Emu

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Overview

The Emu War refers to an unsuccessful month-long Australian initiative in 1932 to try and curb the population of emus, a long-legged, flightless bird, in the Campion district in Western Australia, by employing soldiers with guns to hunt the emu. Long a subject of mockery, The Emu War has been referenced in various memes, spiking in the mid-2010s.

Background

In 1932, as farmers in Western Australia during the Great Depression prepared their annual crops, as many as 20,000 emus began to inhabit farm territory.[1] The government responded by sending World War I veterans and machine guns to the territory to attempt to massacre the emus. On November 2nd, 1932, soldiers began the initiative. However, killing the emus was more difficult than the soldiers anticipated, as the emus would scatter in different directions at the sound of gunfire. The local media lampooned the event by calling it "The Emu War" and praised the emus' "guerrilla warfare tactics."

Developments

The event grew into a legendary failure of the Australian military over the course of the following century. Online, it started becoming fodder for memes in the mid-2010s, covered by Uncyclopedia[3] and Encyclopedia Dramatica.[4] The latter notes that the Emu War is often referenced on 4chan in response to a post by an Australian. On February 2nd, 2014 Tumblr user kakarrot[8] made a post saying that they told their class about "the Great Emu War" with said class not believing them until it was looked up (shown below).

On July 11th, 2014, Buzzfeed[2] included a thread on the above Tumblr post in a post about Tumblr and Australia.

On May 1st, 2015, webcomic Veritable Hokum[5] published a popular comic explaining the ordeal (shown below). A subreddit devoted to playacting an alternate universe where the Emu War went more like World War I, /r/Emuwarflashbacks,[6] was created in early 2016 by Reddit user Fumblerful.[7] It has gained over 20,000 subscribers as of May 8th, 2017, and was featured in a Vice[8] article published in February of that year.

THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO KILL AN EMU SCENES FROM THE SHOOT HIM THROUGH THE BACK OF THE HEAD WHILE HIS MOUTH IS CLOSED OR THROUGH THE FRONT OF HIS HEAD WHEN HIS MOUTH IS OPEN A SOLDIER UMAR SEPTEMBER, 1932: A HISTORIC DROUGHT LEADS THE INLAND EMU HORDES TOWARD HUMAN LANDS IN SEARCH OF FooD TWEET TWEET EARLY OCTOBER: AUSTRALIAN FARMERS ARE DRIVEN FROM THEIR HOMES BY BATTALIONS OF RAVENOUS EMUS. TWEET TWEET LATE OCTOBER: A RoYAL AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 31: THE FIRST BATTLE ARTILLERY DETACHMENT, ARMED OF THE GREAT EMU WAR IS WITH MACHINE GUNS AND 10,000 POSTPONED DUE TO RAIN ROUNDS oF AMMUNITON, IS SENT TO RETAKE THE OCCUPIED FARMS NoVEMBER THE EMUS MOBILITY NOVEMBER 2: MORE THAN 1,000 DURABILITY, AND BLIND PANIC EMUS ESCAPE AN AMBUSH AS TWEET RENDER THEM VIRTUALLY MUNEHUMAN FORCES RELOAD. FEWER THAN TO MACHINE GUN BULLETS NOVEMBER 4: ATTEMPTS To KILL THEM WITH TRUCK MOUNTED GUNS ARE ABANDONED AFTER AN EMU GETS CAUGHT IN A STEERING WHEEL. TWELVE EMUS REPORTED DEAD TWEET NOVEMBER S: "EACH PACK SEEMS TO NOVEMBER 8: PARLIAMENT ROLLS AVE ITS LEADER NOW- A BIG BLACK COLLECTIVE EYES, SUGGESTS ANY TWEET PLUMED BIRD WHICH STANDS FULY MEDALS SHOULD GO TO EMUS WHO SIX FEET HIGH AND KEEPS WATCH" HAVE WON EVERY ROUND SO FAR NOVEMBER 9: AUSTRALIA DECLARES DEFEAT, RELINQUISHES OCCUPIED TERRITORY TO NEW EMU OVERLORDS. TWEET 心201s KoRaJIN BRIGGS. wwWeritableHokumcom

The increasing online presence of the Emu War has led to the creation of various memes mocking the event.

Various Examples

the weak should fear the strong 2013 at 4:07am via mobile Unlike this meme is gold. look up emu war for context -shinji
File: Y4MT25h (7 KB, 420x420) ■ Anonymous 11/24/16(Thu22:51:51 No 67848737 Why dont Australians celebrate Thank sgiving? Anonymous 1 1/24/ 16(Thu)22 54 33 No 67848788 ▶ -TH nnem-zusos menos Well, for one thing it involves killing a flightless bird, which gires them a bit of trouble s Il 11/24/16(Thu)22 55.19 No.67848804 Fle: 144304127207 png (19 KB, 592x492) 57848788 HOW WILL THEY RECOVER
The emus, you say? dad we are studying the war against the emus at school Emu rulers levy new tax come here, son Let me tell you the truth about emus THEY ARE THE DEVIL! they killed! they stole! they humiliated glorious Australia! MEANWHILE... IN THE EMU CAPITAL lol, who cares we are studying that war against Australia at school
Entering the War Being Neutral | in the 900 unprepared and (,A )|betraying your ular allies Attacking your own and losing 10,000 Men Surrendering and Collaborating with the enemy Winning the War Getting Nuked TWICE LL2 Losing Two World Wars Losing the war against the EMUS
A scout from the Royal Australian Artilery (RAA) is captured by a Emu patrol squad and waits execution. The Great Emu War. November 9, 1932. Campion, Australia. (colorized)

Search Interest

External References

[8] Tumblr- kakarrot



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