Australian petition to change currency to the 'dollarydoo' gathers force

The land Down Under, home of shrimp on the barbie and all that is fair dinkum, is once again showing the world that they can’t take anything seriously, even something as grave as an economic downturn.

If you haven’t heard, the Australian dollar has been in something of a slump of late, and one young Aussie, a man named Thomas Probst, has taken it upon himself to rally his nation’s finances a rather comical solution.

Probst has started a petition on Change.org to change the name of Australia’s currency from the dollar to the “dollarydoo.”

Sound familiar? If you’re a fan of seminal and absurdly long-running animated television show The Simpsons, you may recall an episode that originally aired back in 1995 titled “Bart vs. Australia,” in which young Bart makes an extremely expensive collect call to a man in Australia to inquire why the toilet water spirals down the drain in the opposite direction Down Under. When the man receives the bill, he exclaims, “Nine hundred dollarydoos!”

Probst makes the following argument in favour of the name change:

“This will make millions of people around the world want to get their hands on some Australian currency due to the real life Simpsons reference, driving up the value of the Australian currency. If the leaders of this great nation have any common sense at all, they will introduce legislation to parliament to change the name of our currency as soon as possible.”

The petition has more than 15,000 signatures, and that number is growing by the minute. The dollarydoo, it seems, is something the public can really get on board with, and the comments only add to the fun.

“Out of all the stupid petitions that flood my Facebook everyday. This is the only one I want to support,” writes Nicholas Loy of Whakatane, Australia, while Australian Joshua Guscott remained stoic, writing, “This is in the best interests of our country.”

Is it? As the signature tally inches ever skyward, it may be something the country will have to address, whether the dollarydoo is in their best interests or not.