Thursday, February 14, 2008

For the Love of Rugby and Parody: Response to Class Discussion

For some, February is the month of ‘love’ being that the 14th is Valentines Day. However, since I was young February has also held a different type of importance to me. Never could I love a person as much as I love my sport – Rugby, a gentleman’s game enjoyed by ruffians and hooligans.

February marks the beginning of two very important tournaments in the sport – The Six Nations (comprised of England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Italy & France) as well as the Super 14 (a club tournament with 5 South African, 5 New Zealand and 4 Australian club teams). In keeping with our class discussion of fake news, irony and parody within the media I came across a wide array of images and articles relating to these three topics. Of course, what better way to spread Valentines love with the help of Rugby and fake news?


Being that my heritage is English it goes against the grain of my nature to promote such garbage teams as France and hopefully you will forgive me for being biased because of my pride. The images I found were generated after England won the Webb Ellis (the sport’s most important trophy/ the World Cup) in 2003 by defeating Australia in overtime in Sydney, Australia. Below are some ironic images England used post-World Cup to assert their new status as World Champions. My particular favourite is the Sydney Opera House with St. George's flag and the English Rose slapped across it.


In the 2007 World Cup, England went in as the massive underdog, with Ireland and South Africa looking extremely strong and in beautiful form. That’s not to say the English didn’t have their fun with parody and propaganda to promote their way through the tournament. Perhaps their fun loving nature depicted by the images below was what motivated them to a final with heavy favourites South Africa Springboks. Please take note; we did beat Australia in quarter finals, with several depressed Aussie having to be assisted by mates to the help lines below. Also, the dominant hand of English Rugby squashed French hopes in semi-finals (on their own soil nonetheless, being as RWC 2007 was held in France), much like a dirty Englishmen squishing a frog in his hand (sorry if this is culturally offensive to French readers).

A final with the South Africans was set and England had left all other teams in utter disbelief because of their weak pool play. But things had turned around lately for English fans with their surprising big wins over Rugby giants France (for a 'spoof' pre-match assessment see article 3 below) and Australia. A close game, some poor refereeing and some stupid penalties on England’s part helped the South Africans hoist the Webb Ellis on the 20th of October 2007. However, the following day vital information disallowing South Africa the cup was discovered (please see links below for full articles.)

"The South African team were boarding their Apartheid Airlines flight for their triumphant journey home when the story broke and French Air Traffic controllers refused to give the aircraft clearance for take off.

After armed Gendarmes boarded the plane and arrested full back Percy Montgomery the World Cup was seized and tagged as stolen property, the
Springboks were taken from the aircraft in disgrace, Habana was close to tears,"I just cant believe it! They said if we won they would let me sit on a seat on the way home and even have some food."A Rugby World Cup Attorney confirmed this afternoon that Montgomery had been found to be ineligible because he is under contract to Steven Spielberg's Production company, Dreamworks and has been cast as Prince Charming in the next 39 Shrek Films." TheSpoof.com (see link 1 for full article)

If only this were true, I would be one happy Englishman. However, after reading this article I had a good chuckle and realized there is always 2011 to bring the cup back to England. TheSpoof.com also had another interesting article regarding English Rugby. On February 2nd, 2008, England opened their Six Nations campaign against Wales at Twickenham (their home field in London). Being that Wales hadn’t won at Twickenham in roughly 25 years, I was relatively disappointed when they beat England. Since England’s national soccer team haven’t won a FIFA World Cup since 1966, and have grown even worse since the appearance of the notorious ‘David Beckham’, I found TheSpoof.com article relieving. At least someone could make light of the current state of British sport.

The English rugby team has found itself in hot water with the government's watchdog for mediocrity. The Council for Underperformance in National Teams has launched an investigation into how the England XV nearly won at Twickenham yesterday.The unfortunately acronymed Council made the following statement: "We are pleased at how poorly the England Football and Cricket teams have been playing recently, and the results have enabled England to maintain its worldwide reputation for being perennial losers. We were apalled at the dominant position the England rugby team had achieved after forty minutes. Praise should go to Brian Ashton whose team talk at half time did the trick and allowed Wales to beat us." - TheSpoof.com (see link 2 for full article)


I hope my exploration of parody and Rugby was entertaining. If I had of had the time to throw together a proper thesis for this piece it probably would have read something like ‘my essay will attempt to prove that a) parody is useful to relieve tension and make light of situations and b) by some miracle of God, Rugby players are now able not only to lay big hits and consume alcohol in vast quantities, but scientists have discovered they are now trying to associated with other human beings by attempting speech and the most advanced specimens studied can even joke and parody things.

Links:

Article 1 - http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s3i26027
Article 2 - http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s1i29872
Article 3 - http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s6i25717

Other Rugby Spoofs:

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s6i29890
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s6i25780
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s6i25849
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s6i25773

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