A scandal of poultry proportions

Roar Pro

By Benjamin Conkey, 10 Apr 2009 Benjamin Conkey is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: AFL, Brent Harvey, North Melbourne Kangaroos

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It’s early days in the latest football misdemeanour, an AFL scandal already dubbed, Chicken-Gate. If you haven’t heard the news yet, the Kangaroos AFL team are in trouble after making a sex video about a Rooster.

I’ve just seen a short clip of the video. It’s nothing more than grown men acting like kids. It’s actually the kind of video that would of done well in a video production class at university.

The Kangaroos players told a story using Boris the Rooster, a sexual deviant who couldn’t resist having it off with a real chicken.

Unfortunately, though, for the players, they aren’t filmmakers. They are paid to play football, not direct the next Tropfest short film.

It’s the kind of humour Sam Newman uses all the time on the Footy Show. He gets away with it because he’s an entertainer.

Kangaroos captain Brent Harvey says the video was only made as an in-house joke. But that was until someone decided to put it on Youtube.

It’s not the worst thing football players have ever done. But in this climate, with all the problems facing all codes of football, it was quite a stupid thing to do.

In saying that, I find it ridiculous that the AFL is going to ‘educate’ the players. I think the public humiliation of this is already enough. I’m sure the players are already thinking that the only thing they did wrong was to put it on Youtube.

It was a bit of pre-season fun.

Perhaps they should be applauded for getting creative, rather than drinking another ten beers and physically harming someone.

I find all this talk about how offensive the video is funny. If people know the video is offensive, why do they even watch it?

Because we are all voyeuristic, deep down.

We want to know what everyone is talking about. If someone says we should be offended, we are.

Maybe I’ve watched too many South Park and Family Guy episodes, but it wasn’t that offensive. It was just a childish prank that no one would ever know about, if someone had kept the video in the club’s locker room.

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The Crowd Says (32) | Page 1 of Comments

matta said | April 10th 2009 @ 1:58pm | Report comment

Ok, I just watched the clip on youtube. WTF is going on in this world? who found issue with that really? I mean who actually said it was offensive?

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drewster said | April 10th 2009 @ 2:10pm | Report comment

Yep! have to agree Matta and Ben Whats all the fuss about? I mean it’s not gonna win any award at the porno fest is it?
“Chicken Gate” hey! Smells more like “Chicken Shit”

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Kurt said | April 10th 2009 @ 4:02pm | Report comment

No one was actually outraged by this video, but a number of people suffered the increasingly common malaise known as ‘fake outrage’. This is where people claim to be offended by something in order to make an ideological point – i.e.- that men are bad, women are victims etc. And because the bar is lifted ever and ever higher by people expressing their fake outrage in increasingly over the top ways, a silly rooster sex video receives the same level of vitriolic criticism that say, a terrorist atrocity would have received 20 years ago.

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Dave said | April 10th 2009 @ 4:53pm | Report comment

“No one was actually outraged by this video” Errr and you can back that statement up with fact/stats??
The writer and repondents so far are all male.
l’m afraid this attitiude is part of the problem here…unfortunately stats shown that men overwhelmingly commit the majority of cases of sexual violence crimes reported. Whilst l have seen only part of the video it obviously comes from the Sam Newman school of humour…to denigrate and humiliate in the name of ‘fun’.
No doubt you guys would be happy to come to my daughters secondary school, show the video and explain to the girls the humour of it all!
The club has now done the right thing and the players donating to a violence against womens refuse is a positive…all part of the learning curve for players who have too much time, too much money and not enough education.

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Kurt said | April 10th 2009 @ 6:18pm | Report comment

Dave – your response is exactly the sort of thing I am talking about. It’s a video about a rubber rooster for goodness sake, and you actually have to search for it on the web to view it – by equating puerile humour with actual violence you actually trivialise a serious issue.

And as for your daughter’s seconday school, I’m willing to bet they view and share all sorts of stuff online that comfortably fits within the category of puerile adolescent humour – regardless of what the proud parents and protective teachers think.

