How Aussie banter almost started a football war

By Richard Ensor

A non-negotiable part of life in my home country, Australia, is being the butt of jokes, often surprisingly cruel ones. The nastiest ribbing is often reserved for outsiders, be they the new kid at school or a migrant seeking a better life. It’s best to think of this as a twisted act of love – like punching your mate in the stomach so he can show you how tough he is. Unsurprisingly, this aggressive kind of humour doesn’t always translate across cultures. There is a reason our soap operas find more success overseas than our comedy shows.

But Aussie jokes rarely go down as badly as they did in Honduras this month. The two countries had been drawn to play each other for a place at the World Cup finals in Russia next year. Australian journalists took delight in dishing the dirt on their rivals. In 1969, Honduras went to war with neighbouring El Salvador after a football game turned ugly. In 2012, it had the highest murder rate in the world: 90.4 per 100,000 people.