Well, I understand both sides in this one. And sympathize to some extent with both....but...

I've seen Eric Bogle do the song live and it was absolutely hilarious. You HAVE to see him do it live to get the humour. Just reading the lyrics on a page simply won't do it. He's satirizing a kind of cliched (and not very good) performance that we've all seen from time to time which basically amounts to people pretending to be something that they are not, doing it in a clumsy way, and turning themselves into a raucous and BLOODY LOUD stereotype while so doing.

But do those people have some honestly good fun while they're doing that? Sure! ;-) And does it harm anyone? No! And does Bogle have a right to make fun of them? Well, yeah...why not? I mean, hell, they could make fun of him right back, couldn't they? And you could have a laugh both ways around.

When I saw Bogle do the live show it was in a small place. He did "Plastic Paddy" and a couple of other very funny songs (such as "He's Nobody's Moggie Now")....and he did a lot of very serious songs.

It was a small intimate setting and I was kibbitzing back and forth with Bogle and the band, and at one point I got a joke back on him by quoting a variation on a phrase he'd used in one of the funny songs (one about guns, gun control, and people who love guns) and directint it at him. Anyway, I timed it just right and the band burst out laughing...Bogle looked momentarily astounded to have his own joke turned back on him...and then he burst out laughing too. The lead guitarist (who was a simply astoundingly good acoustic guitar player) grinned and said, "I like this bloke!" It was a moment we all enjoyed thoroughly, although the joke had been at Bogle's expense.

That's how you should take this stuff, I think...with a grain of salt. Look, a person who can't laugh at himself now and then is missing out on having a much better time in life. This goes for a nation too...for any group of people.

Trust me on this: I'm Canadian. No one in the world is better at laughing at themselves and their own culture than Canadians are. We do it all the time, eh? ;-D It helps keep us relaxed and it gets us through the damn winters!

And, yes, Eric Bogle is a very nice guy. He's also quite a satirist. Some people don't get it. Some people didn't get it when Randy Newman sang "Short People" either. They got offended. (sigh)