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LOON HOAXER EXPOSED
Michael Leunig’s Iranian cartoon hoaxer is revealed! It wasn’t a pro-war blogger or right-wing sociopath after all, according to Crikey.com.au (subscription only):
Julian Morrow, writer, performer and executive producer of the television satire The Chaser last night said: “It appears now that a writer from The Chaser website submitted the cartoon. It was something that happened without my knowledge.”
The identity of the hoaxer came to light after some snappy detective work by Age legal eagles (who also happen to sometimes represent Crikey) – they googled a phone number included in the hoaxer’s email and – Voila! – up came The Chaser website.
Leunig—pronounced LOO’-nig—is said to be consulting with lawyers this afternoon, following some compassionate head-tilty therapy. In other Loon developments, reader Joe Cambria points out that he is the emailer Leunig cites in this interview:
Um, yes I’ve had a few emails recently, kind of anonymous emails, you know, taunting me to enter this competition, saying come on, you’d be a natural, said one of them.
“That was me,” writes Joe. “I said he would be a natural in the email. Leunig says it was anonymous. It wasn’t. I used my regular email address.”
oops- I’m confussed - Joe didnt do it but he still de man. ok- I’ll go now. :(
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2006 02 14 at 11:35 PM • permalinkFrom our point of view The Chaser was never really funny. The cheque stunt and the AWB guy last week was seriously prejudicial. An now this with Luenig. We are no fan of Luenig, but what The Chaser has now done is libel!
Posted by WeekByWeek on 2006 02 14 at 11:54 PM • permalinkInteresting paragraphs from Crikey:
“Nor is it good news for the cheerfully anarchist Chaser boys, whose language is taking a decidedly bureaucratic turn as they frantically try to stave off legal trouble and distance themselves from the “unauthorised” stunt by one of their team. Website editor Dominic Knight told Crikey this morning that the stunt was pulled by a Chaser website writer acting alone.
“It’s not a really Chaser style stunt. We always try to claim credit for our stunts. He [the hoaxer] has spoken to Mr Leunig and apologised. We certainly didn’t intend for this to be reported on CNN and Reuters. In general if The Chaser pull a stunt we’ll be out there taking credit for it from the word go, being the shameless publicity seekers that we are.”
Has the single satirist got the boot from The Chaser website? The Chaser boys anarchist? Perhaps. Anyone who remembers a reality-show called “Uni” would know that at university they were Labor hacks. By the way, their new show starts Friday night.
Posted by Major Anya on 2006 02 14 at 11:59 PM • permalink#1 is right on one count.
If this went to court Leunig might have to explain his cartoon in public and its contents and his status as National Living Treasure would be under scrutiny.
My crystal balls are indicating that instead, he will say something along the lines of “All I want is an apology” before returning quietly back to his sandpit - a noble yet injured warrior, with head tilting into the sunset.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 15 at 12:05 AM • permalinkSince Leunig is a celebrity like Prince Frederick of Denmark, the New Idea needs to do a treatment on his lovelife. In today’s Age piece, Leunig says , “Gently, as I lay there in the lamplight with my beloved, a CD played a little hymn to me: it was the Trapp Family Singers blah blah.”
By “his beloved”, Leunig could merely be referring to his penis. But assuming he means he is lying down with a friend, and assuming that’s a female friend, we have a problem: he says on his official website (or endorses the words) :
Michael’s popularity grew once he moved to ‘The Age’ newspaper. Unfortunately, his private life began to trouble and torment him greatly. Michael decided to become a single father which he considers as a positive step. With a passion for truth, he believes that his honesty of depressed, lonely, embarrassing and troublesome thoughts and situations helps individuals feel more of a sense of normality, in difficult times. blah blah.”positive step
So who is Leunig’s lucky lying-down companion? Has he now decided to become a double father, or has he re-enticed mother-of-kids back into the cot, or is it a new admirer, or what?
I am not being prurient here: in both extracts Leunig has volunteered the self-disclosure.I am not being prurient here: in both extracts Leunig has volunteered the self-disclosure
percypup, you’re being completely prurient. if he volunteered the information, you wouldn’t need to be asking about it, would you?
