Farewell, Steve
0 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Monday, September 4 at Monday, September 04, 2006.
Ahh, Crocodile Hunter, we hardly knew ye.....
He was an awesome dude. I hardly ever watched his show, but from seeing some interviews and TV clips, it was pretty clear that he was just a great human being, living as exactly who he was and who he wanted to be. His popularity, especially in the US, was quite clearly a symptom of how much demand there is these days for real genuine characters, instead of the ironic metrosexual sissies, political hacks and tryhards of all persuasions who seem to stain our collective unconciousness at every opportunity.
He did a wonderful interview on Andrew Denton's "Enough Rope" TV show in Australia. For non-Australians, Andrew Denton is sort of like Australias intelligent male version of Oprah - his interviews tend to get the best, and deepest, out of his guests. Check out the whole interview, and try and tell me that we havent lost something special today....
"Andrew Denton: Do you ever get down? You talked about being frightened by human behaviour. What gets you down?
Steve Irwin: Um, I've been down, mate, I've been down, I've been way down. I've been down...I've been down as far as anyone can go down, mate. I lost my mum in a car crash. I went down, I went right down. I watched my dad suffer. I watched my whole family suffer. And I have never felt pain like that in my entire life, my friend. And what it did for me was it actually hammered home the whole family value thing and what it's like to have a family and you're all...everybody's someone's mum, you know? And I was down, I was down for the count. I was down for...two years I was down. Way down.
Andrew Denton: You...
Steve Irwin: Pain.
Andrew Denton: You truly adore your parents, don't you?
Steve Irwin: I love my parents just so much, mate. You know, like my mum... How'd you be, you know? I was born on her birthday, and all she ever did was just love me and prop me up and get me back out in there. And my dad - just the legend of the universe. When I was the tiniest little kid, Andrew, I'd look up at my dad and he was larger than life, he was just like this action hero. He was everything I wanted to be. And all I've done in my life is follow in his footsteps, mimic him and try to be him. And nowadays I just try to make him proud, mate. Yeah, I love my parents like nothing else. It's just... They are everything to me - absolutely everything. And the day that my mum went was the day I lost something. I lost something. I lost something really big.....................
Andrew Denton: What's your philosophy of fatherhood?
Steve Irwin: Um...my philosophy of fatherhood? You know, I just treat her exactly the same way as I would want to be treated. And, you know, the funny thing is, Andy, I treat my wildlife the same, you know? Like, if there was a croc there, I'd treat that croc like I'd treat my daughter, like I'd treat you, like I'd treat my wife, like I'd treat anyone. I treat things how I, in turn, would want to be treated. So my little kid, I just treat her how I want to be treated. You know how... My mum said, "You can't have ice-cream for breakfast." (Pretends to hand bowl to daughter) "Here, sweetheart, have it."
AUDIENCE GIGGLES
Steve Irwin: "Go hard." And, you know... Yeah. Absolutely. "You want to catch that snake? Sure, it's venomous, but we'll do it and I'll show you how," and we did it. "
He was an awesome dude. I hardly ever watched his show, but from seeing some interviews and TV clips, it was pretty clear that he was just a great human being, living as exactly who he was and who he wanted to be. His popularity, especially in the US, was quite clearly a symptom of how much demand there is these days for real genuine characters, instead of the ironic metrosexual sissies, political hacks and tryhards of all persuasions who seem to stain our collective unconciousness at every opportunity.
He did a wonderful interview on Andrew Denton's "Enough Rope" TV show in Australia. For non-Australians, Andrew Denton is sort of like Australias intelligent male version of Oprah - his interviews tend to get the best, and deepest, out of his guests. Check out the whole interview, and try and tell me that we havent lost something special today....
"Andrew Denton: Do you ever get down? You talked about being frightened by human behaviour. What gets you down?
Steve Irwin: Um, I've been down, mate, I've been down, I've been way down. I've been down...I've been down as far as anyone can go down, mate. I lost my mum in a car crash. I went down, I went right down. I watched my dad suffer. I watched my whole family suffer. And I have never felt pain like that in my entire life, my friend. And what it did for me was it actually hammered home the whole family value thing and what it's like to have a family and you're all...everybody's someone's mum, you know? And I was down, I was down for the count. I was down for...two years I was down. Way down.
Andrew Denton: You...
Steve Irwin: Pain.
Andrew Denton: You truly adore your parents, don't you?
Steve Irwin: I love my parents just so much, mate. You know, like my mum... How'd you be, you know? I was born on her birthday, and all she ever did was just love me and prop me up and get me back out in there. And my dad - just the legend of the universe. When I was the tiniest little kid, Andrew, I'd look up at my dad and he was larger than life, he was just like this action hero. He was everything I wanted to be. And all I've done in my life is follow in his footsteps, mimic him and try to be him. And nowadays I just try to make him proud, mate. Yeah, I love my parents like nothing else. It's just... They are everything to me - absolutely everything. And the day that my mum went was the day I lost something. I lost something. I lost something really big.....................
Andrew Denton: What's your philosophy of fatherhood?
Steve Irwin: Um...my philosophy of fatherhood? You know, I just treat her exactly the same way as I would want to be treated. And, you know, the funny thing is, Andy, I treat my wildlife the same, you know? Like, if there was a croc there, I'd treat that croc like I'd treat my daughter, like I'd treat you, like I'd treat my wife, like I'd treat anyone. I treat things how I, in turn, would want to be treated. So my little kid, I just treat her how I want to be treated. You know how... My mum said, "You can't have ice-cream for breakfast." (Pretends to hand bowl to daughter) "Here, sweetheart, have it."
AUDIENCE GIGGLES
Steve Irwin: "Go hard." And, you know... Yeah. Absolutely. "You want to catch that snake? Sure, it's venomous, but we'll do it and I'll show you how," and we did it. "
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