Name Confusion
After the politician John Howard was elected Prime Minister of Australia in 1996, jokes about the coincidence entered Australian comedy - notably in an episode of the satirical television series The Games. Often characters in The Games had the same names as the actors playing them - Howard's episode mocked the Sydney Olympics when staff hired the actor (played by himself) as a stand in for the Prime Minister, as they supposed foreign dignitaries would not know the difference.
John Howard the actor, identifying himself only as "John Howard", said "Sorry" to Indigenous Australians for their treatment by English settlers and their descendants. This was a direct comment on the repeated refusal of the then Prime Minister to make an apology on behalf of the Government of Australia.
The actor also appeared on the Australian "news channel" television show CNNNN (a mock 24 hour news channel comedy series created and performed by The Chaser) as a guest to discuss the Iraq war, being criticised by a presenter confusing him with John Howard the Prime Minister.
He is the subject of the song John Howard The Actor (an opening in protest) by Ross McLennan, ex-frontman of the band Snout, featuring the lyrics: My sympathies go out/Go out to John Howard the actor/His nomenclature/Messed up under history's tractor.
Read more about this topic: John Howard (Australian Actor)
Famous quotes containing the word confusion:
“Behind her was confusion in the room,
Of chairs turned upside down to sit like people
In other chairs, and something, come to look,
For every room a house has parlor, bedroom,
And dining room thrown pell-mell in the kitchen.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)