You’ll rarely find any political or sport content here unless it intersects with pop culture in a nuclear way.
And this story feels particularly radioactively, cringe-licious.
Current Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, a man I assume many people have not heard of in popular culture until this moment, was a guest on the podcast Bush Deep, hosted by the Australian comedian Nikki Osborne. With a title like that, it wouldn’t be difficult to conclude that this was a “cool” podcast, one that many media outlets keep informing us has half a million followers on Instagram.
During the interview Osborne asks Albanese the completely banal question, who would he rather “shag, marry or date” Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman, or Australian entertainer Rhonda Burchmore. Notice that the question had dropped the traditional “kill” and replaced it with “date”, because you know, this version is much more sensitive.
Albanese, who has been Australia’s prime minister since 2022 and married his partner Jodie Haydon in November last year, initially attempted to sidestep the “trap”, but with a little encouragement from Osborne went all in anyway.
Albanese: “I’ve just got married, I’m only six months in.”
Osborne: “But if it goes tits up, let’s just pretend.”
Albanese: “Oh, Kylie, clearly.”
Osborne: “You’d marry Kylie, and shag her, and date her?”
Albanese: “All of the above.”
Osborne: “Alright, it’s a triple.”
Albanese: “She’s terrific.”
Watch Anthony Albanese place Shag, Marry, Date…
No surprise the prime minister faced major criticism over his answer with MPs calling his remarks “entirely inappropriate” and Senator Sarah Henderson, the shadow minister for communications and digital safety in the Liberal party of Australia writing on X:
“Anthony Albanese’s whisky-fuelled comments on the ‘Deep Bush’ podcast are disrespectful to women, embarrassing to Australians and demean the office of Prime Minister.”
She’s not wrong.
And Albanese, or his team, realised it too. He released a one-line statement following the backlash:
“I apologise unequivocally for the comments.”
It’s funny because what he should have said was “I apologise unequivocally for trying, desperately, to be cool.”
The general criticism against Albanese is that he should have known better, that he walked right into a trap by the very “clever” Osborne a comedian whose crude approach is part of her alter ego Bushie, a “wildly inappropriate journalist” asking the questions “no one else would dare” – this is according to the podcast’s description.
If the questions no one else would dare to ask is “shag, marry or date” I’m afraid we don’t have much hope for what other strategised controversy and rage bait Bush Deep has in store for us.
I’m finding it increasingly cliché to call this type of approach with political and celebrity interviews “clever.” Comedians adopting a fictional or exaggerated persona to disarm or provoke guests into revealing something unexpected in a “gotcha” moment is not new.
Some popular examples include Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G and Borat, Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk, Zach Galifianakis who plays an exaggerated version of himself in Between Two Ferns or Ziwe Fumudoh’s Ziwe: You’d Be an Iconic Guest.
The approach if not done right quickly changes from cool to cringey. And I’m afraid that Bush Deep falls in the later of the two, solely based on that one question.
There is no doubt that Albanese was less than smart for answering the question. His answer was disrespectful, but the question itself was just as bad, juvenile, and sensationalist. There is nothing wrong with wanting a viral moment, but we are getting to a point in online culture where we want our viral moments to feel clever, sometimes at least.
There are other entertaining questions, Osborne could have asked if she wanted to expose some deep-rooted misogyny as is being implied here. There are plenty of politicians, genuinely sexist, misogynistic men, who would have given the perfect response, carefully slipping out of having to answer that question, and be charming while doing it. All that to say, this question is not as clever as is being proposed.
Albanese’s willingness to answer reveals something else beyond a carelessness and disrespect for Minogue and the other women mentioned in the question.
It a desperation to be cool. An offence not unique to Albanese, but one that should be considered a crime of the highest degree. Taking cues from everyone including Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Zohran Mamdani who have all been presented as media darlings or devils (depending on which side of the aisle you stand on) through “cool” personas that have either been highly produced or have exploded onto the social media landscape where current events and politics, are using pop culture as a means forward.
Whether through their direct voice and unfiltered opinions on socials to build a community or being interviewed on platforms that are a far cry from the traditional settings a politician would find themselves in a decade or two ago, pop culture, of all places has become the vehicle to achieve the ultimate glory - coolness.
Frankly, as an audience, it’s exhausting.
Western politicians, across the board and aisle are having a crisis in identity and positioning. So desperate to be cool, they put themselves in awkward, forced situations, where the public have no option but turn them into a meme.
I believe, truly, what the public wants from their politician is dependability and dignity. Somehow along the way, politicians have decided to let go of poise, pride, the formality of being in public office in exchange for going viral, becoming meme-ified, to be… cool.
We want cool in the form of James Dean, David Bowie, Steve McQueen, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Lauren Bacall, Jane Birkin. No one can argue that that group of people, a dying breed of artist, isn’t cool. And do you know what the main reason as to why they are timelessly cool?
It’s because they aren’t politicians.
Cool has now become something else. A relatability lacking in mystery or sophistication, it is someone who says things through “informal” channels, in “conversational” tones that are perceived as smart, witty, funny, but ultimately it’s a gamble, a desperate attempt for relevancy.
Hillay Clinton’s 2016’s Pokemon Go to the polls speech. A painful watch.
Boris Johnson stuck on a zip wire moment while waving Union Jack flags during the London Olympics in 2012. Not done on purpose, one would hope, but packaged to be an endearing moment.
Theresa May dancing onto the stage to ABBA’s Dancing Queen at the at the Conservative Party’s annual conference in 2018. Partly her fault, but also no one can help how they dance. I’m thinking of Elaine Benes right now.
Justin Trudeau and his yoga poses. One can argue that Trudeau, has really doubled his try hard persona by dating Katy Perry now, who has become in the public’s eyes the ambassador of desperately trying to be cool.
Politicians and their teams think they understand the currency, the sheer power of having a hot take, being part of a viral clip, the influence of the frankensteinian version of what cool is today. They are immune the weight of the collective eye rolls from every facet of culture for these moments they keep trying to construct.
They don’t seem to get, or care, that it’s not cool to be mercilessly mocked and laughed at. And really, we have arrived at the peak of second hand embarrassment, when all we can do is laugh at a politician’s apology because he was trying so hard to be cool.