rainforests, [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|obscure examples of Aussie lore,]] and relatively few musical tracks that abuse the didgeridoo. Did we mention the fact that all the [[Funny Animal]] koala people have [[Shown Their Work|two thumbs?]]

* The Sniper from ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' is an Australian with the usual South-London accent that's never caught a whiff of the Southern Hemisphere, Wild Colonial Boy outfit, and a [[Knife Nut|really big knife]] (perfecting the 'colonial boy' image, albeit further undermining the Australianness, by being a Nepalese ''kukri''). His bio states he honed his skills hunting game in the outback, a reasonable story given that various dangerous/nuisance species (pigs and buffalo were introduced and went feral, and there are kangaroo culls of variable legality in farming areas) are frequently hunted by groups of young men with rifles (...firing from the backs of trucks. Sissies).

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** Urnot Wreave wants Australia for helping the humans. ''He wants to live in a place more terrifying than his own [[Death World]].''

* ''[[Escape from Monkey Island]]'' features Ozzie Mandrill, an Australian property developer and [[Expy]] for [[Rupert Murdoch]]. He bests Guybrush in a bout of insult swordfighting, {{spoiler|1=and turns out to be working with LeChuck to find and control the Ultimate Insult.}}

* The newer [[Resident Evil]] games has the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XA1yOCxDyGs#t=74s Black Tiger,] a giant Australian funnelweb. In real life they are that hard to kill and even deadlier, yes the T Virus makes it go through [[Badass Decay]].

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{{quote|'''Aussie father''': Oi, Mr. Prime Minister.... ANDY!!!!

'''PM lounging on an inner-tube, naked, drinking a beer''': G'day lads, what's the good word? }}

** Another favourite bit goes like this:

{{quote|'''Croc Dundee Parody''': You call that a knife?

[pulls out spoon]

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'''Marge:''' Oh, we have those in America, we call them "Bullfrogs".

'''Australian teen:''' That's a funny name! I'd 'ave called 'em ''chazwozzas''! }}

** [[Kangaroo Pouch Ride|And of course the scene where Homer and Bart try to jump into the pouches of a pair of kangaroos]].

** In fact, the only part of that episode that Australians don't really laugh at is the Australian kid taking several hour to reach his neighbor's house and back. Mostly because it's ''true''.

** "I think a dingo is eating your baby." This taunt from Bart really angers the Aussies.

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* Australia is the only country in the world to eat ''all parts of its national coat of arms'' (that are theoretically edible anyway; eating stars and crosses is rather a difficult proposition). There's Kangaroo, which is actually cheaper than Beef to buy in Australia, Emu, which tastes like gamey chicken, and the Wattle plant, whose seeds make quite a sweet flour. [[Mundane Utility|Patriotic]] ''[[Awesome but Practical|and]]'' [[Mundane Utility|tasty]].

** Also, Kangaroo is delicious and if you're Australian, much less harmful to the environment.

* There's a whole page on them, but here's some of the highlights from [[Australian Wildlife]].

** [[Killer Rabbit|Koalas]]. Cute, slow-moving living teddy bears that prefer to sleep 19 hours a day. If disturbed - which is easy, what with the 19 hours of sleep deal - they can maim. They also feed off eucalyptus leaves, which from a nutritional point of view resemble cardboard that's been sprayed with mescaline. (That's right, they sleep 19 hours and are high as kites for the five they're awake.) We'll say that again - Australia's ''teddy bears'' can do severe damage if pissed off. Of course, if you actually call them a teddy bear...

*** Also, they're not technically bears.

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** Wombats. Although they can be tamed to some degree, they can reach 40km an hour, albeit only for a minute and a half. They're also pretty heavy, so they can knock over grown men if angered. Then they can deliver a bite through your trousers, socks, and gumboots, and still go nearly an inch into your leg. For sheer WTF value, however, there's their main defence against predators like dingos: they run down a hole and present their asses. (No, it's not [[Fartillery]]). Their backsides are heavily padded with cartilage and they have really short tails, ensuring that it takes a hell of a lot of effort to get them out of that hole. Unfortunately, this means that wombats are the one exception to the 'don't swerve to avoid an animal in the road' rule - hitting a wombat can total your car so completely you're actually better off ''swerving''. 120tonne road trains taken been out of action by hitting a wombat. Wombats can also use their butts to crush, suffocate and kill their attacker. You read that right. Cute little Australian native animals are so damn [[Badass]] [[Ass Kicks You|they can use their butts as offensive, lethal weapons.]] They also have cubical faeces.

