Culture

“I’m Happy With My Actions”: Farmer Who Destroyed Rare Ooshie Live On TV Has No Regrets

"I don't feel the need to follow it up because my only fear in all this is that it might change me."

by Sam Langford  5 August 2019
Woolworths Ooshie Today show

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Last Friday was a fateful day in Australian breakfast television history. You’ve probably seen the footage by now. Live on air, a farmer solemnly beheaded a rare Ooshie toy collected from his local Woolworths, in a bizarre protest against online bullying and also the drought.

If that sentence makes absolutely no sense to you, hurry over here and watch the video first. That video, baffling though it may seem, kicked off several national debates in one fell swoop. Australians are buying up Ooshies en masse, having crises about the environmental impacts of said Ooshies (they can, in fact, be recycled…sort of), talking about the drought, and, mainly, laughing at a video of a guy asking himself “what is a life worth?” while struggling to behead a plastic toy meaningfully on live TV.

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You Must Watch This Footage Of A Rare Woolworths Collectable Being Solemnly Destroyed On TV

Given that Stephen and Melissa chose to destroy the Ooshie in response to online abuse, you might be wondering how they’re coping now that they’ve gone viral. Thankfully, they reappeared on The Today Show to let us know that they’re doing fine — unlike the Ooshie.

“I’m happy with my actions, and I don’t regret it,” Stephen told Today, adding that he hasn’t looked at “any social media” since beheading the Ooshie.

“I don’t feel the need to follow it up because my only fear in all this is that it might change me. So I’ve tried to pay no attention to it but, of course, you
get told things, that there is a lot of support. So that’s great if it’s helped somebody, that’s fantastic.”

I’m not sure that I’d characterise what I’ve seen on social media as support for Stephen, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Melissa, meanwhile, has been enjoying the moment of fame, telling Today that she and Stephen were recognised over the weekend at a pizza bar in Geelong.

“The lady recognised me there and said that I was on TV doing the cut up,” she said. “They clapped, which was really fantastic. It was the first time we had been really recognised somewhere else outside of our town.”

Melissa added that “it has been overwhelming, people offering us water and support”, but reiterated once again that she and Stephen only ever wanted to trade the Ooshie for irrigation water, and that other people need drinking water much more than them. So if you’ve been sending water bottles Melissa and Stephen’s way, there’s no need to worry about that.

Alright, that’s your Ooshie update for the day. Go do something meaningful, please.