Character
The character was a parody of the boorish Australian overseas, particularly those in the United Kingdom – unsophisticated, loud, crude, drunk and aggressive – although McKenzie also proved popular with Australians because he embodied some of their positive characteristics: he was genuine, forthright, straightforward, candid to his English hosts, who themselves were often portrayed as stereotypes of pompous, arrogant colonial deviousness.
McKenzie frequently employs euphemisms for bodily functions or sexual allusions, one of the most well-known being "technicolour yawn" (vomiting). The film popularised several Australian euphemisms and slang terms which are still used today in the Australian vernacular (such as "point Percy at the porcelain", "sink the sausage", "flash the nasty"). Some of the slang was invented by Humphries, with other terms borrowed from existing Australian slang such as "chunder", and "up shit creek" (adopted by the Australian poetry magazine Shit Creek Review).
Men at Work lead singer Colin Hay said that the lyrics for "Down Under" were inspired by the Barry McKenzie character.
Read more about this topic: Barry McKenzie
Famous quotes containing the word character:
“You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being framed.”
—Plato (5th century B.C.)
“Foolish, whenever you take the meanness and formality of that thing you do, instead of converting it into the obedient spiracle of your character and aims.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)