The fallout surrounding Sophie Mirabella’s late-onset reaction to Simon Sheikh after he passed out on Monday night’s episode of Q&A has been nothing short of – well, the usual. That’s to say, I’m not surprised – it’s entirely to be expected. I was going to say it has been extraordinary but when something headline grabbing like this happens on a show like Q&A you know that the most vocal proponent of its audience (on the Twitters) are going to take it, run with it, make sweet meme love to it, flame the fans and fan the flames and ready their thumbs just in time for next Monday’s controversy.
I bet Craig Emerson is thanking his lucky stars something more painfully outrageous happened in the short space of time between this and that. That said, there are some quite shocking things being said about Mirabella on Twitter that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, and that’s coming from someone who physically recoiled when they saw Tony Jones introduce her on the Q&A panel.
So far in Sheikhgate (Mirabellagate?) we’ve passed through the morning after phase, the opine phase, and we’ve just now entered the international news media phase, swiftly followed by the photoshop phase, the feminist defence and the reason we’re here today: the jacked up Wiki phase.
According to the revision history on Mirabella’s Wikipedia page, several users made changes to her page in the hours following the incident. Changes made include adding the epithet ‘notorious gold digger‘ to her bio and describing her delayed response as arising from her failure to undertake a St John’s First Aid course. Good one, Wiki. Thanks to Jamie Rojas and @SwearyCat for screen-grabbing these images.
I’ve been in a similar set of circumstances as Mirabella – albeit in a non-televised arena – but that’s where any similarities our stories might share end. Unlike Mirabella I was twelve years old at the time and my friend passed out next to me in a sex-ed class on account of a micro video camera and some pretty invasive footage of surging bodily fluids. Somehow I don’t think Sophie’s going to be able to sit out the rest of this period in sick bay.
But I digress, here are some of the more inventive responses to Mirabella’s failure to act via The Twitter and the original footage.
Via @FRSR_HRVY
Via @Main_man
The Financial Review’s cartoonist David Rowe’s take on the events. Check out Tony Jones in the corner:
Via @VexNews
Via @Stef808
