With the depressing news that Pauline Hanson may have actually secured two Senate seats currently clogging our news feeds, Aussies are putting out the Bat-Signal for the one person that can breathe some sanity into these insane times.
Simon Hunt, the man behind the immortal Pauline Pantsdown, is considering a comeback following Hanson’s result in Saturday’s election. “I’ve had about 75 messages saying ‘we’re assuming Pauline Pantsdown will be back’,” Hunt told ABC News.
Hunt is a lecturer at the University of New South Wales and an LGBTI activist, but is arguably best known for his Hanson parody, which he created in the 1990s when Hanson first came to national attention. Hunt hit the top 10 of the Hottest 100 with ‘I’m A Back Door Man’.
“I made a song… to perform at this underground gay party in Sydney, and someone approached triple j to promote the event,” Hunt told News Corp some months back. “They heard the song, began playing it and it just went crazy from there.”
Hunt had made the track by collaging excerpts from various statements and speeches made by Hanson and setting them to a funky dance beat. Hanson’s words were deftly rearranged so as to satirise the One Nation leader. It became so popular that a follow-up was released.
Given anyone with a computer can easily create satirical audio collages nowadays, it seems the stars have aligned for a 2016 Pauline Pantsdown revival. “I’m not sure yet,” Hunt said when asked about the possibility, “but it’s what people want. I don’t know whether it’s useful or not.”
“I always have to go with that idea of whether I am raising her stakes. Who are her supporters this time round, and am I helping her cause by satirising her?” Hunt told the ABC.
“Last time when I had my 15 minutes of fame, it was Aboriginal people and Asian people who came up to me and said ‘thank you for giving me a conduit to help me through the pain I felt’. So I don’t know yet. I’ll be thinking about it … I’m not a drag queen who dresses up to laugh at women.”
