what can I say?

Ah, New Zealand politicians, obviously a fine bunch, best of the best….. And yet:

Otago MP Jacqui Dean got caught. She was sent a letter calling for a ban on dihydrogen monoxide and she then sent a letter to Jim Anderton, the Associate Health Minister, asking “if the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs had a view on banning the “drug””.

How could anybody be so dumb as to fall for such an obvious and really old joke? Surely even New Zealand’s politicians must be reasonably educated, informed, intelligent individuals, right? The kind who saw this joke circulating ten years ago and had a good laugh, right? Well, Jim Anderton got it, and had a good laugh at Jacqui Dean’s expense, but:

It is not the first time MPs have had a brush with the hoax.

In 2001, a staff member in Green MP Sue Kedgley’s office responded to a request for support saying she would be “absolutely supportive of the campaign to ban this toxic substance”.

Oh dear.

So just in case somebody gets all worried about this dangerous chemical dihydrogen monoxide, gets on google, and winds up here, allow me to explain in terms a two year old could understand how this joke works:

Dihydrogen monoxide clearly means two (di-) hydrogens and one (mono-) oxygen. H2O, in other words. Water. Got it? Yes, it is a bad joke. It was a bad joke ten years ago, it has not improved with age. It doesn’t seem to have lost its power to fool the gullible or easily-led astray, though.

4 Comments on what can I say?bollocks

About the Author

wangbo

wangbo

A Kiwi teaching English to oil workers in Beijing, studying Chinese in my spare time, married to a beautiful Beijing lass, consuming vast quantities of green tea (usually Xihu Longjing/西湖龙井, if that means anything to you), eating good food (except for when I cook), missing good Kiwi ale, breathing smog, generally living as best I can outside Godzone and having a good time of it.

4 thoughts on “what can I say?”

  2. Sorry- the reference to hearing this joke ten years ago was because it was circulating around Otago University at about that time. I guess it took longer than I realised to spread to the rest of the country. Actually, the form I first saw this joke in was actually pretty good- a huge long screed written in very serious language about the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide. Still, it’s disturbing that at least two of NZ’s politicians would fall for it.

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