Australian Lawmakers Propose Outlawing Parody, Having A Sense Of Humor

from the no-lol dept

Fri, Oct 27th 2017 3:23am — Timothy Geigner

There is nothing more dangerous than a government without a sense of humor. This is true for a myriad of reasons, but chief among them must be that a government unable to incorporate humor into its ethos is all the more likely to attempt to outlaw forms of humor held dear by the general public. To see an example of this in action, we can look to Australia and its strange battle against Juice Media, makers of the series Honest Government Adverts, such as the one they did on Australia.

Those of you who haven't been hit in the head with a hammer recently likely noticed that the Australian shield on display on that clearly satirical video is slightly off in that it doesn't spell "Australian" correctly. Hammer attacks or not, if that was the only clue you had that this video is pure and brilliant satire, you need immediate help from healthcare professionals. And, yet, despite all of that, the National Symbols Officer of Australia, which is apparently a real thing, has begun banging its drums over the various laws it claims using that satirical symbol violates. Via the EFF post:

It is unfortunate that the Australian government cannot distinguish between impersonation and satire. But it is especially worrying because the government has proposed legislation that would impose jail terms for impersonation of a government agency. Some laws against impersonating government officials can be appropriate (Australia, like the U.S., is seeing telephone scams from fraudsters claiming to be tax officials). But the proposed legislation in Australia lacks sufficient safeguards. Moreover, the recent letter to Juice Media shows that the government may lack the judgment needed to apply the law fairly.

The legislation in question takes bad legislation to horrific levels. For example, while a 2 year jail sentence is the proposed punishment for anyone impersonating a government agency, there are no provisions within the law involving the violation to be one that is intentionally deceiving. And, while the proposed law does make room for uses that are "solely for genuine satire", that word "genuine" is doing a lot of heavy-lifting to allow the Australian government to be the arbiters of what is truly satire and what isn't. That's territory ripe for misuse and is the reason why our own First Amendment doesn't include such qualifiers. Also, given that the Australian government is already issuing threats to Juice Media, it seems clear that government isn't well-suited to the work this legislation would make for it.

And, in case you were wondering, yes, Juice Media has already responded with another "honest advert":

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Filed Under: ads, australia, censorship, honest government adverts, satire, thin skin
Companies: juice media

39 Comments

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David, 27 Oct 2017 @ 3:56am

The problem with satire...
is that it doesn't age well. If you take a satire about government overreach made in the 80s, it's indistinguishable from a current-day government broadcast.

So it is important to make satirical features endowed with almost-governmental insignia illegal and thus struck off the record. Otherwise 20 years from now nobody will be able to tell the difference and history will be a mess.

Actually, history might be more consistent if you only keep the satirical broadcasts and prohibit the rest.

But at any rate, keeping both is confusing.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 4:11am

The sun shining very intensily down there, it must have cooked their brains over the decades. Another example of cooked brains are their concentration camps for immigrants. Set one foot on the country? There you go in the camp.

The only not cooked brains are the Aborigines. Of course, they are also hunted by the cooked brains.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 4:26am

Re:
Oh, and let's not forget the war on emu:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War
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Major, 27 Oct 2017 @ 4:53am

Hell yeah, its impersonation !
It seem fairly obvious to me that the australian governement do have a solid case of attempted impersonation.
When all is said and done isn't making thing less great the trademark of what most governements agency are doing lately ?

...wait no, do that mean i might end up in prison for this ?!
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 5:21am

Ausfailia strikes again.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 5:41am

Re: The problem with satire...
Especially these ads given that the referendum to change the spelling of 'Australian' to 'Australien' is just around the corner.

And to add to your point, we might as well ban all forms of fiction. In a couple of hundred years after the robot apocalypse finally dies down, our predecessors will have a hell of a time distinguishing actual events like World War II and The Hunger Games.

I think the government spends too much time making 'for the children'. We need to invigorate efforts 'for the posterity!'
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BentFranklin (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 6:17am

We need those ads in the USA. Please export!
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nate Hoffelder, 27 Oct 2017 @ 6:24am

Juice Media should send that office a fruit basket.

