Culture

Healthy Harold Was Killed And Rose From The Ashes Like A God

HE LIVES.

by Chris Woods  31 May 2017
healthy harold

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After mass outrage over a shock announcement that the federal government would cut funding to Life Education Australia (the non-government provider of school health education and creator of everyone’s favourite pious giraffe Healthy Harold), the Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has quickly confirmed the budget decision will be reversed.

In short: Harold lives.

If you missed this whole saga, a Department of Education and Training spokesperson yesterday confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the government’s grant agreement with LEA would expire on July 1 this year and not be renewed for the first time in 35 years.

It didn’t go down well. News of the cuts were met with an immediate public backlash, both from preventative health advocates and those mourning Healthy Harold out of surreal nostalgia.

LEA CEO David Ballhausen spoke out about the cuts, which would seriously impact a program where “school demand… consistently outstrips our capacity to supply it”.

“This is where the Australian Government funding cut will impact — many tens of thousands of young Australians will now miss out on the opportunity we could otherwise provide them to develop the critical life skills they need to make safer and healthier choices.”

And surprisingly, Birmingham announced a reversal of the decision within mere hours of the BuzzFeed report. The renewed funding has naturally been welcomed by LEA and HH fans alike.

As Ballhausen said in his response to the initial cuts, the federal funding will ensure more than 750,000 young Australians participate in the preventative program, which focuses on alcohol, drugs and general healthy living.

The funding also means that the company’s mascot Healthy Harold, that sanctimonious ~clean living~ nerd who is also a freakish giraffe, has also been resurrected.

Now, Harold was never technically dead, not just because he’s a soulless puppet, but because LEA receives funding from federal and state governments as well as private donors.

Sill, people are going wild online — although opinions are divided between those who have a nostalgic fondness for the talking giraffe, those who found his self-righteous “drugs are bad, m’kay” attitude just a little too unbearable, and those who had never heard of that damn puppet before.

So welcome back to the land of the living, Healthy Harold, but I am an adult now so you may NOT judge me. You have no power over me, Harold.