Alarm bells must have started ringing when Tony Abbott was asked for a comment on Scott Morrison’s secret self-appointment to various ministries and Abbott called it “unusual, unorthodox and strange”.
You know something is very awry when Abbott, long regarded as the undisputed gold medallist for weird-unit PMs, looks at what you’re doing and thinks “… bit odd”.
Indeed, many people who don’t even think what has happened is a monumental scandal are struck by the sheer weirdness of it being kept secret.
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And the weirdness is not done, not by a long shot.
Last night Morrison, presumably deciding to take advantage of the free time the loss of six jobs affords him, spent the evening on Facebook more or less reply-guying every dodgy bit of Photoshop anyone made about him. He seems very keen for everyone to know how funny he’s finding it. It’s… well, it’s weird.
For instance, Australian hardcore band Eaten Alive announced that Morrison had appointed himself their lead singer, and Morrison replied: “That’s funny :)”
“Meet our new Wheel Alignment Tech. We look forward to Scott Morrison starting,” posted Southport Budget Tyres and Auto.
“A great opportunity for me to get the skills ready for Bathurst,” Morrison commented.
“Scott Morrison just added Lead Climbing Arborist to his portfolio and started working for us without telling anyone! Great to have you on board ScoMo!” wrote Jefford Tree Services on Thursday morning.
Morrison asked when his first shift was.
All Car Engine Reconditioning Services announced that the “position for Jack of All Trades has been filled” by Morrison, plonking his head, for some reason, on a picture of a shirtless young man.
Morrison replied he had plenty of experience, and was polite enough to not point out the conditions ACERS were offering potentially breached the Fair Work Act.
Kitchenware.com.au announced he was joining their test kitchen.
“I’m loving these posts,” Morrison responded.
Admittedly, fashion brand MALi’s effort did elicit the response: “This is starting to get a bit weird.” But was Morrison referring to the incongruence of seeing his head attached to a young woman’s body, or the fact that this was, depending on what time of the evening it was, somewhere between the 10th or 15th such meme he — again, our former prime minister — had gone out of his way to reply to?
We’re not even exaggerating — Clare Armstrong has a grid of images of his heroic reply-guy efforts, too numerous to list in full here.
Eventually Morrison gave in, admitting he couldn’t keep up, posting an effort of his own, inserting himself into that merry band of ethnic dad-joke purveyors Sooshi Mango (alongside a picture of the original line-up in case anyone was confused).
“As Aussies we can always have a chuckle at ourselves,” he said, tagging himself as “feeling amused”.
Perhaps nothing summed up the slightly eerie quality of the whole event better than the punctuation-free, out-of-context “have a good evening” floating in the middle of the paragraph.
Editor’s note: we have a column spot waiting for you, Scott.
A good sense of humour or a grand sense of self-delusion? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
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