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 15 at 12:23 AM • permalinkpercypup
As was I reading the quote you posted I also got the strange impression that we were left to ponder the mysteries of “beloeved”. It could be his penis and then again it may not.
I would say that in these post-modern times it would be best left to the imagination after all seeing he lives on a farm it “his beloved” could take any form.
I would say it was best that we simply called it, him, her, the farm animals anyting simply his partner. Would that be better?
Narnian1- it appears on “our” ABC, see if you can guess its politics ....
Posted by JSthecorrect on 2006 02 15 at 01:24 AM • permalinkItalian MP wears Mohammed cartoon on shirt
Rome 15 Feb 2006
ITALY’S Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli has had T-shirts made emblazoned with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed [...] He said the T-shirts were not meant to be a provocation but added that he saw no point trying to appease extremists.
“We have to put an end to this story that we can talk to these people. They only want to humiliate people. Full stop. And what are we becoming? The civilisation of melted butter?” Mr Calderoli said.#20 - ‘Marky’. Here’s an interpretation of Loonie’s cartoon by a Pakistani commentator -
‘The cartoon brings into dramatic relief the lie that Israel is there to enforce peace in the region’.Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2006 02 15 at 01:31 AM • permalink“Melbourne newspaper the Age may take legal action, after one of its cartoonists became the victim of a hoax involving a Holocaust cartoon competition.”
ABC news report. 14 February 2006 7.00pm AEDT
“This is a fraud and a hoax, emanating, we believe, from Australia.”
Same ABC report quoting Michael Leunig.
Not another word ABC. Squirm in quicksand you sink faster.
Narnian1- Yep, major shot in the foot. I especially liked the whole “pro-war bloggers are responsible” theme leunig was throwing about the place. As someone else mentioned, i assume he will be apologising shortly!
Posted by JSthecorrect on 2006 02 15 at 02:33 AM • permalinkDamn, where you guys been? I’ve been trying to get in here all evening…
So the vast right wing conspiracy turns out to be one lefty screwing over another, eh?
I STILL want to know how this anonymous Chaser writer got a copy of a cartoon that was never published, and submitted only to one market. Is there some kind of secret underground network, like the brave samizdatniks or the gallant old mimeographed Star Trek fanzines, dedicated to sharing the secret truths lefties hide from the Man, now cruelly betrayed by one of their own?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 15 at 02:45 AM • permalinkI STILL want to know how this anonymous Chaser writer got a copy of a cartoon that was never published
Wasn’t the cartoon published in the SMH?
Tim’s linked to the ABC Media Watch website several times; they have a copy of the cartoon. Which is interesting: about two months ago, one of the Chaser lads had an article published in the Sunday Age’s lift-out magazine, dealing with blogs.
He mentioned several blogs, and left a favourable comment about Tim’s blog.
If that indicates his reading habits at all - well, maybe he was the one to source the cartoon from Blair’s blog, and send it in to the Iranian website???
I can’t remember who wrote the article, though!
I liked the cartoon. It IS sypathetic to the jewish people. It forces the viewer to confront the lies and violence they have endured the last 60 odd years. Bravo ! Joe for bringing it to the world’s attention.
Guys, I understood Marky to mean that it demonstrates the lies and violence that Jews have endured since the Holocaust.
I could chose to see it that way by reading that second panel as Israel being under constant attack, and looking at the cartoon itself as part of the dishonest hatred directed at the Jewish people.
But I don’t think it was Leunig’s intent, though. So, doesn’t quite do it for me.
#20 - ‘Marky’ - Upper case for the word ‘Jewish’ please? thanks.
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2006 02 15 at 04:16 AM • permalinkThe Chaser leans left, but not all that much. You can get an example of the type of stuff that’s on the show at the chaser online newspaper.
Ican remember when the Chaser guys were editing Honi Soit - I’m pretty sure it was in my second year at Uni. They made a change from the far lefties who had run the paper in the previous year. They didn’t seem to care too much about the ‘serious’ stuff.
Pretty soon another bunch of Marxoids got hold of the paper and it was back to business as usual. It’s the common pattern - one year you get a bunch of students running the paper who just want to have some fun, the next year, Marxoid’s get control, and set about eradicating any trace of their forebears.
