Whiny Baby Matt Canavan Is Upset That The Wiggles Have Become “Woke”
“It was nice while it lasted. But you go woke, you go broke,” the grown man and senator said.
Matt Canavan, the coal-loving senator from Queensland, has taken time out of his clearly not very busy schedule to slam The Wiggles — yes, The Wiggles — for becoming too “woke.”
Canavan’s comments came in the wake of the news that The Wiggles were expanding their line-up to include four new members from diverse cultural backgrounds. There’s Tsehay Hawkins, who hails from Ethiopia; Evie Ferris, an Aboriginal woman; Kelly Hamilton, of Asian-American heritage; and John Pearce, a one-time member of dance collective Justice Crew, who is Filipino.
The bid for a more inclusive line-up was the idea of founding member Anthony Field. “I’d been thinking about it for the last couple of years and there’s no better time than now,” Field told the media. “Morally we have to do this.
“I looked around the world and I thought: ‘We have to reflect our audience’. Our audience is not just one culture, we want children to see a mirror of themselves. I hope people, mums and dads as well, will feel included.”
Of course, the move is an important one. Representation is key for the young, a way of children can see themselves in the content they consume, opening up new imaginative possibilities in the process.
But try telling that to Canavan. In an interview with The Australian, the senator said that the move would destroy the popular children’s group. “The Wiggles are free to do what they like. It was nice while it lasted. But you go woke, you go broke,” he said.
Truth be told, Canavan needs to learn a lesson set by The Wiggles’ example. While the senator is busy drumming up a tired and stale culture war against a literal group of children’s entertainers, the group are using their powers for good, filming a special video for a 22-year-old COVID patient with Down Syndrome who didn’t want to wear an oxygen prong. After the young patient, Sarah Kelly, saw the video, she immediately allowed nurses to insert the prong, saving her life.
Watch a news segment about the heartwarming moment in full here:
Melbourne, Australia:
Sarah Kelly, a 22-year old Covid patient with Down Syndrome was admitted to hospital.
She needed help to breathe — but was fearful of the nasal mask.
Then @TheWiggles found out – and sent her a video.
It saved her life…pic.twitter.com/z4A1sQmoFt
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) August 22, 2021