Egg Boy Reveals That His Mates Have Been Calling Him By That Nickname For Years
He also describes the egging of Anning as "not the right thing to do."
Unless you’ve been living under an egg-shaped rock for the last few weeks, then you’ve undoubtedly been inundated with memes of the teenage Will Connolly, dubbed “Egg Boy”, cracking a yolk across the back of far-right senator Fraser Anning’s head.
What you haven’t been inundated with, mind you, is much else from Connolly. Even though Egg Boy has been showered with internet plaudits, he’s kept pretty quiet, save a video of him warning others that egging a far-right senator will get you tackled to the ground by a bunch of “bogans”.
quick reminder that the last time egg boy spoke it was to say "no regrets" and "don't egg politicians, you'll get tackled by 30 bogans at the same time" so just quietly, I'm excited
— Alex Bruce-Smith (@alexbrucesmith) March 24, 2019
Now, however, Connolly has broken his silence via an interview with The Project. In the chat, Egg Boy describes yolking the senator as “not the right thing to do.” But he doesn’t completely distance himself from it either, describing it as an extreme response motivated by the senator’s “hate speech”.
“After the tragedy in Christchurch, I thought the world should be supporting all those victims — giving them love and passion,” he explains. “The senator released a statement which was pretty much a divisive hate speech … I was flat out disgusted.
“I actually went in there to listen to him for an hour to see if he’d change my mind … But then he started saying more things … which empowered me to egg him.”
Ever since he cracked the egg that divided the nation, Melbourne teenager Will Connolly, better known as #EggBoy, has been both vilified and dubbed the “hero of the Earth”.
Will approached us to set the record straight. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/31VogQPs5C
— The Project (@theprojecttv) March 25, 2019
Apparently, Connolly “didn’t expect” Anning to react, but he says it didn’t hurt when the senator began to strike him.
He’s also expressed a complicated relationship with his newfound fame, acknowledging that he — a young, white male — has in certain spheres been given more attention than the actual victims of the Christchurch tragedy, not to mention generations of POC that have resisted fascism and the extreme right for years before him.
“It’s blown up completely out of proportion, to the point where it’s kinda embarrassing; too much attention has brought away from the real victims suffering. We should be thinking of them.”
HAMISH: “Did it (Frasier Anning’s slaps) hurt?”#EGGBOY: “Not really.”
— Jake Watt (@JakeChatty) March 25, 2019
Finally, Egg Boy turned to the inevitable discussion: his new nickname.
“Funnily enough I was actually called Egg Boy before this happened,” he said. “I’d eat boiled eggs at lunch and all the girls would be like, ‘Get away from me, that reeks.'”
He also revealed that he’s “off the eggs” now. So there you have it — a chapter in Australia’s meme history has been firmly closed.