At least in Melbourne, ABC TV’s 7.00 bulletin, which saw fit yesterday to run the Leunig story as its second story, including accusations against anonymous `pro-war’ types, did not inform its audience that Leunig’s cartoon had in fact been forwarded to the Iranian paper by somebody in the employ, if not of the ABC, of a company wholly dependent for income on the ABC.
The ‘Age’ and Leunig are declining to sue the person responsible for the cartoon prank -
Guess why? a court case would show the whole of Australia what a Jew hating bigot he really is.Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2006 02 15 at 04:53 AM • permalinkLoonig’s predicament reminds me of one of my favorite T-shirt lines: ‘It’s all very funny until someone gets hurt - then it’s f***ing hilarious!’
Posted by AlphaMikeFoxtrot on 2006 02 15 at 05:00 AM • permalinkOn one level, I understand why the Chaser people couldn’t associate with the “prank”. On another, the whole thing is quite uproarious.
Leunig’s popularity seems to stem from a period - before my time, it would seem - in which he drew whimsical, periodically amusing cartoons with angels with big noses etc.
Now his cartoons aren’t pointed, cutting or even at all insightful. They’re just bad.
Did anyone see a mention of the cartoon entry on the idiot box before Loopig got on to deny hed sent it?
It strikes me as a bit strange that the ABC saw fit to make Loopig being all hurt and sweet their 2nd story, when the original never even got off the floor.
Id bet that if it had been loopig whod submitted it would never have got a mention.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 02 15 at 05:22 AM • permalinkSo the chaser isn’t smart enough to do a prank and cover its own tracks. No doubt they lampoon the heck out of an equally incompetent conservative. Judging by commentary from the AWB scandal how is it possible Morrow didn’t know what was going on in his own company? I say stand him down.
Posted by platey mates on 2006 02 15 at 05:41 AM • permalinkwell done joe cambria
reality check for loony-bin-ig - if he stands by the views & values expressed in his work, why is he so appalled at it gaining global exposure he could never have imagined in his wildest dreams? sure the chaser scamps may have stolen his stuff, but isn’t it a bit rich for someone who preaches toleration of splodeydopes and saddamistas to suddenly come over all intolerant about a prank? and for someone who claims to be immersed in the cosmic ebb & flow to resort to legalities, rather than sitting down in a magical circle of truth & justice with those who have wounded him & talking through the issues so that they come to a realisation of their wrongdoing & effect a reconciliation? & perhaps explore the root causes of their mischievous behaviour? no? writs at 50 paces then?
So now, excuse me if I don’t have this straight from 10,000 miles away…
The cartoon Leunig represented as not being his but was,
was not published but was broadcast into hundreds, maybe even thousands of Australian homes by the country’s leading lefty subsidized TV network,
and was submitted to the antisemitic Iranian press by said network,
and now, having made their whining accusations of eeeevil plots by nefarious fascist warlovers,
are just going to drop the whole matter without a single acknowledgment of their own malign dishonesty and false charges?I’m usually pretty easily amused, and it doesn’t even always have to involve sending wronwright to Damascus to Turtle Wax Assad’s back, but shouldn’t their feet be held to the fire just a tad over this?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 15 at 11:05 AM • permalink#54 I’m usually pretty easily amused, and it doesn’t even always have to involve sending wronwright to Damascus to Turtle Wax Assad’s back, but shouldn’t their feet be held to the fire just a tad over this?
(sigh) Macca - you don’t understand. its the (Oz) ABC. When Howard was elected we looked forward to them getting their wings clipped (or at least the left one). But Johnny H (PBUH) has wisely discerned that they are better left alone, because:
1. it keeps most of the left wing journalistic turds in one spot where we can keep an eye on them; and
2) they keep broadcasting such jaundiced shit that the general populace cannot but have a clear idea of how things really are.
..get my drift?
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 02 16 at 04:28 AM • permalinkIn the original post there was a comment: “Leunig—pronounced LOO’-nig” of which I doubt the accuracy. Surely the “g” is silent in such a word?
Posted by The Hunter on 2006 02 18 at 11:27 PM • permalink
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Onya Joe! you de MAN!
They wont sue cos it’s gonna drag the issue out forever, and I dont think Leunig would want that.