I, for one, welcome our new bogan overlords | Article | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-for-one-welcome-our-... I, for one, welcome our new bogan overlords by Nigel Bowen FILED UNDER: BOGANS, BOOKS, CHRISTMAS, CLASS 183 COMMENTS 01 Dec 05:55am Recommend 111 Come Christmas Day, many members of the book-reading class are likely to wake up to find a copy of Things Bogans Like (TBL) in their stocking. The book was released in late October but its publicist, Nicola Pitt, is “expecting a spike in sales just before Christmas as people buy the book to give to friends and family. It’s one of those gifts that result in lively Christmas lunch conversation”. PM gabs on, drumming up support for the dodgy Bongo - this is a caption PM gabs If you ate more of these, maybe you'd rule Australia too. Photo: Brad Hunter Needless to say, those having lively conversations about Things Bogans Like, which has spun off the wildly popular website of the same name, are not themselves likely to be bogans and any bogan who on, does stumble upon the book is unlikely to find much to laugh about. drummingIn contrast to Kath & Kim’s Jane Turner and Gina Riley, the six young men (who’ve opted to remain anonymous) behind TBL satirise what they perceive as the pretension, racism, ignorance, unabashed self-interest, clumsy social climbing, sheepish conformism, hyper consumerism and reactionary politics up of Australia’s rapidly gentrifying lower orders without the tiniest sliver of empathy or affection for their targets. The vicious humour of the book is irradiated with class condescension of the let’s snigger supportabout what those people watch (trashy current affairs programs), buy (Buddhist-themed home furnishings) and name their children (Chanel or Armani) variety. for The kind of hand-wringing that middle-class progressives engaged at the midpoint of the Howard era when that much gentler satire of boganism Kath & Kim debuted — over whether it was acceptable for the the tertiary-educated to laugh it up at the expense of those unfortunate enough to be less tasteful than themselves — seems to have been entirely absent since the TBL website started up in October dodgy last year. The book has by and large received rave reviews despite many reviewers noting its “nasty” and “offensive” tone. Bongo This raises the question of why the demographic that usually makes such a show of abhorring any sort of discrimination related to race, religion, disability or sexuality has lapped up barefaced prejudice of 67 the class variety. (It’s evidence of the Australian nervousness about acknowledging social class that many — including those behind TBL — like to disingenuously insist that boganism is unrelated to socio-economic status, as if it is just an amazing coincidence bogans, culturally at least, are clearly 1 of 29 31/03/12 12:12 PM I, for one, welcome our new bogan overlords | Article | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-for-one-welcome-our-... identifiable as members of what used to be called the respectable working or striving lower-middle class.) So why no self-doubting angst in 2010 from TBL’s otherwise PC fans? The two groups we most enjoy a Friday Dilemma: joke at the expense of are those we secretly believe to be either inferior or superior to ourselves. It’s Does this look “easy one of the cardinal rules of humour that it’s considered poor form to hammer groups lower than your to assemble”? - this is a caption own in the social pecking order but acceptable to go to town on those more advantageously located. When I asked ‘Michael Jayfox’, one of those behind TBL, to explain why it was OK to portray bogans as Friday near subhuman when doing that to, say, Jews or Aborigines, would be considered out of order he replied: “The point is the bogan has quite little it can honestly complain about. The other groups you Dilemma:identified clearly do have a bit to complain about. The greatest hardship many bogans endure is that they can’t have any more credit. So in terms of deserving and undeserving targets the bogan is Does probably a lot fairer game than some other groups of people who’ve had it much tougher.” While the tone of TBL is snobbishly superior, ultimately, it’s the bitter humour of the oppressed. The this meta-joke of the whole TBL phenomenon is that the bogans have far more economic, cultural and political clout than the inner-city elites who find it such great sport to mock them and both groups know it. It’s the bogans, after all, who ensure the media keeps churning out lowest common look denominator pap, who earn six-figure