Australians Trying To Work Out Which Government Policy Is An April Fools Gag
One of the Abbott Government’s policies is an April Fools hoax, but they won’t say which one.
The Prime Minister made the announcement early this morning, describing the prank as a bit of lighthearted fun. But the news has already caused mass confusion. Many Coalition MPs were themselves caught unawares. “Just one?” one Liberal backbencher asked when presented with the news.
Mr Abbott said Australians appreciated a good prank. “We’re known for not taking ourselves too seriously, and this is just continuing that tradition,” he said.
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9 Comments
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Don Fitzpatrick
April 1, 2014 at 6:33 pm
It’s easy to see that Abbott’s April Fool Joke would have to be the return to Imperial measurement which would of course be idiotic if true, however I guess no more stupid than any of his other Policies.
So if he thinks this sort of joke will be appreciated by people and get them to believe he is human with a sense of humour, then I am sure it will just backfire and make him look much more stupid than he already is now.
Joe
April 1, 2014 at 9:41 pm
Maybe you realise this and you’re just having a laugh, but just in case I thought I’d point out that theshovel is a satire site (have a look down the bottom of the page or on their about section). None of the stories they print are actually true (as in factual). Generally there is some sort of underlying truth to them (ie. that Abbott is fairly backwards) but no actual facts.
Both this story, and the one about reintroducing imperial measurement are a joke.
🙂
Andrew Bigmound
April 1, 2014 at 10:02 pm
This is satire, yo.
Jase
April 1, 2014 at 8:59 pm
lol I’m pretty sure the prank is that there’s a prank…
Bren
April 2, 2014 at 5:40 am
Thanks
John
April 2, 2014 at 9:42 am
Aren’t all their policies a joke. Albeit bod ones.
buddhagirl
April 2, 2014 at 9:42 pm
Charging bankrupts a fee to become bankrupt definitely SHOULD be a joke.
damian smedley
April 8, 2014 at 5:03 pm
the abbott govt is the biggest joke forced upon this once great country. how can abbott be so blindly determined to ruin it 4 the majority,to benefit a few that are already bloated with wealth & power.how much more do these fat f–ks need to satisfy their greed.
Bigot
April 15, 2014 at 6:01 pm
Some advice for Oberschwester Bronwen from ‘Confronting the Classics’ by Mary Beard. Philogelos, a joke book from the fourth century AD. Reposted from Delancey Place. Read and learn:
“Laughter was always a favorite device of ancient monarchs and tyrants, as well as being a weapon used against them. The good king, of course, knew how to take a joke. The tolerance of the Emperor Augustus in the face of quips and banter of all sorts was still being celebrated four centuries after his death. One of the most famous one-liners of the ancient world, with an afterlife that stretches into the twentieth century … was a joking insinuation about Augustus’ paternity. Spotting, so the story goes, a man from the provinces who looked much like himself, the emperor asked if the man’s mother had ever worked in the palace. ‘No’, came the reply, ‘but my father did.’ Augustus wisely did no more than grin and bear it.
“Tyrants, by contrast, did not take kindly to jokes at their own expense, even if they enjoyed laughing at their subjects. Sulla, the murderous dictator of the first century BC, was a well-known philogelos (‘laughter-lover’), while schoolboy practical jokes were among the techniques of humiliation employed by the despot Elagabalus. He is said to have had fun, for example, seating his dinner guests on inflatable cushions, and then seeing them disappear under the table as the air was gradually let out. But the defining mark of ancient autocrats (and a sign of power gone — hilariously — mad) was their attempt to control laughter. Some tried to ban it (as Caligula did, as part of the public mourning on the death of his sister). Others imposed it on their unfortunate subordinates at the most inappropriate moments. Caligula, again, had a knack for turning this into exquisite torture: he is said to have forced an old man to watch the execution of his son one morning and, that evening, to have invited the man to dinner and insisted that he laugh and joke.