Drop bear
A drop bear (or dropbear) is a fictitious Australian marsupial.[1] Drop bears are commonly said to be unusually large, vicious, carnivorous koalas that inhabit treetops and attack their prey by dropping onto their heads from above.[2] They are an example of local lore intended to frighten and confuse outsiders and amuse locals, similar to the jackalope, hoop snake, wild haggis, or snipe hunt.
It is often suggested that doing ridiculous things like having forks in the hair or Vegemite or toothpaste spread behind the ears will deter the creatures.[3]
In popular culture
- Drop bears appear in the novel The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett. In the novel, the wizard Rincewind travels through the Australia-like continent of Fourecks, and is attacked by most of the creatures while travelling through the desert. Rincewind is wearing the traditional pointed wizard's hat, which serves to protect Rincewind's head from the stunning blow of the bear, and stun the bear itself. When the first bear's attack is unsuccessful, a massive cadre of dropbears begins to fall from the trees out of sheer astonishment. When hearing about this later, the locals insist that drop bears do not really exist.
- Escape Velocity Nova, an Australian-designed 2002 computer game from Ambrosia Software, contains attacks from alleged drop bears in Auroran Empire space. These drop bears are actually young Auroran warriors in disguise. The game also features drop bear attacks and repellents. Purchase of the repellent, which cannot subsequently be discarded, dramatically increases the rate of drop bear attacks.
- A Bundaberg Rum ad features Australian male campers using stories about drop bears to lure attractive female backpackers into moving their tents close to them. The blonde backpackers are incredulous until the Bundy Rum bear (a large talking polar bear often featured in the company's advertising) drops out of a tree near the edge of the lake, destroying one of the girls' tents.
- In Warren Ellis's comic Nextwave, in the July 2006 # 5 issue, weaponized drop bears are deployed from an air-based military platform.[4]
- Australian cartoonist Ian Dalkin had a popular cartoon strip 'Derek the Drop-Bear' which ran in the Sydney Sun, a defunct Sydney afternoon newspaper.
- Drop bears are one of the many enemies described in the d20 Menace Manual.
- The Australian Museum has a purportedly serious entry on drop bears in its catalogue of Australian fauna.[5]. However elsewhere the museum acknowledges that this entry is a joke.[6]
- Joystiq.com's Xbox 360 Fancast podcast made Drop Bears a regular theme on their weekly podcast before it was cancelled. It rapidly became a meme between the hosts and their listeners.
See also
References