incomes working down the mines or as tradesmen (tradesmen!) and who live in palatial houses in the endlessly pandered to outer suburban marginal seats that “easy determine elections. And so, after more than a decade of being contemptuously dismissed by Howard and politely ignored to by Rudd and Gillard, left-leaning middle class types are now reveling in a rare opportunity to feel assemble”?superior – if only in matters of taste - to their bogan overlords. “We’ve had reports that bookstores in Melbourne have been having difficulty keeping enough stock on 62 the shelves,” publicist Pitt observes. “A woman at Angus & Robertson Collins Street said, ‘We’ve had nothing but suits come in and buy it.’” Nigel Bowen has written an article on the rise of the bogan for the current issue of GQ. Tharrr be pirates: a media fantasy, 111 recommendations. Sign Up to see what your friends cheered on by sooks Recommend - this is a caption recommend. Tharrr Most commented 404 Climate change isn't rocket 400 Bligh just the first victim of 294 Stop skirting the rape issue and 272 science. Oh wait, it is. anti-Labor sentiment cut it off at the knees beWe must be clever to avoid being 237 Sentenced to jail for 56 days after 198 Will the really offended people 190 the dumb country vile Tweet please stand up? ALP evacuees have no love for The171 Punch on: Friday review pirates:Greens 30/03/2012 183 COMMENTS a Eric says: 06:05am | 01/12/10 mediaBogans are fair targets for hate because they are perceived as guilty of being white, heterosexual and often male. Political correctness was never about doing away with prejudice, merely about shifting targets. This is the great hypocrisy fantasy,at the heart of multiculturalism, feminism, and the other fashionable forms of bigotry. cheeredReply Reg says: 07:51am | 01/12/10 2 of 29 31/03/12 12:12 PM I, for one, welcome our new bogan overlords | Article | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-for-one-welcome-our-... I sympathize with your gallant struggle to escape being designated as a bogan Eric, but let me warn you about guilt by association. Political Correctness was always about moderating the tendency for people to walk all over each other to get on byto the top. A prominent faux-liberal activity that has taken hold in society. Hypocrisy- pheff! Everyone does it these days. sooksgrumpy old man says: 136 08:39am | 01/12/10 spot on Eric, the biggest crime in todays society is being white, middle aged, middle income, heterosexual male. Apparently we are all wife beating pedarists who have totally screwed up the world. Personally, I don’t give a damn, I have chosen to opt out, do my own thing, look after those close to me and the rest of the world can go jump. Tubesteak says: 08:46am | 01/12/10 Not quite, Eric. It was bogans that caused the GFC (whether in form of chavs or rednecks). It was their hyper-consumption living beyond their means and demanding the governemnt to provide them things they could never afford (cheap housing on easy credit). This was the root cause of the GFC. Our political landscape is littered with the hubris of the bogan mindset of “how does this advantage me, it’s all about me and anything that’s not for me is bad”. We live in an egalitarian society. A meritocracy. You can help your class. Bogans choose to eschew this. Instead they opt for the lowest common denominator. Destroy their environment and show not the slightest bit of compassion for others. Political correctness was designed to level the playing field for people that couldn’t do anything about their attributes - race or gender - you can’t help being black or female - often these groups are subjugated. You can always stop being a bogan. Thus their choices (that ruin it for the rest of us) are open to derision. Hermano says: 08:54am | 01/12/10 Get out to Greater (sic) Western Sydney and you will realise that there are a vast number of bogans who are neither white nor male. Get yourself to Oxford Street and Sydney’s inner city and you will realise there’s a vast number of bogans who aren’t straight. And to all of you bogan-haters: not being bogan doesn’t rule out being a dickhead. James1 says: 09:44am | 01/12/10 You have clearly never had contact with a new-age bogan. If you had, you would realise they are a much greater threat to our way of life than mere multiculturalism. Also bogans are not all white. Bogan is not a colour, gender, or a social class, it is a state of mind. Bogan is as bogan does, after all, and I know plenty of Lebanese bogans, Asian bogans, Indian bogans, white bogans, even a couple of Jewish bogans.