The author of the Fake Penny Wong account actually secured the user name @Penny_Wong.

This seems to be a breach of the Twitter guidelines. I guess adding “fake” to the description has made it acceptable, or Penny Wong has not objected.

The fake account makes much of perceived rivalry between Senator Wong and Peter Garrett, eg:

“In discussions with surgeons looking at options of transplanting Steve Jobs’ brain into Garrett’s body. A win-win situation”, and

“Cabinet split on letting Garrett do flood relief gig with the Oils. His Dept unanimous in wanting him released for 3 weeks to do it.”

The @FakeFielding account is clearly identified as such and parodies the wacky right-wing fundamentalist Senator from Victoria, who won a fluke election victory courtesy of preferences from everybody who thought he couldn’t possibly win.

It will be a shame for satirists to lose him from Parliament in June, but hopefully the tweets will continue. Some recent examples:

“What people don’t understand is that a levy for the whole of Queensland is going to require A LOT of dirt. That’s going to cost money”, and

“Queensland should sell the water to drought-stricken countries like Ayers Rock to recoup some of the money they lost in flooding.”

Senator Steve Fielding

The author replied to one of my tweets about a bus running late with a remark that maybe I was early, but I soon figured it couldn’t be a real PR account.

A couple of weeks later I noticed the user name had changed to @notADLMetro.

I contacted the author to ask why and received this reply: “Some smack head failed to sense irony, sarcasm, parody etc and reported it as fake, like duh! So changed to make twitter happy.”

I’m a little surprised a public transport agency would bother to complain about something like this, but it’s good that Twitter acted on the complaint and allowed the creator to retain all their original tweets under the former user name.

It’s curious that a government department saw fit to complain about satire while the Queen has so far allowed the fake Elizabeth Windsor account @Queen_UK to continue, with the only disclaimer being “fictional” at the end of the bio.

The pretender to the throne mocks British politicians, calls “gin o’clock” most days and sends friendly greetings to her Australian subjects.

Perhaps the real Queen has a better sense of humor than Adelaide transport boffins.

It’s better that he be known as a great comedian, rather than someone who fought a tax battle. This clip shows his amusing parody of the hit Pushbike Song by The Mixtures.

According to Wikipedia, written by brothers Idris and Evan Jones, “The Pushbike Song” was released in 1970 and reached the top-spot for two weeks in the Australian charts in March 1971.

It also proved popular in the UK, reaching the number two spot on 16 January (beaten by George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord), and number 31 in Canada.

A music video was created for the song in 1970 (below), which depicted the band and friends riding bicycles through the streets of Melbourne.

Filmed in black and white, it was notable for scenes involving a procession of bicycles (including a penny farthing and rollerskaters) on a busy six-lane Melbourne arterial road, and a scene of four members of the band ‘riding’ a tandem bicycle atop a car transporter travelling at speed across a bridge.

Note there are no helmets, and nobody was hurt.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats
And suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

CONCLUSION:

Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

My favorite quirk though is the Official Monster Raving Loony William Hill Party.

The Loonies, as they are generally known, added William Hill to their name in recognition of the bookmaker’s sponsorship.

Founded in 1963 by Screaming Lord Sutch, the Loonies add a touch of color and humor to election campaigns.

In 1987, the party won its first seat on Ashburton Town Council in Devon, when Alan “Howling Laud” Hope was elected unopposed. He subsequently became Deputy Mayor and later Mayor of Ashburton in 1998.

Hope stood in the general election against Conservative Party leader David Cameron and was the first to congratulate him at the declaration of the poll (pictured above, Hope on the right).

At one stage during the 1990s there were 16 endorsed Raving Loonies holding council seats across England and one in Scotland.

Howling Laud Hope jointly succeeded Screaming Lord Sutch as Loony leader in 1999 with his ginger tabby Cat Mandu.

Cat Mandu died as a result of a traffic accident in July 2002.

The Monster Raving Loony Party’s official policy statement is known as a “manicfesto”.

Policies for the 2010 election included:

• Health & Safety: We propose to ban Self Responsibility on the grounds that it may be dangerous to your health.
• The speaker in the House of Commons will be replaced by the latest audio equipment.
• To help the Israel/Palestinian problem, we will get rid of the old road map, and replace it with a new sat nav instead.
• Education: We will increase the number of women teachers throughout the education system as we are strong believers of female intuition.
• We will ban all forms of greyhound racing. This will help stop the country going to the dogs.

A long-running Loony policy has been to introduce a 99p coin “to save on change”. I rather like that one.

The Loony candidate in Amber Valley, Sam Thing, wanted to legalise cannabis production and tax it. “My stance is usually lying down,” Thing said.

Hackney candidate Knigel Knapp proposed that young offenders should be superglued together. “If you can’t beat them – you’re not allowed to – join them.”

Knapp polled 182 votes, which was considerably more than the Magna Carta Party, which managed just 26 votes.

The declaration of the poll is another quirk of British politics.

In Australia it takes place a week or more after polling day because postal votes have to be counted and preferences distributed in many seats.

In the United Kingdom it happens on polling night, often in the early hours of the next morning, because the polls don’t close until 10pm.

The declaration gives minor party candidates a platform alongside the “big three”. Hence the picture above of Howling Laud Hope with Cameron.

Hope polled 234 votes compared with Cameron 33,973.

Utterances by comedians don’t warrant a response and can inadvertently open a rhetorical can of worms.

Prompted by radio announcers, Rudd retorted: “Robin Williams should go and spend a bit of time in Alabama before he frames comments about anyone being particularly redneck.”

Alabama Governor Bob Riley responded: “I’m not sure if Prime Minister Rudd has ever been to Alabama. If he has, he would know that Alabamians are decent, hard working, creative people. That’s why Alabama is home to Australian companies like Austal, which employs more than 1000 Alabamians at the world’s largest aluminum shipyard.”

