For any Americans still unsure of the joke...
Nine-week-old Australian baby Azaria Chamberlain disappeared on the night of 17 August 1980 on a camping trip with her family. Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo. An initial inquest, highly critical of the police investigation, supported this assertion. The findings of the inquest were broadcast live on television — a first in Australia. Subsequently, after a further investigation and second inquest, Azaria's mother, Lindy Chamberlain, was tried and convicted of her murder, on 29 October 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Azaria's father, Michael Chamberlain, was convicted as an accessory after the fact and given a suspended sentence.
The media focus for the trial was extraordinarily intense and sensational. The Chamberlains made several unsuccessful appeals, including the final High Court appeal. After all legal options had been exhausted, the chance discovery of a piece of Azaria's clothing in an area full of dingo lairs led to Lindy Chamberlain's release from prison, on "compassionate grounds." She was later exonerated of all charges. While the case is officially unsolved, the report of a dingo attack is generally accepted. Recent deadly dingo attacks in other areas of Australia have strengthened the case for the dingo theory.
Leeloo: Senno ecto gammat!
Korben Dallas: I'm sorry, I'm sorry!
Leeloo: ecto gammat!
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finnzilla
17 years ago
Meryl Streep was in a movie about it...alone in the drakness or something like that.
You shoot me in a dream you better wake up and apologize.
~Mr. White
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mam13143
17 years ago
To Land_Down_Under
Many many thanks for your complete description - now I get it.
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ally_d25
17 years ago
Lindy Chamberlain being sent to jail has to be one of the biggest legal mistakes in Australian history to me. Did you know, one of the forensics 'experts' didn't know what a dingo hair looked like, so they plucked one of their own out! And that's just one of the many mistakes.
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aristideau-1
17 years ago
I suppose you have had to have lived through that Azaria Chamberlain period to realise what a incredible double tragedy it was.
It totally split the country.
This was before the internet, so you only got your info from the television coverage and the general media was determined to demonise Lindy (mother).
Even though a close friend of mines father was one of the forensic pathologists on the case and I was getting it pretty much first hand that she was innocent, I still didnt quite believe in it until years later (the fact that they were Seventh Day Adventists didnt help). She didnt have a chance.
I also cringed through that Seinfeld reference, I couldnt believe they would be so tasteless.
So I suppose what I am getting at is the joke is just not funny at all.
I like my humour black, eg I howled through "Happiness", but this is just is just ignorant, wrong and in bad taste.
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orangesparrow
17 years ago
"So, does anyone want to tell the story for us poor unfortunate Americans who have not heard the story."
ROFL!!
Yeah it's was big story...I've heard of it and am aware of it...seeing as I'm Australian but it happened nearly twenty years before i was born.
When i heard a reference about it made by Elaine, years ago, during that episode of Seinfeld I was so shocked! It was funny, the accent was horrible though! Haha. Like every impersonation of an Aussie.
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richimorton
14 years ago
In London an urban fox recently tried to drag 2 babies out of their cots after entering a house through the open back patio windows , injuring them terribly (one of the twins needed intensive care for over a week) - giggity google 'fox attacks twins'
That which does not Kill me makes me Stranger . . .
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