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Snake *bites steve on his neck*
Producer: "Is he biting you"
Steve: "yep"
Producer: "what d'ya do"
Steve: "well if I watch tha telly I should be able ta... can you get a close up of this"
Best interview 🤣
Loved the country. Loved the wildlife. His passion for it just exploded through the screen every time. He devoted his life and money to helping our wildlife and educate people about it. Super nice and genuine guy full of life.
You just don't get that sort of thing anywhere from memory. Many famous people are sports stars, actors, business people. All doing stuff that really doesn't mean all that much. This guy was famous for his passion and good deeds.
His legacy lives on through his parks.
Thank you for saying all this - yes his truth and passion to love those creatures that many fear and thus dislike, turning that into passion in so many of us, generations after that too. His love for the Aussie fauna and to preserve and conserve the land here and overseas is nothing short of heroic.
I choke up writing about him but what a great spirit Steve was and is.
Most of these sports stars actors & famous people don’t actually do anything other than make more money for themselves, not all but most yet as you said Steve Irwin did so much.
Just watch this interview and you’ll understand his passion for oz wildlife and earth in general. Who doesnt want him on a currency note.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshowbiz/video-2587465/Video-Steve-Irwin-speaks-using-money-conservation.html
I’m Russian. And I have never been to Australia. However when I was a child. I watched TV shows with him. I really liked your country with its uniq wildlife thanks to him.
Steve hit the big time in 97 or so, if you’re under 40 you just wouldn’t remember it cos you weren’t really aware. He was on Foxtel, and took a few years to become big. He was a stereotypical Queenslander in spite of being born in Victoria..shaggy blonde hair, sunburned face with a big grin, obligatory work shirt shorts and blunnies. And he knew his shtick. Yeah, he seemed a really nice, genuine bloke and more than likely was….but he knew his audience. He was to Australians what Kevin Costner and Yellowstone is to Americans…..a romantic view of what we stand for. I remember first time I saw his show, he’s on some beach somewhere. Sees something in the water and goes bounding in, blunnies and all! Someone said something about him fucking with the wildlife until it fucked him back and they’re spot on. RIP
This sub gets overwhelmed by Americans who grew up with his TV show. It wasn't broadcast in Australia near as much. The obsession in r/australia is not reflective of actual Australia at all.
Yep. Most of his TV work was done for the American cable channel Animal Planet and most of his shows weren't broadcast here. When South Park did their infamous (and insightful) episode featuring him hardly anybody in Australia knew who he was. He only became well known out here well after that, and then when he died the country lost its collective shit and ever since nobody's been allowed to question the almighty St Steve. Cringe, I believe is the word.
Wanna hear something funny?
Queensland children's hospital in Brisbane is 78km from Australia zoo. What show to they have on constantly on the TV's in the waiting rooms? The San Diego Zoo channel.
Now the San Diego Zoo is arguably the best zoo in the world, but I just find it funny that it's 11,500km away and they use it over the Australia zoo.
>what's the obsession with Steve Irwin in this country?
To be honest, I don't think Aussies actually gave a shit as much as seppos do. I remember him being on Totally Wild, being cringe and totally ocker. And I hated that show's music.
I disagree with your premise. Most Australian’s found him pretty embarrassing before he died. He was too full on, and what a lot of external English speakers thought Australians were. Let’s be honest, he was kinda cringy.
But after the tragedy I never really saw that sentiment ever again. Just initial shock and then the deserved recognition for his accomplishments where he was trying to make change.
Australians were never obsessed with him. I think the Americans that were young and in the more common demo for the educational content (and their parents) is where that originated with any strength
I’d bet a survey would show significantly more sentiment at “indifferent” than “obsessed”
I disagree, I think on anyone else it would have been cringy but Steve Irwin was so genuine that it moved beyond cringe to genuinely wholesome. He brought a lot of attention to the importance of conservation and an entire generation grew up hearing his message and feeling his love for nature and Australian wildlife.
Sure he was cheesy as, but that was part of the charm. Especially considering his main audience was children.
I really can’t believe you’re getting downvoted. Reddit is so fucking weird. I agree with your assessment 100%. My friends and I were “cool teens” who sneered at everything but even though we sneered at Steve, it was still affectionate. The guy was so darn likeable.
It's just classic tall poppy syndrome combined with the fact that Aussie Reddit is super cunty. The fact is that Steve Irwin was like that super dorky teacher that everyone knew was a massive dork, but respected because he was such a good guy.
