Politics

A Liberal MP Is Calling For The ABC To Be Defunded For Including Him In A Satirical Sketch

Craig Kelly says he's been singled out for "special punishment" after he very briefly appeared in a sketch modelled off 'The Princess Bride'.

by Rachael Conaghan  15 September 2020
craig kelly insiders

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A Liberal MP is calling for the ABC to be defunded (just for something different) after getting cranky over a satirical Princess Bride-inspired sketch that he appeared in for approximately five seconds.

Craig Kelly is arguably best known for being obsessed with a drug beloved by COVID-19 conspiracy theorists, or for being destroyed on British television for claiming there wasn’t a link between our bushfire crisis and climate change. Who’s to say.

But he’s now claiming he’s being “singled out for special punishment” after ABC program Insiders featured him in the below sketch. Because we all know a sign of a healthy democracy is silencing the media, he’s now claiming the piece of satire is reason enough for our national broadcaster to be defunded.

In the sketch, the iconic film The Princess Bride is reimaged as a tale of “a tourism executive-turned PM” who faces many challenges in his quest to be reunited with his true love. No, it isn’t Buttercup — it’s winning elections. If you’ve seen the film (and if you haven’t, go do that now), Josh Frydenberg has been inserted into the role of the sick grandson, while Kelly is superimposed over the face of Miracle Max, the medicine man. Really, he could have had it a lot worse.

Just after midnight last night Kelly posted a link to the sketch on Facebook, where he complained that Insiders — the ABC’s flagship political discussion program — was putting important issues aside to make fun of him.

“It’s been one the most tumultuous weeks in our nation’s history; the heartless decisions of a brutal and hypocritical Queensland government — a daughter banned from attending her dad’s funeral, children blocked from seeing their dying father, a dad blocked from seeing his cancer ridden 4 year-old child in hospital,” he wrote.

“In Victoria we’ve seen a Premier caught out lying over the most totalitarian lockdown anywhere on the planet … And what does the ABC serve up on their frontline political show, The Insiders this week?

“All these most important issues get put aside, and because I’ve dared criticise the left side of politics (whom our ABC as as a cheer-squad for) I get singled out for special punishment.”

To reiterate: the sketch took up two minutes of an hour-long show, on a network that employs journos in 48 newsrooms across the country and also includes a 24-hour news channel and nationwide radio coverage.

Really, his anger has only served to bring the sketch to a wider audience, who’ve since raised a different issue with the Insiders editor Huw Parkinson.