Extrinsic Flavours!
January 15, 2012 6:30 PM   Subscribe

 
"Having only collapsed once in 30 years it is rather secure."
posted by Gordafarin at 6:41 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


I dunno man, I'm a bit over the "Asians speak funny Chingrish don't understand white culture" as a joke thing. I don't think it has to be racist, but I think it's there's a whole lot of racist cosigns floating in and around it that makes it difficult.

Otherwise I thought it was a pretty wan nineties video production pastiche. Points for the wipes and the stock music, but I want more of a point I suppose. Plus, they didn't go to Franger.
posted by smoke at 6:43 PM on January 15, 2012 [3 favorites]


They Shoot Hostages, Don't They?
posted by unliteral at 6:54 PM on January 15, 2012


My Melbourne story: David Stiff was my next door neighbor in college. He gave me an auto-racing t-shirt and a jar of Vegemite, and also got me into Ray Charles. Good guy.

I think why this is funny has nothing to do with the subtitles or the production value -- it's that they choose the most horrid examples to illustrate how much of a vibrant, beautiful city Melbourne is. Those towers? The nature scenes? The food? The art? It gives the exact opposite impression of what the producers seem to be aiming for, judging from their comentary.
posted by not_on_display at 7:00 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]


Then why does it have to be in Chinese, not_on_display? I dunno, there are shit parts to every city (and I've lived in many of them in Melbourne, Mulgrave represent!), I just don't find that very clever so far irony goes.
posted by smoke at 7:08 PM on January 15, 2012


I don't think it was intentional irony, is what I'm saying. If this was meant to be funny, it isn't, I agree. However, on first view, it struck me as a very sincerely produced thing. On second view, maybe you're right, I am totally missing the point.
posted by not_on_display at 7:17 PM on January 15, 2012


Oh dude it's totes intentional. That is not an actual tourist video.
posted by smoke at 7:22 PM on January 15, 2012


I'm a bit over the "Asians speak funny Chingrish don't understand white culture" as a joke thing.

I think it's funny and was meant to be.

Maybe being a bit old, it does have some slightly racist cosigns or other trigonometry attached to it, but i don't think anyone would seriously believe a tourist video would feature those things, unless the people who made it were taking the piss. After all, it's credited mainly to Asian names, and the main point of the translation was to convey the implicit or obvious digs delivered by the narrator.

But maybe me no understand culture no good and see jokey jokey everywhere.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 7:22 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


I lol'd hard. Listen to Melbourne people talk about Melbourne and you'd think somebody had soaked the best of Paris in the sweetest essence of London and then dusted liberally with fabulous New York sprinkles. The truth is closer to somebody dropping seedier bits of LA on the northern suburbs of Adelaide from a great height.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 7:23 PM on January 15, 2012 [6 favorites]


Also, the slo-mo chewing and squirting of brown liquids on food really drive home the squishy saltiness and the anatomical details of human mouth parts.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 7:35 PM on January 15, 2012


I am pretty sure from the fact that it was posted by someone who worked on Hamish and Andy (Cameron Cairnes) that it was all one big joke. I think maybe this is "going viral" because its production company, Nagger Bros (run by Cameron and brother Colin), just started shooting a new flick this weekend.
posted by gingerest at 7:55 PM on January 15, 2012


[facepalm]
posted by not_on_display at 8:09 PM on January 15, 2012


Yes! I adore Melbourne and look forward to returning there as soon as my familial obligations in Brisbane, uh, expire, to put it delicately, but Melbourne is the most up-its-own-arse city in Australia and this video is great and made me chortle extensively.
posted by tumid dahlia at 8:09 PM on January 15, 2012


i don't think anyone would seriously believe a tourist video would feature those things, unless the people who made it were taking the piss.

I can't watch the video at work, but I'm guessing it was full of shots of Flinders St Station, Federation Square & people rowing on the Yarra, right? Plus, some big balls of string rolling around graffiti-encrusted public urinals that the locals apparently call "laneways".
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:14 PM on January 15, 2012


Don't hate.
posted by wwwwwhatt at 8:43 PM on January 15, 2012


Melbourne's neat and all, but the tourism board of Cleveland, Ohio is MILES AHEAD: "Cleveland leads the nation in drifters," indeed.
posted by The White Hat at 9:36 PM on January 15, 2012


"Don't hate."

Why not? You've probably not seen the annoyingly self-absorbed, fatuous, and often obtuse ads that serve as the Visit Melbourne campaign.

Ubu, laneways aren't the only graffiti-encrusted public urinals. You left out "St Kilda"…
posted by Pinback at 9:38 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


Better than This is Perth.
posted by robcorr at 9:46 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


Hey, I enjoyed This is Perth! Maybe you have to be stuck here to appreciate it. Plus last time it got linked on the blue it was the catalyst for me meeting up with Honey-Barbara, so that's a good thing.
posted by harriet vane at 10:22 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]


Canberra: We Have Buildings, And People Have Been Inside And Outside Of The Buildings, Sometimes For Business Purposes! Also, Respect Our Authoritaaah!
posted by obiwanwasabi at 10:22 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


Watching this, I didn't get the impression that the bad translation was a "Chinglish" joke - it seemed like they were mainly using it to support the joke about Melbourne (or, really, any sprawling urban area) through strategic "mistranslations". For instance, object -> abject.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 11:32 PM on January 15, 2012


monstrous abjects
posted by vanar sena at 1:04 AM on January 16, 2012


I am ethnic Chinese living in Melbourne and I laughed my head off throughout this video. It's hilarious. Where did they even find those locations?? Those people? How did they amass that collection of seriously off-the-wall facts?

It makes a lot more sense in Chinese (they didn't really say that the West Gate bridge collapsed once in thirty years, they said that it collapsed once thirty years ago and is now safe- subtle but important difference), but still. Hilarious.

Also:

There is commodious parking space at all times.

Ahahaha. Hahaha. Aha. Have they been to Melbourne? If only we were so lucky.
posted by Xany at 1:05 AM on January 16, 2012 [2 favorites]


Melbourne is the most up-its-own-arse city in Australia

And proud of it!
posted by crossoverman at 2:25 AM on January 16, 2012




Where did they even find those locations??

Personally, I'm a bit disturbed by the high proportion of locations in that video that I recognised through having lived or worked near.

I love Melbourne, but I think part of loving Melbourne is being able to laugh at yourself for loving Melbourne.
posted by lwb at 3:53 PM on January 16, 2012


Melbourne is the most gracious and European of Australian cities, and it is a mark of our sophisticated and intellectual nature that we can accept and enjoy banal student-produced films like these, which make fun of what is probably the most gracious and European of Australian cities.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:26 PM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


Spoken like a true Mexican.
posted by unliteral at 4:26 AM on January 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Yes, he has a wholly imagined & completely distorted view of what Europe is actually like.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:41 AM on January 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Not at all. Paris has gracious boulevards, tree-lined streets, and a pointy thing in the middle. Vienna has little shops filled with pastries. London has urine-soaked alleys and bad weather. As Dr Johnson said, whoever is tired of Melbourne is tired of life, for there is in Melbourne all that life can afford.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:23 PM on January 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


You forgot Amsterdam - it has trams, and junkies hassling you for change whenever you're anywhere out of doors.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:02 PM on January 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


It's totally understandable that Melbourne wants to be more like Sydney in some ways. It's just odd that they'd choose shutting down live music venues as the first step.
posted by vanar sena at 3:34 AM on January 18, 2012


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