This is a whole new side to political advertising. Are these sort of leader parodies available to the Liberals, Greens, and other parties or would the backlash be too great? Discuss
I’ll take a few moments to outline my thinking here. Firstly, I’m not a Tony Abbott supporter, and I think his antics do allow for things like the above to be easily written about him. He seems to have little understanding of what the electorate actually wants if it doesn’t accord with his view of the world. Unfortunately at times it seems that the Labor party has too, but I would say not to the same extent. I never got the feeling that Kevin Rudd ‘just didn’t get it’ in the same way Tony Abbott just.does.not.get.it. and Julia Gillard seems far more open to re-evaluating some of her policies. There is still a long way to go, for example gay marriage and climate change, but I think Julia Gillard is still well ahead of the Liberal party.
There have, however, been accusations on other blogs that feminists, or women in general (cause we are all the same you know) get our backs up when Julia Gillard is criticised but we are quite happy to see Tony Abbott dissed until the cows come home. There may be a large element of truth in that, thus the question is this type of Youtube parody as linked to above fair game for both parties, or do you think the wider electorate might find it a bit offputting and why?
Transcript:
Video opens on cartoon figure of Tony Abbott walking through Parliament House past a family group of Dad, Mum, son and daughter who look shocked and uncomfortable to be near him. Tony Abbott stops in front of a picture of “The Abbott Family” and a coffin leaning against the wall. Tony throws open the coffin and a burst of light reveals a skeleton with John Howard’s head and Tony as RiffRaff from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Tony singing to concerned looking family
Lets go Backwards, Health cuts and work choices
Close up on TA
Your family will feel the toll
TA leans menacingly towards family
I’ll bring back those days, same job on less pay
Swift move to left hand side of family, rips $$ out of wallet
Plumber, builder and shop assistant (all male) on left, short rope hanging from ceiling, Tony on right of screen
And cutting unfair dismissal laws
Tony yanks on rope and trapdoor opens under tradies and they disappear through the floor
They call me the Mad Monk
Topless Tony, pupils swirling
I show off my great trunks
Standing next to a ‘photo’ of himself in Speedos and swim caps, speedos start to sparkle
Thinking those moments when
Blue budgie (small parrot for non Aussie readers) flies out of speedos
I cut GP clinics
Picture of two doctors (both white male) and one nurse (white female) standing outside a boarded up building with GP clinic sign on it
Trades training centres
Building labeled Trades Training Centre with closed sign on chain link fence with 5 male teens (1 non white possibly Aboriginal) standing or sitting outside
4 singing women (3 white, 1 African American with afro) in bell bottom trousers and crop tops (impossibly thin), Joe Hockey in red sumo style loin cloth and John Howard in grey suit and red tie
Lets do the timewarp again
Shot of family looking bewildered
Lets do the timewarp again
John Howard in front of diagram with two sets of feet, arrow pointing from left set of feet arching over to the right
It’s a big jump to the right
Tony between back up singers
That’s just what I need
JH beside diagram
Bring back workchoices
Two white men in black suits with placards one reading “Up the Unrelenting Greed” the other “$$$$ for us”
And unrelenting greed
Tony in sparkly speedos surrounded by backup singers
I’ll take Australia backwards
Budgie flies from right to left holding banner saying “Take Australia Backwards”
That will drive you insane
Mum and Dad look apprehensive
Lets do the timewarp again
Mum faints while Dad watches
Lets do the timewarp again
Dancers in background, Tony in sparkly speedos, JHoward and Joe Hockey in red loin cloth ‘vogue’ in the foreground.
Music stops and everyone bar Tony Abbott falls to the floor. Tony exits to the right through a door marked exit. Door slams closed.
Closing credit: This election avoid a timewarp. Don’t send Australia Backwards.
Authorised by N.Martin, ALP 5/9 Sydney Ave, Barton ACT.
Categories: media
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The gratuitous budgie-smuggler moments annoy me – I think this would have a far stronger effect if they had Abbott in RiffRaff mode throughout. Not impressed with them putting Hockey(?) in a loincloth either.
Hi Mindy, would you have time to do a transcript and description today, or handball it to some of the groups set up for such things?
@lauredhel, when we do manage to do transcripts ourselves, is there anybody we should be letting know so that they can go on a list somewhere?
@ lauredhel – thanks for the reminder, I will have a go at it this afternoon.
Let me know if this suits.
This ad makes me uncomfortable, honestly. The number of white people in it (all that I could see), budgie smuggler moments, the traditional gender roles, the mother fainting, the assumption that family is the typical thing for Austrtalians…
Yeah, it made me uncomfortable. I like the premise, but the execution was wanting.
Very funny, but riddled with sexism. I’ll forgive fainting mum because of the source material it’s parodying. But men are doctors and women are nurses, only male youth need trade training, only dad gets paid less for the same job under work choices – just one sexist cliche after another.
It wasn’t until I started transcribing that I actually noticed that the tradesmen, doctors and students were all men. Bit of a slip up there Labor party. Plenty of fail. Also the fat hate with Joe Hockey was completely unnecessary and the budgie smuggler thing should really be left alone now. Abbott isn’t going around campaigning in his speedos so there is no need for it.
Richard Wossisname served YouTube and made them take it down for infringing his songwriter copyright. I’m not sad – I wonder how they thought they could get away with it?
I though it’d be covered under fair use laws, as parody?
Maybe, maybe not. In the mean time, he’s taken out an injunction, and unless/until they want to defend it in court and a judge rules in their favour, it has to stay down.
“I though it’d be covered under fair use laws, as parody?”
I’m pretty sure those fair use laws on cover when you’re parodying the thing itself, not when you’re using the thing to parody a third party.
“Very funny, but riddled with sexism. I’ll forgive fainting mum because of the source material it’s parodying. But men are doctors and women are nurses, only male youth need trade training, only dad gets paid less for the same job under work choices – just one sexist cliche after another.”
Yes, but I think they were deliberate – the ad is saying Tony Abbott will take us backwards, backwards to 1950s gender roles as well as the explicitly stated workchoices, etc.
IANAL, but I think Rebekka has the right of it. It’s like the current scream-comedy Vampires Suck can use plot points and even some bits of dialogue from Twilight and True Blood as parody without violating the copyright of the relevant authors/studios, but I bet they paid good money for the licensing rights to use the song “It’s Raining Men” in the bit where the werewolves do the suggestive disco dance – that’s content that they’re using as a tool to create their parody, rather than the content being the subject of the parody itself.
Where some confusion lies is perhaps because a whole slew of professional comedians take other people’s songs and change the lyrics for comic effect – so people think that parody is open slather.
I suspect that they are not listening carefully enough – the comedians are usually directly parodying the song’s lyrics and often satirising the performer as well – so that’s why it’s considered non-breaching. They’re generally not using the song to attack somebody totally unrelated to the song itself (or if they are, they’ve often got specific permission from the artist concerned, because they met them at a party and the artist talked their label into agreeing to an exception for someone they like).
Sure, non famous comedians can get away with doing copyright-breaching stuff until they make the mistake of putting it up on YouTube or doing it for a TV spot – and that’s when they get the cease and desist order and the injunction.