Embrace irritable vowel syndrome
Aussies make a lot of jokes about Kiwis. New Zealanders make a lot of jokes about Australians. It is supposed to be all in good fun. The height of Australian culture is the sheep joke.
“New Zealand: Australia’s Canada”
– America: The Book, by John Stewart
Seems like satire to me. Besides, “New Zealand” is not a race. Did you mean was it bigoted?
And, of course, sheep are grown in both Oz and NZ, which is part of the joke.
You make jokes about people who are like you, but with the subtle differences that outsiders don’t notice. That’s why Australians have jokes about NZers, but don’t so much about Papua New Guineans or Indonesians, who are much closer neighbours.
And then there are the jokes about rivalry about the different Australian states, and especially between Sydney and Melbourne – a rivalry that was so imprtant that they had to build the national capital in a sheep paddock well away from both cities.
The article is, I think, a review (or at least a recommendation to watch) of Flight of the Conchords. It may help you to know that a recurring gag in that show involves the two NZ’er main characters finding themselves victims of anti-NZ’er bigotry. It’s played for quasi-absurd comic effect. It appears to me the article you’ve linked to intends to play along with this gag–though on the whole it (the article’s attempt at this kind of humor) is way overdone.
-FrL-
Too bad it’s an unoriginal joke. The English have been making the same cracks about the Scots and the Welsh for years. Here in the U.S., we just substitute the Kiwis with people from Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, or anyplace south of the Mason-Dixon line or Ohio River (regardless of whether there’s actually a large sheep population or not).
Definitely somewhat heavy-handed satire and humour.
I particularly like the last line: “Sure, we hang it on our cousins across the ditch but we love 'em. But not like they love sheep. The way we love beer. Because we’re not freaks. Who shag sheep.”
It is if you think it is.
No, I’m not kidding.
Really? I’m happy to argue for “New Zealander” as a distinct ethnicity… but not as a race.
Wikipedia has a breakdown of ethnic groups in New Zealand; Statistics New Zealand does not collect “race” data, only ethnicity (culture & identity) as part of our census.
(The 2006 census was the first time that “New Zealander” was an official category… not to say that many people, myself included, had not checked “Other” and then hand-written in New Zealander on a previous census).
“Race” is a sociological construct. A group of humans is a race because other humans (or themselves) consider it a race. It’s not long ago that it was commonplace for people to consider the Irish a “race.” Jews have been considered their own “race.” The word “race” is often used to describe what you, in 2008, would consider a nationality; you’ll hear about the “French race” or “English race,” all of which is quite acceptable linguistically, and biologically makes as much (or as little) sense as any other qualifier.
And while a white guy like me can’t see a lot of difference between Hutu and Tutsi, they sure do.
What I “in 2008, would consider a nationality”… ermmm… you’re somehow posting from the 19th century? 
OK, happy to accept “race” as linguistically acceptable then, provided were talking in that vein (as opposed to specifying in some form physical characteristics).
But would anyone describe the Hutu or Tutsi as “races”? As opposed to “ethnicities” or “ethnic groups”?
Can I just say that as a Limey I totally recommend Flight of the Conchords,its hilarious and original.
Didn’t see anything racist in the article.
And buy Flight of the Conchords DVDs. It’s an awesome show. Rilly.
…it takes a thread like this to bring out the Kiwis!
With respect to the article: how dare those Aussies treat us like second class citizens: I’m a person, the people on this message board are persons, that person over there is a person, and each person deserves to be treated like a person.
As to the author of the article, Brett and Jermaine would probably like to do this:
Having not seen any of Flight of the Conchords (hangs head in shame), but having now followed Banquet Bear’s links and viewed some related videos methinks the OP is perhaps not exactly a serious question.
Very amusing stuff.
(Particularly as, in real life, I’ve had someone tell me NZ is a Scandinavian country)