Kevin Rudd Went On ‘Hard Chat’ And Yes, It Was The Weirdest Thing You’ve Ever Seen
In which a former Prime Minister utters the phrase "the dismemberment of human bodies" for NO reason.
Kevin Rudd has kept pretty quiet since losing to Tony Abbott and retiring from federal politics in 2013. He surfaced, briefly, to give his side of events in the ABC’s The Killing Season, and more recently has been named as a likely candidate for the post of UN secretary-general. Besides that, though, he’s confined himself mainly to sending tweets about the importance of getting your kids vaccinated and his dog Abby, who, in fairness, seems like a Very Good Dog.
But for whatever reason, Rudd’s decided to re-enter public consciousness in the weirdest possible way — appearing on The Weekly‘s ‘Hard Chat’ segment for a verbal sparring match with Tom Gleeson last night. Politicians often brave ‘Hard Chat’, even though they almost always come off looking like the kid in the playground everyone loves to viciously dack. But Rudd’s got no reason to do it — his UN secretary-general bid is hardly going to be helped by recent footage of him dicking around with a comedian.
Then there’s the question of the interview itself, which does more to expose the chronic weirdness of Rudd than he probably realises. On one hand, there are moments where he’s genuinely funny, charming and likeable. On the other, he spends about 20 seconds forensically describing the process of ripping out someone’s entrails and eating their blood vessels. There is something profoundly odd about seeing a former Prime Minister utter the phrase “the dismemberment of human bodies” for no discernible reason.
What are you, Kevin Rudd. What even are you.