Ausztrál Tom - Egy Nagyon Ijesztő Videó

Sziasztok mindenki, another blog on my latest video which you can watch here.

This might sound weird but my favourite part of making these videos is writing these blogs, even if they're not as popular as a 2 second Instagram story of a pogacsa haha.

First of all, we opened with the age restriction warning. There was a Hungarian 6+ warning, then later an Australian 15+ warning. There was a subtle reference there to the fact that Australian TV can be a bit protective sometimes compared to you rough and tumble Europeans. 

In the intro we are privy to where my mind goes when I hear 'Elvisz a Mumus'. It was an actual misunderstanding I've made in the past, but also the idea that parents would warn their children by saying "Elvis is the boogeyman' is just too funny to me. Fortunately there are so many clips of Elvis moving in contorted, demonic ways (but what a legend he is wow.. and the voice).

After we establish the important ausztral elet filozofia of 'Any Excuse for a BBQ', we list out a few events where we might have barbecues, including Chinese New Year. At this point, I started getting really confused with the captions and mixing all the languages, almost as if my poor unpaid intern just couldn't' be bothered anymore (noting I'm the poor unpaid intern).

I was planning on doing a fully-fledged parody of The Ring tape (you know with the weird abstract images, except it would include things like kangaroos, complicated Hungarian tenses, silly in-jokes), but I just ran out of skills haha. But instead I wanted to mock completely lame jump scares by saying a lackadaisical 'boo' to which Naomi Watts (The Ring actress) recoils in disgust.

Naomi Watts is Australian, if you didn't know, and actually grew up in the same area as me. So this is a really beautiful reunion.... also in the movie she was reacting to a rusty nail going through a fingernail.

Next up we talk about how the atmosphere in Australia in October isn't that spooky because it's Spring and bright (though ironically writing this, it's actually one of the gloomiest and wettest Octobers in living memory). But in the video we go between this shot of the pumpkins and a bright beach scene with very messy music. It was SO hard for me to make that messy music track, because it had to NOT sound nice, but it also couldn't be TOTAL ear blood. The final version is a total bop, let's face it.... and it's true as well. You'll see bright bright sunshine with kids dressed as ghosts, and it's just kind of silly (bless).

And as we all agree, this kind of bright weather is not the place for a rezf***u bagoly to thrive. When I first heard about the mumus and the bagoly it was exciting to see a giant flame war erupt online about who is the more authentic childhood demon. I asked an IG poll, and the results were so close. They weren't close at first though, I believe it was hugely skewed to Mumus at the beginning. But this is really the only election that matters in this quarter.

I was so excited by this part of the video with the mock movie poster of A Rezfaszu Bagoly vs. A Mumus. This is a bespoke piece of digital art which I commissioned to get made from a very talented Hungarian artist (micsodasag on Instagram www.instagram.com/micsodasag). Of course it had to be an Hungarian artist who made it, because I'm in no position to explain the nuances of what a rezfaszu bagoly looks like. She was referred to me by another follower, and I am so grateful. 

You can imagine that my brief was 'so I'm looking to make a mock horror poster of a ref***u bagoly.. but it needs to be wholesome... but it's still for adults... but still spooky). Somehow she got it, and the final product is just *chefs kiss*. Also she was an absolute breeze to work with.

Life isn't complete without a Fresh Corner reference. I love this for two reasons. First- the idea of Fresh Corner sponsoring a horror movie is like one of those cringe ridiculous marketing partnerships you see sometimes. Second- the caption 'worth death' would be a terrible tagline for a non-English audience. It's so hard to say! 

Of course our bagoly and mumus friends are only a few of the familiar satanic faces. When I was exploring this topic on Twitter several months ago, so many other demons were mentioned to me. So I put together a few attempts at what they may look like. But honestly, there were sooo many references I could dedicate a video to them. Worse yet, most of them aren't very well documented so I could only guess what I think they'd look like.

From my research a Liderc is a chicken demon type of thing? And it seemed perfectly to fit the above Ibis. These birds are all over the country, and also known as bin chickens due their proclivity to fish food out of garbage bins (I think they're pretty cute). Also, how freaky that Lidercek roam in abundance on the streets in Sydney. But this gentleman, who I understand goes by Matisz papa? Wow, what an experience. 

Someone on Twitter shared this with me, and I was both fascinated and in fear. I made sure to do my research to see if he was a controversial figure, and in everything I saw he was perceived quite well. Also he made me feel a lot better about my accent, we'll say that :O.

I'm so grateful to get to know all your mythological figures, and then we start the portion of the video where I share some ausztral nightmare fuel. First, acknowledging that sometimes the devil is misunderstood (Tasmanian devil below... Awwwww). Also I had to make a mega cornball references to Among Us and Gyuri a gyonyoru gyongytyuk if anyone caught those.

The intro to this little section is that absolutely classic graphic of the Magyar Nepmesek videos which are such cute videos that I only know through YouTube. I had to make reference to the stark difference between cute European birds and demonic Australian birds by switching out the sweet chirpy melody with a squawking cockatoo  

(sorry for blurriness, it was very zoomed in)

Then we launch into a few stories. This section was actually twice the length at the beginning but it was too tonally different to the rest of the video so it had to be trimmed. We start with the bunyip story, which is probably the most widely known ausztral monster, before we move into the story of Wati Nyiru.

I felt immense pressure to appropriately represent this Indigenous saga (called Songlines) in this video. It's really in-depth and rich and to narrow it down to 20 seconds was not easy because I don't want to be culturally insensitive. It boiled down to being a snapshot profile of the villain character. I included some links in the description to the video if you want to know more, but I hope it was interested to get a glimpse into something part of Indigenous culture.

Also, the art that's associated to Songlines is absolutely beautiful, I hope other people see its beauty.

Then the third story is on the Dropbear, which is the stupidest thing on the internet haha. If you don't know it's a silly meme about a super dangerous Australian animal. The internet blurred the conversation by making it seem like it was real, when it isn't, but oh well.

I'm honestly shocked how many people ask for ausztral language tips. Is it really that interesting? How does it come up in your lives? Haha. Beyond the comments, I get all kinds of message asking for more ausztral language content, which of course I'll oblige. The word of the week was 'dodge' or 'dodgy', which is really common almost where I forget it's slang. I believe they use it in the U.K. if helpful.

Then this was the magyar kifejezés which was gifted to me. It's delightful.. just delightful.

Now in the last stretch of the video we come to the conclusion that I'd be killed first in a Hungarian horror movie due to my severe limitations. While the next section is OBVIOUSLY a dumb exaggeration, it has OF COURSE happened to me that I miss the entire thread and mood of a conversation (but of course happens to everyone learning a language.. right... RIGHT??)

I have no acting experience, skills OR ambitions, but you surely got the idea haha. Honestly my LEAST favourite part of the videos is being in them haha, but it's just inevitable to get an idea to come to life. It was hard to find good footage of the Sikoly man on the phone, but thankfully Scary Movie to the rescue (I'm not sure what the Hungarian title is). And we see how I'll certainly be the disposable person gutted in the opening of a magyar horror film, to the cheers of the audience no doubt!!

And then the video ends. I hope you had fun :) I didn't think this would be a complex video.. I thought it would go for 2 minutes, but there was just too much richness to Hungarian demons it ended up being a much bigger deal. 

So take care and thanks for watching :) Means a tonne