After years of challenge in the courts, both parents were absolved of the crime, and a coroner found Azaria’s death was, in fact, the result of being eaten by a dingo.
How fucking awful. Your baby gets eaten by a wild animal, you get charged with murder, and then your trauma becomes an international joke for years.
Similar with the woman who spilled McDonald’s coffee on her lap and sued. International joke because of McDonald’s smear campaign, but it turned out their coffee was legitimately served too hot to cut costs.
The spilled coffee soaked through her clothes while she was sitting buckled in her car seatbelt and the coffee was so hot that her skin melted and her labia fused together 😱
She originally just asked them to pay for the medical expenses too. McDonald’s refused and ended up paying much more in legal expenses and what was awarded to the lady.
That’s the nature of many tragedies I’m afraid. Monty Python and The Holy Grail comes to mind where I recall it opening to the bubonic plague of people being thrown onto a cart with someone screaming “Bring out yer dead!” and the joke is someone tries to ‘bring out’ someone that’s still alive, insisting they’ll be dead soon.
I don’t think anyone really ascribes malice to the jokes, it’s just a way to cope through dark history.
There’s a movie with Sam Neil about this story. We had to watch it in high school, before the Seinfeld episode came out, and we all just about died with the mom yelling about the dingo eating her baby. it wasn’t supposed to be funny but it absolutely was.
It’s one of those things where it was awful (and I always believed she was telling the truth), but it was also absurd and you really couldn’t help laughing and then feeling awful about it immediately.
And with Elaine it was just played so perfectly to her character. “Maybe a dingo ate your baby.” “Whaaat?”
“I said: Maybe… A Dingo… Ate… Your Baby.” Followed by a self-satisfied nod to acknowledge her zinger. She so clearly thought she had just won a dance contest and everyone else in the room was just WTF.
Sorry for the recap, but it was such a great Elaine moment. Beautiful, well educated, but sometimes just an unhinged sociopath.
For anyone who is not familiar with the premise behind this joke
How fucking awful. Your baby gets eaten by a wild animal, you get charged with murder, and then your trauma becomes an international joke for years.
Similar with the woman who spilled McDonald’s coffee on her lap and sued. International joke because of McDonald’s smear campaign, but it turned out their coffee was legitimately served too hot to cut costs.
The spilled coffee soaked through her clothes while she was sitting buckled in her car seatbelt and the coffee was so hot that her skin melted and her labia fused together 😱
She originally just asked them to pay for the medical expenses too. McDonald’s refused and ended up paying much more in legal expenses and what was awarded to the lady.
That’s the nature of many tragedies I’m afraid. Monty Python and The Holy Grail comes to mind where I recall it opening to the bubonic plague of people being thrown onto a cart with someone screaming “Bring out yer dead!” and the joke is someone tries to ‘bring out’ someone that’s still alive, insisting they’ll be dead soon.
I don’t think anyone really ascribes malice to the jokes, it’s just a way to cope through dark history.
The bubonic plague was a little further back in history.
If you want something more recent, I think something happened in 2001 but I can’t quite remember.
Some sort of fraction, i think the denominator was 11
It was a global tragedy. I know a guy who had to walk through blood and bones looking for his brother.
I first heard it on Seinfeld. It’s amazing that it was used so much in pop-culture.
There’s a movie with Sam Neil about this story. We had to watch it in high school, before the Seinfeld episode came out, and we all just about died with the mom yelling about the dingo eating her baby. it wasn’t supposed to be funny but it absolutely was.
It’s one of those things where it was awful (and I always believed she was telling the truth), but it was also absurd and you really couldn’t help laughing and then feeling awful about it immediately.
And with Elaine it was just played so perfectly to her character. “Maybe a dingo ate your baby.” “Whaaat?”
“I said: Maybe… A Dingo… Ate… Your Baby.” Followed by a self-satisfied nod to acknowledge her zinger. She so clearly thought she had just won a dance contest and everyone else in the room was just WTF.
Sorry for the recap, but it was such a great Elaine moment. Beautiful, well educated, but sometimes just an unhinged sociopath.
I never knew there was an actual story behind the Seinfeld scene.
I just knew of the band from Buffy.
every time I think of this story I picture Elaine saying it. “A dingo ate my baby!!”
for people on a PC.
Thanks! Someone should make a bot to do this. Would be useful…
If you search for “Wikipedia mobile redirect” you can find add-ons fir Firefox and Chrome.