Turkey to reach Serbia?
Coming in from a funeral on a cold Monday afternoon in February, there’s no much cheer on the horizon, but this is Ireland and there will always be some news story to brighten the day. The front page of the Irish Times is confirming a rumour aired by RTE last week that Dustin the turkey was seeking to represent Ireland at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. Dustin faces a run off against five other contenders in his attempt to sing at Belgrade.
The significance of Dustin is lost on people from outside of Ireland; the children’s puppet does not confine his remarks to the level of children’s television, but does his own version of satire and social commentary. If he were not a puppet, he would have been probably have been sued for some of his comments by now, but his victims have to limit themselves to smiling benignly and making the odd snide comment. There would be no equivalent figure on British television, if there were the politically correct would long ago have silenced him for his comments. Dustin specializes in being rude to various parts of the country and to particular groups in Irish society.
Should Dustin secure the endorsement of the Irish public, his inimitable charm in singing Irelande Douze Points will no doubt win the hearts of all who watch the show from Belgrade (or at least those who recognize it as an exercise in extreme silliness).
The following is from his Bebo page:
A small snippet of my eurovision song lyrics.. video and song to be post on this site shortly!!! Keep an eye out.. GO’ON YA GOOD THING!!!
Shake your feathers and pop your beak
Shake it to the West and to the East
Wave Euro hands and Euro feet
Wave them in the air to the turkey beat;
Give us another chance
We’re sorry for Riverdance
Flatley he’s a Yank
And the Danube flows through France
Eastern Europe,we love you
Do you like Irish stew
Or goulash as it is to you?
Bulgaria we love you Belarus,Georgia,Montenegro,Moldova,Alba
nia,Croatia,Poland,Russia,Ukraine,Maced
onia,Latvia,Turkey,Hungary,Estonia,Slov
akia,Romania,Bosnia Herzegovina – and don’t forget the Swiss.
Oh dear, can you imagine this character reaching the front page of the London Times?
Haha . .Eurovision Song Contest . . should fit right in!
Thats if the Eastern European countries don’t gang up and win again with their wonderful songs!!!!There was a time when good songs won take Abba for instance Meself and Helen went to see Mamma-Mia at the Bristol Hippodrome on Saturday and whilst sitting watching the show I thought what musical and lyrical geniuses they were.
We need a Dustin over here to blow out all the PC brigade, this country has gone mad. Still at least I work in one of the last places of non PC the construction site and as long as I have breath I will say what I want, when I want to, whether its PC or not!!Long live Dustin
Dustin – no thanks! But on second thoughts, he’d probably be an improvement on last year’s pitiful entry.
Podge and Rodge would make a fine duo if only they could sing.
If Dustin fails to get through the Irish final he could always do the commentary on the night and give Terry Wogan something to get excited about 😉
Les,
Dustin does a wonderful cover of Enya’s ‘My heart is low’, called ‘Me kaks are low’ – inspired by builders’ trousers!
Steph,
Were Dermot Morgan not dead, Frs Ted and Dougal could have done ‘My lovely horse’ and would still have done better than last year. If you have Terry Wogan commentating, you must watch Eurovision on the BBC – Wogan’s sarcasm is the best part of the evening. We never watch the songs, just the voting!
Actually, I think I’ll make sure I’m out that night 😉
But you’re right, Terry Wogan is the only bit worth tuning in to.
On a completely separate note, I usually count down the days to the next 6 Nations match but I’m dreading next Saturday 🙁
I love Eurovision and always vote for something that hopelessly fails to win. The shameful thing is that even in these days of ghastly dance routines and and club pastiche there are usually several songs that I genuinely like. I can’t remember what I voted for last year. Andrew voted for the Ukraine, which I thought unremittingly terrible – but which came second.
Not sure what I think about the turkey. I think Eurovision is funnier when people take it seriously.
Alice,
What are the criteria for taking it seriously? Musical quality? Definitely not. Lyrics? Hardly. The only standard is presumably entertainment value, the “I like that” test. Dustin actually does a very credible rendition of “The Fairytale of New York” with Dervla Kirwan!