** Dingoes deserve a mention too. They're dogs, their puppies are still adorable, but... well... this is one of the ''top predators'' in ''[[Death World|Australia]]''. Only a few things eat them -- wedge-tailed eagles, which occasionally attack the elderly ones, and ''saltwater crocodiles''. Oh, and they sometimes kill people (they prefer [[wikipedia:Azaria Chamberlain disappearance|babies]], from what I've heard). In fact, they're a sort of predator cocktail -- the organisation of wolves, the threat level of ''cougars''.

** Speaking of which, the saltwater crocodile. Can grow up to 20 feet or longer. And weight over one ton.

** The platypus' poisoned spur can cripple. And there's no known antivenom, so even if there's no lasting damage, you've got several hours of excruciating pain to look forward to.

*** Just to expand on that; the poison in question is not lethal but will make you wish it was. It results in such incredible excruciating pain that a ''lethal dose of morphine'' will not stop the pain.

** Wedge-tailed eagles are bigger than bald eagles. That's right, [[Eagle Land|America]] -- our eagle can kick your eagle's ass any day! How much larger? The wedge-tail's ''average'' wingspan is six inches larger than the bald eagle's ''maximum'' wingspan.

** Most bandicoots, on the other hand, are the native Australian version of rabbits. Indeed, we'd rather have more of them than all these bloody rabbits.

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* Fosters beer - thanks to Crocodile Dundee himself, everyone outside of Australia thinks that everyone in Australia drinks nothing but the 'amber nectar'. Australians tend to prefer less fizzy and more flavoursome (and more alcoholic) brews.

** It's also worth pointing out that the 'Australian' beer you can buy abroad is [[In Name Only|brewed locally under license.]]

*** ALL foreign beer is made locally under license, beer doesn't travel well.

** Castlemaine is a probably UK-only example best described as "Fosters, [[The Same but More|but worse"]]. Also noteworthy for being brewed next to the site of an old gasworks that was so badly contaminated with hazardous chemical waste that it took a couple of decades to clean it up well enough to be safely built on... at which point production of Castlemaine moved elsewhere.

** And in Australia, the stuff is a novelty at best and near impossible to find in most of the country.

*** Aussies aren't lacking in variety when it comes to booze. The Barossa Valley, north of Adelaide, is a HUGE exporter of wine.

** Goon: it's basically the equivalent to Nightrain, except far less classy and even more alcoholic.

* Australian entertainers include [[Cate Blanchett]], [[Nicole Kidman]], [[Hugh Jackman]], [[Russell Crowe]], [[Hugo Weaving]], [[Mel Gibson]], and [[Nick Cave]].

** Special mention goes to dancer and ''[[Dancing With the Stars]]'' veteran Kym Johnson, who's begun to acquire a reputation of being damn near indestructible. In one season of the American version, she endured a pretty nasty knee injury and continued to dance with partner Jerry Springer. That, however, is nothing compared to the season with Hines Ward. She suffered a difficult-to-watch neck injury while rehearsing, where she was in an awkward position on the floor, and Hines (who's over twice her size,) ''fell on top of her.'' She went on, not only to dance later that week, but to win the whole damn thing. Said attempts have only seemed to anger her.

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10611973 Drunk Australian rides crocodile]. How stereotypical can you get?

** Here's an older story about [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7327984.stm a man wrestling with a crocodile to save his wife's life], if this doesn't make him an automatic [[badass]] I don't know what else could qualify.

** How about a ''[[Never Mess with Granny|60 year old]]'' ''[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/grandmother-tackles-crocodile--and-comes-out-on-top-543411.html grandmother]'' wrestling a crocodile to save a stranger?

* [[Australian Rules Football]]. Possibly one of the most violent games in the world. And the most skillful to boot.

** This Australian troper would like to relate that he heard of two American Football players came to Australia once and watched a game of AFL. When asked if they wanted to have a shot, they basically replied with "Are you NUTS?"

** The uniform for this game is a tank top and short shorts. No armour, no protection beyond mouthguards and the occasional bit of strapping tape.

** Although most of the teams have damn manly nicknames like 'Bombers' or 'Demons', one team is [[Real Men Wear Pink|so manly]] that they are comfortable calling themselves the Sydney Swans.

* Back to the dwarf comparison, with the "living underground" criteria, there's the Central Australian town of [[wikipedia:Coober Pedy, South Australia|Coober Pedy]], where most of the town lives underground. Add to that the fact that it's a mining town...