Drop Bears
Apologies if there's been a similar post...

As an Australian living in a different country, and in proximity to Americans, it's my duty to spread the general myths about Australia so that we can continue to have a chuckle at gullible people. One night I was given a perfect opportunity: two Americans, an Irish guy and another aussie at a party, among others. The Americans mention that they're travelling to Aus soon, and the subject of animals came up. I started to ramble about the dangerous animals to be careful of, listing the famous ones and slipped in the Drop Bear. Well, the bait was taken, and I regaled them with some facts about them. I was even able to keep a straight face as I acted with polite scorn as they initially laughed at the idea - I'm usually not so good at keeping straight faces.

The great part came when the other Aussie turned up halfway through the conversation, and when I mentioned the Drop Bear he picked up the tale smoothly. He started to talk about it's only natural enemy too, which is a part of the story I've never heard, so I sat back to listen about the Cassowary, a large flightless bird which is very elusive, but has a hard cone on it's head (to protect against Drop Bears) and can disembowel with a kick of it's clawed feet. I thought this was a great animal to make up as an enemy, and the Americans certainly bought it. I congratulated my Aussie mate after for making up such a weird creature. "But I didn't make it up," he says, "It's a real animal, just doesn't kill Drop Bears is all". I looked it up. It bloody well is real.

Is that reverse gullibility? Don't know if it counts...
(omoshiRoy, Mon 9 Jan 2006, 12:12, Reply)