Almost no one saw the videos before the AUS govt complained - the Bight video had only 24 thousand views.

Now everyone is going to see it.

I just love the Streisand effect.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 7:23am

ha h aha...
Juice Media... these guys are great!

Remember folks... don't forget to act 'outraged' and go ahead and do nothing! You don't want to be left behind by the other nations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdxNk6ALtJI
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 7:31am

Great satire, thanks! Maybe the kooks who claim that the media are ruled by the Juice do have point.
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Strayan Crawl, 27 Oct 2017 @ 7:59am

Dropbears and drongos
Judging by the latest constitutional fiasco, which basically states that if your great-great-great-great-grand father/mother/uncle/aunt once lived near someone who ended up on a convict ship, then Section 44 states that you have dual citizenship and are ineligible to be in the parliament in some way.

Honestly, with these galahs in charge, who NEEDS parody? If John Clarke was still with us, he'd make absolute mincemeat of these stupid proposals.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 8:11am

Re: The problem with satire...
Are you on drugs?

Because if you are on drugs, it is advisable for you to stop.
Just say no.
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Vic, 27 Oct 2017 @ 8:24am

Sense of what?
Rephrasing one of my favorite movie lines:

"No ma'am, we're from the government, we do not have a sense of humor we're aware of."
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 8:29am

Re: Dropbears and drongos
> the latest constitutional fiasco, which basically states that if your great-great-great-great-grand father/mother/uncle/aunt once lived near someone who ended up on a convict ship, then Section 44 states that you have dual citizenship and are ineligible to be in the parliament in some way.

This smells like the work of racists (and badly). Case in point: nazi stooge Hans Globke co-authored the Nuremberg laws. In post-war Germany, he was responsible for the law which is still in use today and which defines who may call themselves German... according to that law it is restricted to those with German inheritance.

We need to steer away from these deep and troubled waters and therefore reject the sentiment that inheritance alone makes citizenship. IMO citizenship should just be card that you can draw from a vending machine after a year or so staying in the country.
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wereisjessicahyde (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 8:45am

That's some awesome stuff. I havn't laughed so much in ages. Quality Aussie swearing too, the only nation better than us Brits.
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E. Zachary Knight (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 8:57am

Re:
I just went through some of their videos and they have some really great US related ones. I do agree that something like this would be great if targeted directly at the US government.
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David, 27 Oct 2017 @ 9:00am

Re: Re: The problem with satire...
This advice brought to you by the government.

See what I mean?
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wereisjessicahyde (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 9:04am

Re:
They already do...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08T-YsXRcCo
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GristleMissile (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 9:21am

Re:
I fully agree with El Trumpo's restrictions on so-called "refugees", and still want those ads here. Satire is an essential component of free speech, and a powerful tool of political speech.

Attempting to ban, regulate, or in any way restrict satire is antithetical to a free society, and should be grounds for being given a cigarette and a sunny wall to stand next to.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 9:49am

Re: Re:
If Emu become extinct, the only emus we will have will be rendered through emu-lation.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 9:51am

Re: Re: Re: The problem with satire...
Isn't that the Trump approved remedy for the opioid crisis?
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 9:53am

Does the 'stralian gov now want to censor TheOnion?
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wereisjessicahyde (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 10:30am

Re: Re:
You don't see any irony in that if someone attempts to act in a way that is antithetical to a free society they should be given a cigarette and a sunny wall to stand next to?
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wereisjessicahyde (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 10:33am

Re:
Maybe you're an racist asshole
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Ben (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 12:38pm

Censoring?
I found it odd that throughout the video they are beeping out various "bad" words (e.g. *beep* used to describe the oil companies arranging to pillage the bight)

... but the video ends with "Great Australian Bight, Home to our next great fuck-up" without any *beep*.

