Australian Humour. If you were ever asked to describe the Australian sense of humour here is a great example. In essence Australians have, a unique ability it seems, to not take themselves seriously, and in effect will self deprecate or deprecate fellow Aussies to achieve a humorous end.

This convincing home grown — lost and found poster has the signs of being a joke, yet at the same time it could be a real case of lost and found. The animal depicted, for our overseas readers, is not an exotic breed of cat, it is a possum — a native animal that has adapted its natural habitat to suburbs and towns around Australia. It is commonly seen as cute, in some parts of society a pest in others— that ravage gardens, wrestles and defecates in roof spaces and can be angry when encountered. To anyone who knows this creature, it is unlikely to be a potential pet, or a cat, except to recent visitor to Australia, or a barking mad animal lover.

This curious poster seems to operate at many levels. Is it trying to appeal to locals at it lighter side, or in its darker extremes, is it an invitation to visitors and new Australians to befriend this timid and unpredictable animal? Is the punchline hidden in the “1900“ number — a cheesy voice over introduces a time telling service — “your source for the most up to date and accurate time in Australia“? Or is it one‘s reluctance to dial “0“, accept the call costs of 77 cents, in fear that this prank is some scary number tracking service for an occult service provider — run by an angry possum out in Northcote ( a hip, alternative suburb in Melbourne )? Or, at another level — the possum as a domestic pet gag; the poke at visitors to Australia, are the subplots that serve a more sophisticated gag — making fun of the crazy extremes that marketers will go to make a sale, or trawl data?

One will never know what this piece means, because, as with good gags, the author has chosen to remain anonymous and let the plot speak for itself.