Tweeting at a Land Down Under
What Crocodile Dundee has to say about the United States and the 1980s
I’m staying at my ex-wife’s house this week. She’s out of town for work and that means that the Nearest Available Grownup (me) was called into duty to ensure that the boys get to school and our Quasi Joint Owned Dogs (QJODs) don’t run off or eat the baseboards. This also means I get to wake up the Teenager.1
For this task I chose to play Men At Work’s “Down Under” as loud as possible at 8am. I assure you this was a real hoot. For me, at least. The Teenager thought it was a country song. Le sigh.
But my choice of reveille was rooted in this week’s podcast, which is rooted in my longtime fascination with Australia. I can’t quite explain why I’m drawn to Australia, but it’s always seemed to call to me. I’d often thought that if my kids weren’t here in the States, I would’ve jettisoned for Oz a long time ago. Maybe this explains why I currently live in Florida. After all, Florida is a lot like Australia. Everything here wants to kill you, especially our governor.
It occured to me this week that most Americans have never been to Australia yet we all seem to have a weird artificial familiarity with the place. Australian history isn’t taught in United States schools except as maybe another of Britain’s colonial attempts or maybe as a staging point for American counterpunches at Japan during World War II.
It is through pop culture that we know Australia. Maybe the first thing I can think of is 1959’s On The Beach, where the last remnants of humanity huddle as they await their demise via fallout from World War III. Of course, there’s the Mad Max series and Mel Gibson, an American turned Aussie, and Russell Crowe, a New Zealander Americans confuse as an Aussie. There’s actually a ton of actors and actresses from Australia you’re probably familiar with, folks (blokes?) like Thor (I’m told he prefers Chris Hemsworth), Eric Bana (badass in Black Hawk Down, a better Bruce Banner than you remember), Joel Edgerton (should probably be in every movie), Cate Blanchett (might actually be in every movie), Ben Mendelsohn, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, and of course, Heath Ledger (we’re just not going to get another like him). Oh, and Errol Freaking Flynn.
And then there’s Paul Hogan.
We know Crocodile Dundee.
At first glance, Crocodile Dundee might not seem like a “history” movie, but watch it again. This movie has a TON to say about perceptions of Australia by Americans, perceptions of America by Australians, sexuality, drug use, journalism, capitalism, New York, the 1980s, and big-ass knives.
For this pod, I asked two people really close to Historians At The Movies: the creators of Historians At The Movies Australia (#HATMAus), Joel Barnes (@joelgbarnes) and Chelsea Barnett (@chelseambarnett). Joel and Chelsea had approached me along the way asking if I’d mind if they took the idea of HATM for a spin in Australia. I didn’t know them at the time and had always been protective of HATM, but for some reason I knew I liked them immediately. And I trusted them.
They’re two amazing scholars. Joel looks at the history of relations between evolutionary science and religious belief within Australian higher education. Chelsea is working on a cultural history of single men in Australian popular culture. In other words, they’re perfect for HATM and HATMAus. When I first imagined what the podcast might be, I knew I had to ask them to jump on, and I’m so glad I did. Unfortunately Joel’s internet was a bit off, but Chelsea and I continued on valiantly. We had a blast. This movie is so much fun. And so is the pod. Links below.
This week on HATM
Oh hey, that’s not all the fun we have this week. This weekend I’ll be flying up to Florence, Alabama to do a live session of HATM with the students of the University of North Alabama. These sessions are really important to me because we get to show the power of creating a positive community to the next generation of scholars. I hope you’ll join in on Amazon Prime at 8pm this Sunday, February 26 for RESPECT.
In the meantime, thanks for continuing to join in on Sunday nights, and thanks for supporting the pod. Be good to each other. And remember, Coke is better than Pepsi. Even Culver’s agrees.
Teenagers do not like waking up before 6pm.
Have you released your dissertation as a book yet? Where you get to include all the things your committee made you cut? I’m looking forward to it. I’m a Virginia history major, recently transplanted to DeSantis Fantasy Island to support divorced child and grandchild, and I need to know some Florida history. So far I’ve only read *Swamp Peddlers* by Jason Vuic (explains why there’s no there here in Central Florida) and *Finding Florida* by T.D. Allman. Ya gotta help me!! Thx ❤️
“After all, Florida is a lot like Australia. Everything here wants to kill you, especially our governor.” TRUTH!!! And if he becomes POTUS, well America, we did our best to warn you.