Kevin Rudd’s head is entitled to have swollen a fair bit recently. All week newspaper frontpages have been telling him how magnificent he is and how not-magnificent the current PM is. But just as magnificent as Rudd’s approval ratings is the gaffe (or perhaps, Freudian slip) he made this morning.
Kevin747 had just landed back home, shoulders sore after rubbing them against UN boffins all week in New York, when he said during an interview with a regional radio station that he was a “very happy little vegemite being Prime Minister - being Foreign Minister of Australia”.
It’s a ruddy spectacular slip, especially considering the leadership speculation kerfuffle of the past month. To commemorate such a brilliant verbal stuff-up, The Punch presents a few of the more embarrassing or just plain unfortunate conversational cock-ups of recent times.
1. Obama gets Jews and janitors confused
The President of the United States is having a bit of a rough patch with his Jewish support base lately. This gaffe, reported by The Los Angeles Times, might not help that much.
“If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I’ll wear that with a badge of honour. I have no problem with that.”
2. Jimmy Kimmel on anatomy
Callista Flockhart’s an attractive woman. And American talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel got a bit tongue-tied when she visited him on-set. He was meant to say “roll that clip”. It came out as “roll that clit”.
3. You’re not misapprehending this
Prime Minister Julia Gillard undoubtedly regretted this slip-up on the floor of the House of Reps: “I thank the Member for Melbourne for his question, and it gives me the opportunity to create some misapprehensions…”
The Prime Minister has also pronounced “hyperbole” as hyper-bowl in an interview with the ABC.
4. Justin Bieber on international relations
Bieber is in the air almost as much as our Prime Minister, so you’d think he might know a fair bit about other cultures. But he got confused when an interviewer in New Zealand started to talk to him about other languages. “German?” he asked. “I don’t know what that means. We don’t say that in America.”
5. Tony Abbott’s “shit happens” remark.
For once, I’m sure Kevin agrees with him. What are some of your favourite gaffes?
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@karalee_ yeah, have concluded same after cursory look at a few. Scary that some brands might actually use them
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