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Dave said | April 10th 2009 @ 6:36pm | Report comment

So Kurt you didnt answer my question? How do you know no one was outraged (l would point to the clubs response as indicating quite the opposite)? It would also indicate a total lack of understanding on your part of the issues at hand…perhaps when you have a daughter you may gain some of that understanding.
Trivial and puerile you may believe but given the string of serious allegations against so many footballers of all codes l am afraid the attitude behind such videos/pranks/misunderstandings etc and the defense of such by the groups of boys/mates/blokes claiming “political correctness gone mad’ is wearing just a little thin.

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Kurt said | April 10th 2009 @ 6:45pm | Report comment

OK, you’re right Dave, I don’t know that no one was outraged. What I should have said was ‘No reasonable or sensible person was outraged’. Happy now?

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Dave said | April 10th 2009 @ 7:12pm | Report comment

Kurt, you are missing the point. The main point is that if people (even the football club took offence) are offended then the people doing the offending should have a good look at what they are doing. We are not talking about adolescent school boys who probably dont know better, but a group of so called mature men, who would have received some form of prior education through the AFL on issues such as sexual harrassment, violence against women etc. You can look at the video purely on the superficial level as you have, but it’s the attitude and lack of understanding displayed by those who put it together which is the major concern and issue at hand. It appears that the players involved have realised the significance of their failings in this regard which has led to the apologies, fines, donations etc. Further education in such matters for those players will close the issue.
BTW the media overkill is part of AFL in Melb as you are well aware. It helps build up the hype to bring in the patrons with the downside plain for all to see.

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Michael C said | April 10th 2009 @ 9:26pm | Report comment

Dave Dave DAve…….why would you do anything other than look at such a video only ever intended for internal viewing in anything other than a superficial/satirical way?

btw – with my 3 kids (inc a daughter), I was much more concerned about the blanker media coverage of a non-issue. My kids would have no exposure to it at all – - – other than via the news coverage.

What I can’t handle is the Herald Sun, going on about it, the outrage etc……and then having the H-S website inc. a link to “View the chicken video here”.

Look, it’s not my taste, I never liked SouthPark, wasn’t too fussed about Tarantino movies, and think that the Pussy Cat Dolls are not a real ‘musical’ act. So, a lot of ‘satire’, art, etc is lost on me. But, seemingly there are those such as yourself who no longer want such ‘entertainment’ to be permitted to continue??? We can no longer allow it assuming purely superficiality?? Come on, get a grip. Actually, I still can’t get over the CNNN folk on their most recent version of their shows when they had a fellow running around with a stocking on his head?? Madness. Stupid. And aired on ABC tv.

It makes me think of someone telling a dirty joke. And then, having to take the responsibility for the person they told it to because that person went and repeated the joke …. inadvisedly. I see the more offensive behaviour not being those who first told the joke, but, those who don’t know when NOT to tell it.

btw – I suspect that the video, should we choose to be a little overly academic and dig a bit deeper, the video might be a ‘cry for help’ by a group of players burdened by their strict dietary regime. The frozen chicken should not be seen purely as a symbol of Steggles or Inghams, but, more broadly, KFC, Red Rooster, and let’s not be so literal, fast/junk food in general……and, ……easter eggs…….

yep..it’s evil, I know….

and my wife and kids attended the school holiday open training session on Thursday and one of the young players admitted as much that he was going to ‘rebel’ and have an easter egg.

That’s it. That’s the academic interpretation of it. Boris the rubber chicken is reflective of a guilty desire for guilty pleasures….for easter eggs.

or, should we let some academics interpret it in other ways??

btw – is it really demeaning to women? I’ve heard that said. I’d have thought potentially offensive to women, and perhaps demeaning to men. Hey, mebbe that was the point?? Mebbe it was a satirical extension of the player group education programs??

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Kurt said | April 10th 2009 @ 9:47pm | Report comment

Dave – there is an inherent logical problem with your view that if people are offended by something then ipso facto it must be offensive. Surely there should be some test of ‘reasonableness’ applied, otherwise we can all choose to be offended by pretty much anything, demand apologies, compensation etc. irrespective of the circumstances. This is particularly so when the material giving offence has to be actively sought out on the Internet, meaning that noone can reasonably claim to have been exposed to the material unwittingly.

Anyway, I’m off now to watch my uncut copy of Team America: World Police – gotta love that puppet sex scene.

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