The Mount Kembla Chronicle

Doppelgangers: Peter Debnam MP and Frank Spencer

A number of newspapers have noted this so I should record it here.

In honour of today’s general election for the Parliament of New South Wales, today’s Doppelgangers segment brings you:

- Peter Debman MP, Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of New South Wales
facing up to

- Frank Spencer, the bumbling alter-ego of Michael Crawford OBE.

Lest I be accused of of political bias, I note publicly that I have deliberately held this item over until the polls have closed (even in Broken Hill, in a different time zone!).

And the last word on this election belongs to the small child quoted in Sydney Morning Herald’s Column 8, who was looking at all the election posters placed illegally about the place on the power poles and asked his mum why there were so many lost men wandering about (thinking of posters for lost dogs and cats).

Peter Rae's picture of Peter Debman MP swimming at Bondi Beach, Sydney, is from the Sydney Morning Herald.

The picture of Michael Crawford as Frank Spencer is from BBC Online's Guide To Comedy.

Statement of disclosure: I am a casual employee of the New South Wales Government, in its Department of Education & Training. I am not now, nor ever have been, a member of a political party. The above does not imply a comment on any political party contesting this election.

Doppelgangers: Luca Zingaretti vs Yul Brynner

The previous post mentions the similarities between:

- Luca Zingaretti, lead actor in Il Commissario Montalbano, and

- Yul Brynner (pictured), leader of The Magnificent Seven

The picture of Luca Zingaretti is from Window.it
The picture of Yul Brynner is from Shobary's Spaghetti Westerns

Doppelgangers: Borat Sagdiyev vs Mahir Cagri

This journal has already pointed out the similarities between Borat Sagdiyev on the one hand, and Norman Gunston and Sir Les Patterson on the other.

We now have another similarity popping up - with Mahir Cagri.

Mr Cagri, a Turkish "jurnalist , music and sport teacher", gained fame in the late 1990s when he published his website enjoining the reader who "want to come TURKEY I can invitate .....She can stay my home"

Whilst the invitation was to a general readership, the casual reader is left with a distinct impression that being a lady would be a pronounced advantage.

Having now compared Mr Cagri's site to that of Mr Sagdiyev (and Mr Sagdiyev's MySpace page), one is left with a very distinct feeling of deja vu.

The newspaper article drawing the comparison follows.

Doppelgangers: Queen Elizabeth II vs Impedimenta and a Cabbage Patch doll

I never thought I'd be writing this, but my latest nomination for the Doppelgangers series is:

- Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia and Her Other Realms And Territories

and

- This rather baffling recent portrait of Her Majesty by the artist George Condo, on show at the Tate Modern in London.

According to the attached article in The Australian newspaper, this portrait leads us to confuse our Sovereign Lady with:

- a Cabbage Patch Kid doll

and

- Impedimenta from the Asterix comics.

After reading the following article in The Australian newspaper - about a bloke named Condo, his art showing in the so-named Wrong Gallery, the artist's idea of portraiture, and his professed wish to do a nude study of The Queen - we were re-checking the date of publication of the newspaper to make sure it was not April Fools Day.

Doppelgangers: Andy Muirhead vs Tintin

Thanks are due to our friend John for pointing out the general similarity between

- Andy Muirhead, host of Collectors - a program featuring just that sort of person on ABC [Australia] Television],

and

- Tintin, famous French cartoon character as created by Hergé.

The image of Andy Muirhead comes from the Collectors website.
The image of Tintin & his dog Snowy (Milou) comes from the Spanish-language website El Mundo del Comic .