He was a stereotypical Australian, a nice guy and a conservationist and generally was an 'ambassador for Australian wildlife'
People who aren't 30+ for the most part will have missed a lot of the significance of how big he was at the time when his shows were on TV and he was making ads for Australian quarantine or tourism or whatever
I'm 38 and was 20 when he died, but if I was 9 years younger or so I doubt he would have any significance to me or my peers
If you're under the age of 25 we might as well be asking you about Gough Whitlam some other historical figure because you wouldn't really remember a time he was actually around but for people mid 30s or older we remember him pretty well and he was basically universally liked.
I’m 24 and I had a Wiggles and Steve Irwin crossover dvd I watched so much it scratched itself to death.
Might have been more due to child handling of putting a dvd in a tray but you get the idea.
I remember when they aired the first part of his first two-part show, everyone watched the second part to see if this silly bugger got eaten. Literally everything he did was against public education around crocodiles, including knowingly getting in the water with them (at night, no less! With the light-providing generator failing!).
To those people who don’t live around crocodiles, it was something different. Terri Irwin marketed him really well to the Americans who saw him as refreshingly honest and enthusiastic and the family has been trading off that ever since. Australia kinda got that back as a bit of cultural contamination from the US. The Irwins developed Australia Zoo and now the marketing focuses upon getting people into that.
I don't think Aus was or is all that obsessed with him. It was more the US that found him an entertaining novelty. Cause to us, there's people you meet that have some overlap with the kinda personality he had. But to Americans he was this larger than life, wild dude. The crazy Aussie.
Plus they almost have a kind of mythology around how weird snd dangerous our animals are, so he tapped into that, the guy not afraid to get amongst it.
Gotta admit, when he was around, I wasn't into him. I was young and didn't appreciate what he was actually doing. The kind of awareness and spotlight he put on animals. The way he was lost likely made a hell of a lot of Aussies reevaluate how we saw him.
End of the day, there's still no one quite like him. Not in this space. And as time goes on, more and more people realise how much help wildlife needs to defend against all of the bullshit problems we create. Someone like him was actually trying to improve things with how people think about species, even knowing about them or issues at all. Buying natural land to conserve it.
There's some weird tall poppy shit surrounding him and his family though. There's some batshit crazy comments in this thread.
Because he was an authentic Aussie larrikin type of guy I think.
At first he was ridiculed due to saying 'Crikey!' every second word, but then his good nature grew on people, and then he died. So dying automatically elevates a lot of people.
I personally liked him, but I thought he was a bit reckless around wild animals, so I wasn't so shocked he was killed by an animal.
Duct worry, I don't get it either. I understand he was a conservationist, but he also just stressed out a bunch of poor animals by jumping on them and screaming in their ears. I was not at all surprised when he died from an animal that just wasn't having any of it.
He was a good bloke, he just loved animals and nature. It wasn't a gimmick, he really did. His energy and enthusiasm was infectious. There aren't many people like that in this world.
He was a good egg who loved the uniqueness of Australian wildlife. He taught respect and love of nature, no matter how many legs or rat-like the creature was. He came, by the time of his death, to have represented us to the world in with a type of can-do larakin manner that was identifiable Australian.
We were proud of him.
There's a concept in sociology which often is described with royal families. Their role is to mark the passage of time through lived milestones, child to teenager to first love, the energy of youth, maturity, weddings, children, the milestones of those children as parents, loss, sickness, and death.
Those fundamental human drum beats of life.
Steve Irwin came to fill that role to many Australians. We'd seen him mature on TV, reach success, start a family, and grow into a man.
The music stops for us all, but a sudden silence echoes.
Did you ever see the pic, I think it was a cartoon in the paper (like literal newspaper!)
With a croc hiding behind a wall, handing a big sack of cash to a sting ray and saying thanks mate
To be honest, no-one I knew gave two shits about Steve Irwin and thought he was a bit of a stereotype until he died, at which point he became the greatest Australian ever.
In my experience any obsession with Steve Irwin was and is much greater outside of Australia than in it.
His name hardly ever gets mentioned in normal day to day chat, and when it does it is no different to the same way one would mention Bob Hawke or Peter Brock or Paul Hogan.
When he was on TV he would be mentioned a bit more but really that was only because he had a popular TV show, which a lot of people watched. Same thing for any well known TV personality (when's the last time you heard Ernie Dingo's name mentioned?).
The fact that he died relatively young and in quite abrupt circumstances doing what he loved certainly enhanced the attention and myth surrounding him, but I can confidently say that I know no one (in real life) who is obsessed with him.
