Sometimes the Internet just gets it right.
For their season finale, the creators of the popular YouTube Rap New series, The Juice Media, pulled out all the stops in a video that lampoons Australian politics in the lead up to the Federal Election with a Game Of Thrones-style parody, as Gizmodo reports.
Against some reworked theme music from the popular HBO series with added beats, the clip takes in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (aka MC KRUDD), former leader Julia Gillard (complete with a Red Wedding reference), and (a rather-large eared, misogynistic) opposition leader Tony Abbott spitting rhymes about the state of the nation.
The makers of the clip may not have been able to enlist the real-world politicians to star in their music video the way Super Best Friends did, convincing Canberra’s elite to muck about for the cameras in their viral hit, ‘Round And Round‘, but The Juice Media have managed to rope in another high profile figure in their stead.
Following actors filling in for the roles of the rapping politicians, a new challenger arises from the Ecuadorian Embassy in the form of Julian Assange, played by the real-world Wikileaks agitator himself.
His appearance takes the Game Of Polls video to its grand finale, in which he pays tribute to John Farnham in a drag performance where the exiled informant dons a denim shirt and platinum blonde wig. Just set aside a few minutes in your day – watch and enjoy (or skip to 4:17 in the video to get straight to the madness).
Though his turn as one of Australia’s most recognisable and iconic singers is unprecedented, Assange has previously appeared on an episode of Rap News back in 2010, shortly after his cable leak that infamously spilled classified information from the US about the war in Iraq.
Since then, Assange has crossed over into the world of music several times, including revealing his music tastes to the media and dipping his toe into the world of rap once more in a collaboration with a Grammy-winning Latin band.
In June it was revealed that while the 41-year-old Australian might be currently holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, he’s kept himself busy while on self-imposed house arrest by collaborating with the politically minded Puerto Rican band Calle 13 on recording material.
“We are making an interesting song about the new politics as a result of internet and media distortion,” said Assange in June. “[Calle 13 are] the most popular Latin American political group and they come from Puerto Rico, which has had its problems with the US;” including over their controversial tune ‘Querido F.B.I.’ (Dear FBI), a song written and released in a day following the killing of the leader of a Puerto Rican Revolutionary group during a raid at his house lead by the FBI.
Coincidentally, Assange also makes an appearance in a forthcoming music documentary about M.I.A. which was formerly cancelled but is now back on again. There is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from the internet hacker in the trailer for the film that was leaked online (how appropriate) following the director storming out on the doco, saying he “would rather die” than complete the project.