Is that intentional? Or just their own fuck-up? I suspect intentional.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 1:32pm

In order to outlaw parody, they would have to outlaw free speech. Heck! They can't even outlaw physical things like crime.
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Toom1275 (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 3:50pm

Re: Re: Re:
You mean like this? https://i.imgur.com/4zGWuki.gif
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Toom1275 (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 3:52pm

Wannabe-fascist government wants to eliminate the Juice.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 4:55pm

Re: Re: Dropbears and drongos
Simple solution, renounce all your other country's citizenships and then you can become Prime Minister. Even them dumb union hacks can get that right over in the communist party. Eg,ex-PM Julia Gillard, formally from Wales,UK.

The Governor-General and the Queen/King can be from another country and not an Australian citizen at all because us colonial convicts just can't do those jobs properly.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2017 @ 5:18pm

Re: Dropbears and drongos
Federal politicians are sworn in with one hand on the Bible to uphold the Constitution, so bloody well abide by it by reading it first and when you sign the paperwork as a candidate make sure you have made an effort to check if you are eligible to the benefits of another country's citizenship and then renounce that citizenship. If you can't do a simple task such as that then find a job sweeping a street somewhere & let the running of the country be done by those that can at least make simple enquiries to Consulates to find out if those matters apply to themselves.
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Eldakka (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 6:35pm

Re: Censoring?
Interesting, I didn't notice it when I first saw it and went through it again.

Words not beeped:
wankers, shitloads, rooted, fuck.

The only word beeped that I noticed was cunt.

Maybe they (or someone - youtube policy?) drew a line there?
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Aaron Walkhouse (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 7:37pm

Nawww, those words weren't cursing…
…they were just statements of fact, mate! ‌ ‌ ;]
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Bruce C., 27 Oct 2017 @ 7:46pm

Re: The problem with satire...
Well apart from Monty Python...The Ministry of Silly Walks remains entirely relevant.
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GristleMissile (profile), 27 Oct 2017 @ 7:47pm

Re: Re: Re:
Nope. Free speech is for everyone, no exceptions. No matter how much I disagree with them they still have a right to free speech.

Speech and action are not equivalent, and never will be. Action can deserve the consequences of law. Speech never should.
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Hugo, 28 Oct 2017 @ 1:02am

While there is lots of hoo-haa'ing about free speech, stupid laws, and the Streisand Effect, there are a couple of other points.

Firstly, they changed the logo in the follow up video to replace the heads of the kangaroo and emu with surveillance cameras (which is a nice touch). So, their parady of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms (which is what the Australian Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet[1] calls the original) has changed.

Many people note the "mispelling" of Australian as Australien, but I have yet to see anyone note that Juice have also replaced the seven pointed star[2] which sits atop the origin with the styled head of an extra-terrestrial.

Hence, Austr-Alien.

I assume that the National Symbols Officer of Australia missed that little hint too. Perhaps the Officer is an extraterrestrial dual-national and is offended?

[1]: https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/commonwealth-coat-arms
[2]: Seven points because, originally, New Zealand was to be the seventh state. So, thats worth replacing because it is inaccurate :)
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Toom1275 (profile), 28 Oct 2017 @ 5:57am

Re:
Since the name and symbol in question hav differences with the original, obviously the Australian government employs former trademark lawyers, who seem to have the "special" talent of seeing different marks as identical.
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NaBUru38 (profile), 28 Oct 2017 @ 12:32pm

The keyword is impersonating. Impersonators must attempt to confuse the audience, to make them believe that they are authentic.

Juice Media obviously don't do that. I mean, if it's not obvious to you, they you aren't capable of writing and enforcing laws.
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Matt Wilson (profile), 30 Oct 2017 @ 12:02am

Re: The problem with satire...
Some satire ages very well. John Clarke and Bryan Dawe started their sketches on the ABC in the late 80's, and they're still classics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQKjj_FDI_M

Might just be an Australian thing, though.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2017 @ 8:54pm

Re:
Australia has no specific right to Freedom of Speech, in fact the Constitution only (under High Court rulings) allows an 'implied' freedom of political communication.

Multiple cases have stated that speech is not protected and others have stated the exact opposite. eg: No right to protest unless 'authorised' by local govt agency; distinguished byu "calling Tony Abbot.. our ex Prime Minister..'a cunt' is quite ok" (Though that wasnt a federal ruling and state based.
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