First Robin Williams pisses off Canucks with his rendition of South Park's "Blame Canada." Now it's the Aussies.
The Oscar-winning funnyman popped up on The Late Show With David Letterman this week and triggered a diplomatic dustup when he called the folks Down Under "English rednecks" following his tour there.
"This is an unusual country. I mean the Australians are basically English rednecks. You down there, how are ya? Good to see you, hello!" riffed Williams. "I realize that if Darwin had landed in Australia he would've gone, 'I'm wrong. I don't know what I was thinking.'"
Let the feuding begin...
Williams' jokes drew the ire of Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, aka K-Rudd, who fired back a tart response on Melbourne's Triple M Radio.
"First of all, I think Robin Williams should go and spend a bit of time in Alabama before he frames comments about anyone being particularly redneck," said the P.M.
A rep for Williams declined to comment. But the erstwhile Flubber star couldn't resist making hay of the "international crisis" when he called into Hamish and Andy, a popular syndicated Aussie radio show earlier today.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, hello, hello?...Can I change the wording now?" goofed Williams. "Listen, I've been to Alabama, I've been all over the South, my mother was born in Mississippi. Listen, I know the word. Let's just change it to 'English good ol' boys.' That's what I meant to say. But I just got that mixed up...from Bubba to Bush isn't that far, Robin, ya know?"
Williams noted that he used the line onstage during his performances there and no one got angry.
When one of the shock jocks replied that it was "disappointing as a nation that that's [Rudd's] best assault," Williams agreed.
"I was going, 'Nice comeback. Way to go, K-Rudd. How's the food on the plane, Good day,'" he quipped.
The latter bit referenced the gaffe-prone P.M.'s headline-making incident where he yelled at a flight attendant over a meal on his own version of Air Force One.
But just for the record, Williams had this to say about his visit to Oz: "I mean, I was just there for two weeks; every time I've been in Australia it's been wonderful."
No doubt he'll have more to say when he appears tonight on CBS' The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.
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We love a good feud. Check what out what Fox News Glenn Beck had to say in reply to James Cameron blasting him here.