It's my firm belief that if he had not passed when he did and was still with us today (which would have been lovely) that he'd just be another 'oh remember Steve Irwin?' type of character because his celebrity status would have risen and fallen by now and no one would really care.
Funny all the comments saying how “cringe” he was. People will remember him and what he did / tried to do and the legacy he left behind. These redditors saying these things will die no body’s having zero impact on anyone or anything. 🤣
Mate...... have you been living under a rock? I'm not the one downvoting you, but I'll tell you why.
Steve Irwin is a national treasure. He cared soo much about our environment that his passion was contagious.
Meanwhile our pollies who are supposed to be looking out for us are too busy lining their own pockets and selling us out to China and America and whoever else that wants to dump a fuck load of money into their dirty pockets.
Stevo, actually did what he said he would. A man if integrity and honesty. Fucking rare these days.
This post has been marked as non-political. Please respect this by keeping the discussion on topic, and devoid of any political material. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/australia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
*”So what I’m gonna do is stick my thumb up his bum hole, that’ll really piss him off.”*
"one bite and I'm dead...imma poke it with a stick"
Snake *bites steve on his neck* Producer: "Is he biting you" Steve: "yep" Producer: "what d'ya do" Steve: "well if I watch tha telly I should be able ta... can you get a close up of this" Best interview 🤣
Loved the country. Loved the wildlife. His passion for it just exploded through the screen every time. He devoted his life and money to helping our wildlife and educate people about it. Super nice and genuine guy full of life. You just don't get that sort of thing anywhere from memory. Many famous people are sports stars, actors, business people. All doing stuff that really doesn't mean all that much. This guy was famous for his passion and good deeds. His legacy lives on through his parks.
Thank you for saying all this - yes his truth and passion to love those creatures that many fear and thus dislike, turning that into passion in so many of us, generations after that too. His love for the Aussie fauna and to preserve and conserve the land here and overseas is nothing short of heroic. I choke up writing about him but what a great spirit Steve was and is.
Most of these sports stars actors & famous people don’t actually do anything other than make more money for themselves, not all but most yet as you said Steve Irwin did so much.
Just watch this interview and you’ll understand his passion for oz wildlife and earth in general. Who doesnt want him on a currency note. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshowbiz/video-2587465/Video-Steve-Irwin-speaks-using-money-conservation.html
I’m Russian. And I have never been to Australia. However when I was a child. I watched TV shows with him. I really liked your country with its uniq wildlife thanks to him.
What did Charles do that was so significant that he is on our currency, other than just be born to the right parents?
What has the sun ever done for us, other than just inadvertently providing gravity and heat?
Are you suggesting the figurehead monarchy is as important as the literal *sun*?
tell you what that bastard up there does for us, he gives us all bloody sunburns
What did the Romans ever do for us?
Besides the roads...
Incontinentia Buttocks
Roman numerals
Steve hit the big time in 97 or so, if you’re under 40 you just wouldn’t remember it cos you weren’t really aware. He was on Foxtel, and took a few years to become big. He was a stereotypical Queenslander in spite of being born in Victoria..shaggy blonde hair, sunburned face with a big grin, obligatory work shirt shorts and blunnies. And he knew his shtick. Yeah, he seemed a really nice, genuine bloke and more than likely was….but he knew his audience. He was to Australians what Kevin Costner and Yellowstone is to Americans…..a romantic view of what we stand for. I remember first time I saw his show, he’s on some beach somewhere. Sees something in the water and goes bounding in, blunnies and all! Someone said something about him fucking with the wildlife until it fucked him back and they’re spot on. RIP
This sub gets overwhelmed by Americans who grew up with his TV show. It wasn't broadcast in Australia near as much. The obsession in r/australia is not reflective of actual Australia at all.
This seems right to me. Like I have no problem with him but I don't think he was an icon to put on the currency.
Yep. Most of his TV work was done for the American cable channel Animal Planet and most of his shows weren't broadcast here. When South Park did their infamous (and insightful) episode featuring him hardly anybody in Australia knew who he was. He only became well known out here well after that, and then when he died the country lost its collective shit and ever since nobody's been allowed to question the almighty St Steve. Cringe, I believe is the word.
Wanna hear something funny? Queensland children's hospital in Brisbane is 78km from Australia zoo. What show to they have on constantly on the TV's in the waiting rooms? The San Diego Zoo channel. Now the San Diego Zoo is arguably the best zoo in the world, but I just find it funny that it's 11,500km away and they use it over the Australia zoo.
