Culture

Scott Morrison Used ‘The Croods’ To Explain Australia’s Reopening Plans And Now It’s A Huge Meme

"Coming out of my cave (like the girl from 'The Croods') and I am doing just fine."

by Michelle Rennex  24 August 2021
the croods scott morrison covid meme

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Scott Morrison just really wants Australians to know that he’s watched The Croods. 

Yesterday, the Prime Minister made an analogy about Australia “staying in the cave forever” unless we properly prepare the healthcare system for the eventual ease of restrictions when the country reaches a 70 to 80 percent vaccination rate.

“Where states may need further help or assistance or whatever, that needs to be worked through, in the same way that we work through national disasters and things like that nature,” Scott Morrison said. “That work enables us to live with the virus.”

“We’re seeing our public health system stand up very strongly, and I would envisage that in the time we have between now and when we reach those targets that there will be the opportunity to reinforce those plans,” he continued. “Because we have to deal with it.”

“Otherwise, we stay in the cave forever. And, that’s not a sustainable solution.”

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But it seems one reference of caves was simply not enough to drum his point home because today the Prime Minister made direct reference to cavepeople of The Croods to explain the national reopening plan for Australia. Yes. Seriously.

“Any state and territory that thinks that somehow they can protect themselves from COVID with the Delta strain forever, that’s just absurd,” Morrison said while urging state Premiers to get on the same page about COVID-zero no longer being a realistic goal.

“We’ve just got to remain focused on getting [to 70 to 80 percent vaccinated] because as I say, it’s a deal with the Australian people,” the Prime Minister explained. “They’re the ones, seven and eight out of 10 Australians would’ve made it very clear that they want to move forward.”

“Now it’s like that movie The Croods. Some wanted to stay in the cave and the young girl wanted to deal with the challenges of living in a different world,” he continued. “COVID is a different world.”

“We need to get out of there and live with it. We can’t stay in the cave.”

Now for the majority of people who’ve likely never seen The Croods before, it’s a 2013 animated film about an eccentric cave family from the Pliocene era who are fearful of “the outside”.

After the Crood family survives multiple natural disasters by finding shelter inside a cave, dad Grug doesn’t let anyone venture outside except to gather food for short periods of time. But daughter Eep’s inquisitive nature leads the family to meet a modern human, leave the cave to discover new things, and eventually find new life on the tropical mountainside after the continents start drifting apart.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with The Croods. It’s a classic DreamWorks tale featuring family relationship struggles, overcoming the fear of the unknown, and an expected happy ending. The problem is more about why the hell Scott Morrison used a cartoon cave movie to explain the nation’s reopening plan to us like we’re all six-year-olds struggling with comprehension?!

Beyond this baffling choice in analogy, the father in The Croods was famously only saved from his inevitable death because swarms of “pirhanakeet” creatures and a giant, rainbow saber-tooth tiger helped him fly over lava in an aircraft made of tar and a whale ribcage. Understandably, not really anything Australia has in its arsenal to help combat COVID-19.

So, as expected, Scott Morrison and his weird obsession with The Croods has now become a huge meme.

But weirdly enough, this isn’t the first time The Croods has snuck into coronavirus-related news either.

Back in January, someone with COVID-19 attended a screening of The Croods: A New Age — the sequel to the original 2013 animation — which made Reading Cinemas in Auburn become a hotspot.

Honestly, who would’ve thought that the solution to COVID-19 has been here all along? Just sitting there on Stan waiting to be streamed? I guess we all owe John Cleese a thank you for writing the Australian government a pandemic handling guidebook eight years before we needed it.