Now that Iran’s leaders have aired their grievances with the way their people were portrayed in the 2013 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Argo, it is time for more countries that have been slighted to step forward and shame director Ben Affleck for his typical American ways. Specifically, people in New Zealand are pissed off because of one little line that makes them sound like a bunch of dicks who turn their lights off on Halloween.
“The six of them went out a back exit. Brits turned them away. Kiwis turned them away. Canadians took them in.”
Four words that pass so quickly on a giant screen, but have already detonated with more impact in the hearts of New Zealanders than 1,000 atomic bombs. Now, the country’s leaders are fighting back against Hollywood’s propaganda once again, but this time it isn’t about Peter Jackson stealing $67 million from taxpayers. No sirs, this is about pride.
That passing reference to New Zealand is rankling Kiwis five months after “Argo” was released in the South Pacific nation. Even Parliament has expressed its dismay, passing a motion stating that Affleck, who also directed the film, “saw fit to mislead the world about what actually happened.”
The strong reaction in New Zealand indicates the country remains insecure about its own culture, said Steve Matthewman, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Auckland. People are prone to bouts of unwarranted outrage when somebody from abroad says something bad about the country, he said, and simpering enjoyment when they say something good.
“It’s touched a really raw nerve,” Matthewman said. “We do seem in New Zealand to be oversensitive to how the rest of the world perceives us.”
(Via HuffPo)
As we’ve seen in the past, New Zealanders are more than happy to poke fun at themselves for the fact that their country is best known for being the place where the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed, but if any bloggers try to make fun of them? Well, they’re going to write about it.
So just how oversensitive are they? Watch this… Hey you! Yeah YOU. YOU SUCK!
Haha, stupid insecure kangaroo*.
*I am aware that kangaroos are not endemic to New Zealand; however, I am told it’s because kangaroos think New Zealand is for “drongos”. Their words, not mine.