Rudd’s jibe in reply to Williams has achieved nothing constructive. Instead, he implied that Australians don’t have a sense of humor and he offended the people of Alabama (those that can read).

Meanwhile, the English think it’s highly amusing.

While one Alabama blogger described Rudd’s remarks as a “down under blow”, another (including cartoon) says:

Alabamans don’t need much reason to shoot somethin’. Alligator season has been a huge success. Are kangaroos next? Better step up security at the zoos.

Maybe Kevin Rudd was thinking of this joke when he made his comments:

Three dead bodies turn up at the mortuary, all with very big smiles on their faces. The coroner calls the police to tell them what has happened. “First body: Frenchman, 60, died of heart failure while making love to his mistress. Hence the enormous smile, Inspector”, says the Coroner.
“Second body: Scotsman, 25, won a thousand pounds on the lottery, spent it all on whisky. Died of alcohol poisoning, hence the smile.”
The Inspector asked, “What of the third body?”
“Ah,” says the coroner, “this is the most unusual one. Billy-Bob the redneck from Alabama, 30, struck by lightning.”
“Why is he smiling then?” inquires the Inspector.
“Thought he was having his picture taken.”

Whatever his motivation, as an ex diplomat Mr Rudd should have been more diplomatic and let the Williams gag slide. A better response would have been to invite Williams to watch an AFL game after he described it as “rugby with a thong”.

PS: In writing this I discovered that Alabaman newspapers use Alabamian rather than Alabaman.

Every day he cracks me up with some cutting description of everyday life or a fictional world.

The characters change every day, but often feature animals or cave dwellers.

Today he portrayed two birds in the “Old Pigeons Home” reminiscing about how things were better in their day.

“And we were real homing pigeons; nowadays they’re just home boy pigeons,” one old bird remarks.

“And boy we were fit! You never saw a bird with one leg back then …”

This humor doesn’t appeal to everyone.

In fact, searching for a link to the publisher or Lopes himself I discovered Wanderings of a Postgrad.

Blogger Dave Baker emailed the publisher asking why is the cartoon so outrageously bad?

“All this ‘comic’ contains is a loose collections of ‘jokes’ about run of the mill cliches,” Dave opines.

“Whenever I see Insanity Streak, it behaves as a comedy black hole, sucking humour from around it. Sure the fare in newspaper comics is pretty bad, but it makes comics that have a half chance of making me smile get no reaction.”

There was no mention of a reply, but according to Bulls Press:

Lopes applies his keen wit to the small moments of everyday life, finding humour in the quirks of human nature. This ‘universal’ strip has no central characters, and no regular subject matter or setting, imposing few limitations on Lopes’ comical style. “I enjoy the freedom of taking the readers anywhere,” he says.

There are more samples here. What do you think?

Update: More cartoons at the gallery here.

According to his bio, Lopes developed a passion for cartooning as a child. “While most other children his age were playing outside, Lopes preferred to sit in his bedroom studying the art from Warner Bros and Don Martin cartoons.

“Lopes sold his first cartoon at the age of 16 to a niche publication called Sky & Space magazine. The Editor at the time, Jonathon Nally, recalls the meeting: ‘He was a nervous, pimply and kind of dorky teenager, but I used his cartoons anyway’.”

Lopes lives in Sydney’s southern suburbs with his wife Lori and two son’s Isaac and Thomas.

Long may he continue to entertain!

JL is one of those people you love to be working with. She brings out the best in people, professionally and socially.

Beneath her laconic exterior lurks a cutting wit.

JL was the keeper of a book in which she scribbled “quotable quotes” and “memorable moments”.

The book must be nearly 25 years old now, and I feature in some of its pages from 1988 to 1990.

JL sent me some samples this week. Most of them I wouldn’t like to publish here, but some are okay for mainstream consumption.

May 2, 1988:

Michael Gorey’s first day at The Times.
Customer: “And how long have you been working here?”
Michael: “I only started … er … recently.”
(Actually it was four hours earlier).

June 22, 1988:

Kate, Aurora and JL have massaged Michael’s shoulders to ascertain who is the best at it.
Michael: “With you three massaging I’ll probably have bruised shoulders tonight. Whatever happened to the gentle approach?”
CC (astounded): “The genital approach!”

Note: CC was the editor.

August 31, 1988:

CC and Michael try to convince Kate to become a nun. Kate steadfastly refuses, declaring her interest in marrying.

Michael: “How will you be able to serve Christ if you’re having it off with a strange man?”
Kate: “He won’t be strange if I’m married to him.”
CC: “He will be the first time.”
Kate (pensively): “I s’pose that’s right!”

Note: Kate was a born again Christian, now happily divorced and living in Queensland.

October 3, 1988:

JL and Michael discuss submitting stories to magazines.
Michael: “When I go to Tasmania I might take a camera and get a few shots of anything interesting.”
Julianne: “Yes, do a couple of little colour stories.”
Michael: “No, I’ll probably take black and white.”

October 21, 1988:

JL patiently listens to Michael as he describes the new ABC girl (Virginia) and her over-developed bust.
JL: “She’ll suffocate you Michael.”
MG: “That’s what I’m hoping JL.”

November 3, 1988:

Michael: “Virginia’s part Jewish (pause) … I don’t know which part.”

December 5, 1988:

CC telling Michael about a woman who wants to sue the paper for something he wrote about her in the People column: “I don’t think she likes you very much.”

January 10, 1989:

Michael walks into the room: “Where’s Bhagwan (CC)?”
JL: I don’t know. He’s probably in David’s (manager’s) office watching the cricket.”
MG: “No he’s not. That’s where I was.”