BREAKING NEWS! And now Brocky’s DEAD too! Not Brocky?! The World’s Greatest Race Car Driver and Proud Proponent of Mobil Oils (even though he couldn’t look you in the eye when praising it).
Don Chipp, Steve Irwin, Brocky and... that guy who wrote Storm Boy... all in a week! I can only sit back in stunned silence and ask, “What’s going on?” and “Will that nasty Germ hack into Brocky before he’s even in the ground as well?!” He did plunder the earth's precious resources racing cars, after all.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
UPDATE: Who needs the old Germ to bash Brocky before his body's even cooled when his ex-wife is happy enough to step in with a shovel herself! She was on TV within hours of the accident saying Brocky had always put racing first and that the kids had really felt that. She didn't say she was glad he was dead, but you got the feeling. Even more surprising were Brocky's brothers who were talking about him in a such a composed and matter of fact way that you would have thought he'd only broken a leg! Sure, Brocky was no Steve Irwin, but I've been surprised at how 'meh' everyone, even including the media, have been about it. Maybe it's all just been too much, too fast?
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Dear Brocky, such an Ausi Legend, I was looking forward to your tribute 'repeat interview' this week on Denton...But no it got bumped to next week! For Al Gore... Not only does he crash into your tribute moment but all he talks about is green house gasses and global warming...the very things you worked all your life to build up! After all, who spewed out more carbon monoxide exhaust than you Brocky? You must be spinning in your grave...
ReplyDeleteBrocky wouldn’t be spinning in his grave, CK; he’d be doing donuts. :-)
ReplyDeleteI was surprised as well when Brocky didn’t bump Big Al. I heard Andrew Denton on the radio that morning and he was mumbling something I can’t recall exactly, but it was along the lines of having to go ahead with Al’s interview while he was in Australia, or something. I’m not sure why, it’s not like it was broadcast live, and I wouldn’t have thought Al’s presence in the country would affect the ratings either way? I guess Brocky’s just a second-class celebrity. Only the King of the Mountain, not the Former Vice King of the World.
Of course, it goes without saying that Peter Brock did more for the environment than Al Gore has, or ever will.
ReplyDelete(And yes, I am serious.)
As a meat-eating Christian with next to no interest in motorsport (except for truck racing) I can’t say I had much in common with Brocky, or that he had much of an impact on my life. I’d say the most significant influence came via the Mobil commercials I alluded to in my original post. Set up to look like an unscripted interview, Brocky would praise the many virtues of the oil in a series of monologues, purportedly to an off-camera interviewer. In an episode of The Panel, Rob Sitch pointed out how they made him feel like Brocky was talking to him without looking at him, (like when newsreaders talk to the wrong camera) and, leaning forward over the Big Desk, he held out his hand and started clicking his fingers, calling out, “Brocky, Brocky,” in an attempt to draw his attention.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you had to be there, but I found it hilarious, and it became my default way to get someone’s attention if I felt they were ignoring me or were otherwise distracted. It was a technique I used nearly every time I spoke to Ahab at work because the man simply cannot have a conversation on the phone for longer than 10 seconds before getting distracted by the big, shiny thing on his desk (his monitor) and falling silent. Even mid-sentence, his voice would drop off and he'd fall silent. Clicking my fingers down the line and saying, “Brocky? Brocky?” would get his attention back, but I had to talk quickly because it wouldn’t be back for long. (Ultimately I began to insist he spin his seat around 180 degrees before I’d say a word, which seemed to work. Sort of.)
Triple J - Are you saying that Brocky did a lot, or that Al's done nothing?
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, when Max sent me the email notifying me of the Breaking Brocky News, I somehow ended up on Wikipedia where I discovered Brocky's page had already been updated with the details of his death! Within three hours! Who's the guy whose first thought on hearing the news is, "Right, gotta update the Wiki!"?
ReplyDeleteTroph, when I wrote that comment I was thinking of the fact that motor sport provides an ongoing incentive for car manufacturers to improve their technology in - among other areas - fuel economy.
ReplyDeleteThe fuel used by the racers is more than compensated for by the far greater number of cars being driven by non-racers using less fuel for their journeys, thanks to innovations first used in racing vehicles.
Now, having said that, there's also the fact that Al Gore has done sweet bugger all for the environment, but that's not what I was thinking about.
(Incidentally, it's a shame that his tour to Australia didn't come a week earlier than it did. The negative publicity he would have got at home for bumping Steve Irwin off Denton would have just about killed off his fifth? sixth? doomed Presidential bid.)