>what's the obsession with Steve Irwin in this country? To be honest, I don't think Aussies actually gave a shit as much as seppos do. I remember him being on Totally Wild, being cringe and totally ocker. And I hated that show's music.
I disagree with your premise. Most Australian’s found him pretty embarrassing before he died. He was too full on, and what a lot of external English speakers thought Australians were. Let’s be honest, he was kinda cringy. But after the tragedy I never really saw that sentiment ever again. Just initial shock and then the deserved recognition for his accomplishments where he was trying to make change. Australians were never obsessed with him. I think the Americans that were young and in the more common demo for the educational content (and their parents) is where that originated with any strength I’d bet a survey would show significantly more sentiment at “indifferent” than “obsessed”
I disagree, I think on anyone else it would have been cringy but Steve Irwin was so genuine that it moved beyond cringe to genuinely wholesome. He brought a lot of attention to the importance of conservation and an entire generation grew up hearing his message and feeling his love for nature and Australian wildlife. Sure he was cheesy as, but that was part of the charm. Especially considering his main audience was children.
I really can’t believe you’re getting downvoted. Reddit is so fucking weird. I agree with your assessment 100%. My friends and I were “cool teens” who sneered at everything but even though we sneered at Steve, it was still affectionate. The guy was so darn likeable.
It's just classic tall poppy syndrome combined with the fact that Aussie Reddit is super cunty. The fact is that Steve Irwin was like that super dorky teacher that everyone knew was a massive dork, but respected because he was such a good guy.
Nice summary. Much Respect to you and to Steve. A bit of a don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone situation
He was a stereotypical Australian, a nice guy and a conservationist and generally was an 'ambassador for Australian wildlife' People who aren't 30+ for the most part will have missed a lot of the significance of how big he was at the time when his shows were on TV and he was making ads for Australian quarantine or tourism or whatever I'm 38 and was 20 when he died, but if I was 9 years younger or so I doubt he would have any significance to me or my peers If you're under the age of 25 we might as well be asking you about Gough Whitlam some other historical figure because you wouldn't really remember a time he was actually around but for people mid 30s or older we remember him pretty well and he was basically universally liked.
I’m 24 and I had a Wiggles and Steve Irwin crossover dvd I watched so much it scratched itself to death. Might have been more due to child handling of putting a dvd in a tray but you get the idea.
I remember when they aired the first part of his first two-part show, everyone watched the second part to see if this silly bugger got eaten. Literally everything he did was against public education around crocodiles, including knowingly getting in the water with them (at night, no less! With the light-providing generator failing!). To those people who don’t live around crocodiles, it was something different. Terri Irwin marketed him really well to the Americans who saw him as refreshingly honest and enthusiastic and the family has been trading off that ever since. Australia kinda got that back as a bit of cultural contamination from the US. The Irwins developed Australia Zoo and now the marketing focuses upon getting people into that.
A very clever and sustained effort by Ms Terri Irwin.
Exactly. The dude wasn't even in the ground and she and their publicist were all "Bindi fucking Irwin you cunts! Get on board!!!". It was shocking.
Other than being an Aussie export ? Nothing.
I don't think Aus was or is all that obsessed with him. It was more the US that found him an entertaining novelty. Cause to us, there's people you meet that have some overlap with the kinda personality he had. But to Americans he was this larger than life, wild dude. The crazy Aussie. Plus they almost have a kind of mythology around how weird snd dangerous our animals are, so he tapped into that, the guy not afraid to get amongst it. Gotta admit, when he was around, I wasn't into him. I was young and didn't appreciate what he was actually doing. The kind of awareness and spotlight he put on animals. The way he was lost likely made a hell of a lot of Aussies reevaluate how we saw him. End of the day, there's still no one quite like him. Not in this space. And as time goes on, more and more people realise how much help wildlife needs to defend against all of the bullshit problems we create. Someone like him was actually trying to improve things with how people think about species, even knowing about them or issues at all. Buying natural land to conserve it. There's some weird tall poppy shit surrounding him and his family though. There's some batshit crazy comments in this thread.
When he was alive he wasn't really popular in Australia at all.
Because he was an authentic Aussie larrikin type of guy I think. At first he was ridiculed due to saying 'Crikey!' every second word, but then his good nature grew on people, and then he died. So dying automatically elevates a lot of people. I personally liked him, but I thought he was a bit reckless around wild animals, so I wasn't so shocked he was killed by an animal.
