When he first created a video for his MACO 321 class, Sam McBeath had no idea it would spark controversy among students on campus.
McBeath, a mass communication junior from Sydney, Australia, is on the basketball team at Nicholls and has a blog called The Grumpy Aussie. According to McBeath, his class is centered on creating a blog and a persona or character portrayed in the posts of the blog.
The Grumpy Aussie is a satirical blog about the common stereotypes associated with America and its citizens. He writes about American traditions such as “Black Friday” and how America is the second most obese country in the world.
“My blog isn’t to be taken seriously,” McBeath said. “I wouldn’t be in America if I hated it so much.”
McBeath believes that it is fun to laugh at oneself every once in a while, and he did not realize that it would cause such controversy among students.
This video, entitled “Pop Quiz,” showed McBeath asking a series of geography questions to students on campus. McBeath held up a large map of the world and asked students to name countries that many Americans should know, such as North Korea, Cuba and Egypt.
“It is a common stereotype in Australia that Americans do not know their world geography,” McBeath said. “It was meant to be funny and light-hearted and not to offend anyone.”
McBeath shared the video from his blog on Facebook to show his friends and family back home and it went viral.
“Soon enough, people were sharing my video, and it was all over Facebook,” he said. “People that I’ve never even met were sharing my video.”
McBeath got a number of responses from students in the days following the video’s posting.
“I got an email from one of the girls that was in the video, and she made me aware that she was getting teased and was embarrassed, so I took the video down out of respect for her,” he said. “I never meant to hurt anyone and I hope that people can find the humorous aspects of my blog.”