Doppelgangers: Borat Sagdiyev vs Norman Gunston & Sir Les Petterson

Has anyone noticed that Borat Sagdiyev (Борат Сагдиев), Kazakhstani journalist, former gypsy catcher and host of the film Cultural learnings of America for make benefit most glorious nation of Kazakhstan bears some striking similarities to

- Norman Gunston, former Wollongong journalist , TV variety-show host and 1976 Gold Logie winner

- Sir Les Patterson, former Australian cultural attache to the Court of St James's

By this I do not mean physical appearance. Rather, I refer to the set-up of

- a hopelessly incompetent reporter on an unsuspecting public (or more specifically, on an unsuspecting victim) - as is the case with Mr Gunston

- a man who is rather overly fond of discussing aspects of his personal life in public, as well as an inability to get his suit cleaned - as is the case with Sir Les.

The reactions that this style of reporting is also bearing some sililarity, with the reactions of the Government of Kazakhstan in many ways similar to the reaction of the then Lord Mayor of Wollongong, Alderman Frank Arkell .

The Government of Kazakhstan is running about distancing themselves mightily from Mr Sagdiyev, whilst Alderman Arkell took great public exception to the depiction of Wollongong in The Aunty Jack Show.

The following quotations from The Norman Gunston Show are all burned in my memory - as an impressionable school boy and then a young undergraduate student, I was a huge fan.

The picture of the cover of Norman Gunston's KISS tribute sound record is from the blog of Demetrius Romeo, Stand And Deliver!
The picture of Sir Les Patterson is from Theatermania.com .

Doppelgangers: Pope Benedict XVI vs Sir Les Patterson

In researching the previous posting, I came across the following blog entry which suggests that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI looks uncomfortably like Sir Les Patterson.

The picture of Pope Benedict XVI is from BBC News Online .

On Vox: Doppelgangers: Van Gogh's Yellow House vs Kiama Post Office

» Read more on Vox

Doppelgangers: Cats and Adolf Hitler

Previous posts in this Doppelgangers series have discussed likenesses between:

- Lisa Forrest (Australian journalist and Commonwealth Games medallist) and Peter Brady (of The Brady Bunch)

- George W Bush (current President of the USA) and most chimpanzees (as you would find in your local zoo)

- Saddam Hussein (former dictator of Iraq) and Mel Gibson (American actor and Honorary Medallist of the Order of Australia)

May I continue this series with a look at a website that considers the similarities between cats and Adolf Hitler.

I must admit that this comparison was not without merit in my mind, as I am not really a big cat fan.

I can quite readily tolerate cats - so much so that I can be reasonably sociable to friends' cats (and as a result they don't terrorise me - the little blighters seem to be able to smell fear).

But this does not extend to a desire to have one as a pet. There's something about the countenance that has me worried - not unlike Kramer's fear of clowns in Seinfeld.

So I was interested to read in today's Sydney Morning Herald [registration might be required] about a weblog named Hitler Cats!

Maybe this has captured for me the sub-conscious fear that I and many other people carry about cats. (Compounded, in my case, by the propensity of a previous neighbour's cats to crap all over our garden.)

That evil glinty eye ... that shadowy growth over the upper lip (compounded, I suspect, in these cats by a judicious application of PhotoShop or black marker pen) ... that maniacal screech and rant when dinner is overdue ... aaahhhh! Its all making sense!

There is this old saying about pet owners assuming the characteristics of their pets. What does this say about the owners of these cats?

The pictures on the website progressively change over time, and some of the cats look more like Der Fuehrer than others.

The author of one Comment suggested that the cat pictured immediately above this paragraph looked more like the early American film comedian Ben Turpin.

Anyway, have a look at the Herald article ... and then visit the site if you dare.

- - - - -

The pictures on this part of the post are from the weblog Hitler cats!

The picture of Adolf Hitler at the end of the next part of the post is from iBiblio. The picture is presented purely for purposes of comparison with the above pictures.

Doppelgangers: George W Bush and chimpanzees

Pauline drew the following to my attention, by way of a joke email circulated to her. This is rather entertaining, if only for the amateur anthropological effort involved in equating such a relatively non-evolved life form to a chimpanzee.

Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it.