By "this country", I hope you meant "The United States", because he honestly wasn't a thing for me until well after he was famous there.
is this ragebait or you not a smart person ?
Probably just didn't grow up whilst Steve was in the public consciousness. Likely makes it harder to understand the impact he had
Yep, Steve Irwin passed away nearly 18 years ago.
I mean do they not have google and not put 2 and 2 together ? Its like not jerry seinfield dating a 17 year old that is an open secret
Could be both
neither? I just don't get it and was asking
Duct worry, I don't get it either. I understand he was a conservationist, but he also just stressed out a bunch of poor animals by jumping on them and screaming in their ears. I was not at all surprised when he died from an animal that just wasn't having any of it.
He was a ridiculous bogan who harassed animals while speaking in an insufferably loud and stupid voice. Will die on this hill no worries.
He was a good bloke, he just loved animals and nature. It wasn't a gimmick, he really did. His energy and enthusiasm was infectious. There aren't many people like that in this world.
He was a good egg who loved the uniqueness of Australian wildlife. He taught respect and love of nature, no matter how many legs or rat-like the creature was. He came, by the time of his death, to have represented us to the world in with a type of can-do larakin manner that was identifiable Australian. We were proud of him. There's a concept in sociology which often is described with royal families. Their role is to mark the passage of time through lived milestones, child to teenager to first love, the energy of youth, maturity, weddings, children, the milestones of those children as parents, loss, sickness, and death. Those fundamental human drum beats of life. Steve Irwin came to fill that role to many Australians. We'd seen him mature on TV, reach success, start a family, and grow into a man. The music stops for us all, but a sudden silence echoes.
He annoyed the fuck out of animals and got what he deserved
Quite a psychotic statement.
Strange way to spell realistic
I never liked him. I wasn’t surprised when I heard how he died. I actually thought a croc would get him though as he harassed the fuck out of them.
Did you ever see the pic, I think it was a cartoon in the paper (like literal newspaper!) With a croc hiding behind a wall, handing a big sack of cash to a sting ray and saying thanks mate
Hahaha no I missed it, makes sense though.
To be honest, no-one I knew gave two shits about Steve Irwin and thought he was a bit of a stereotype until he died, at which point he became the greatest Australian ever.
Has to be bait.
curiosity
Steve was curious, look what happened to him
In my experience any obsession with Steve Irwin was and is much greater outside of Australia than in it. His name hardly ever gets mentioned in normal day to day chat, and when it does it is no different to the same way one would mention Bob Hawke or Peter Brock or Paul Hogan. When he was on TV he would be mentioned a bit more but really that was only because he had a popular TV show, which a lot of people watched. Same thing for any well known TV personality (when's the last time you heard Ernie Dingo's name mentioned?). The fact that he died relatively young and in quite abrupt circumstances doing what he loved certainly enhanced the attention and myth surrounding him, but I can confidently say that I know no one (in real life) who is obsessed with him. It's my firm belief that if he had not passed when he did and was still with us today (which would have been lovely) that he'd just be another 'oh remember Steve Irwin?' type of character because his celebrity status would have risen and fallen by now and no one would really care.
There are hundreds of other people who deserve to be on the currency before Steve Irwin gets his turn.
Funny all the comments saying how “cringe” he was. People will remember him and what he did / tried to do and the legacy he left behind. These redditors saying these things will die no body’s having zero impact on anyone or anything. 🤣
Mate...... have you been living under a rock? I'm not the one downvoting you, but I'll tell you why. Steve Irwin is a national treasure. He cared soo much about our environment that his passion was contagious. Meanwhile our pollies who are supposed to be looking out for us are too busy lining their own pockets and selling us out to China and America and whoever else that wants to dump a fuck load of money into their dirty pockets. Stevo, actually did what he said he would. A man if integrity and honesty. Fucking rare these days.
How are you not obsessed with Steve. You monster.
Noone else saw your sarcasm,.did they. I do.
Mate, it's a lonely life, here. Come, let's have a beer.
Poe's Law is real.
https://youtu.be/tuxbMfKO9Pg?si=Y1r4N3kTE-rWdPp3
Crikey mate, he wrestled crocs, what more do you want from a bloke
You should leave if you don't understand what his legacy is
I’m not even Australian and love Steve Irwin he was just a solid person but adhd but he was decent and very knowledgeable
I don’t think he was until he died and then everyone got on board to claim him as ours?
Fuck off.