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“We should just depend on natural selection!” roars Toby.
The crowd goes wild.
“Peanuts!!!”
“Fucking Peanuts!!!”
“If I had to tell my old man that I wasn’t allowed to take peanut butter to school, I would’ve been given the belt!”
Toby Magnussen (47) has been a succesful stand up comedian for many years, and after several years spent working in the background of production companies with close ties to the ABC, its good to see he’s able to slot straight back into the stand up circuit.
Even though his jokes are no longer about masturbating and bogans he grew up with, his new material about raising two and a half kids in a Fitzroy Terrace House still kills it.
Like most members of Generation-X, also known as ‘the forgotten generation’, Toby is also quick to bring up how DIFFERENT his childhood was, as a firmly middle class white Australian living in the suburbs with only one TV and no dial up internet until he was in high school.
And when you combine those old fashioned sensibilities with the new yuppie life that has been forced onto him by his newfound wealth and social status, what do you get?
Jokes about anaphylaxis.
Between Adelaide Fringe and The Melbourne Comedy Festival, there has been over 1200 reported cases of jokes about infants suffering anaphylaxis reactions, in 2020 alone.
Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that is rapid in onset and may cause death. It typically causes more than one of the following: an itchy rash, throat or tongue swelling, shortness of breath, vomiting, lightheadedness, and low blood pressure. These symptoms typically come on over minutes to hours – and are often in response to common causes include such as insect bites, foods, and medications. The mechanism involves the release of mediators from certain types of white blood cells triggered by either immunologic or non-immunologic mechanisms. Diagnosis is based on the presenting symptoms and signs after exposure to a potential allergen.
According to Toby, this is a perfect example of how cotton-wool wrapped the younger generation is, and how we should let them die because they’ve gone soft. Hahaha.
“Not my problem little Johnathan has an allergy to nuts!” he spits.
“If Johnathan doesn’t like nuts he can go inside! or try his luck with the Epi pen!!”
“haha”
