History Main / KangaroosRepresentAustralia

* Scrappy is a magical kangaroo character (and ShoutOut to [[Series/SkippyTheBushKangaroo Skippy]]) in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Literature/TheLastContinent''. Actually, he's a magpie called, or at least described as 'trickster', the Kangaroo thing is just his normal early avatar (he also uses a pony and a sheep, pandering to other well-known Aussie works). There's also a brand of beer called 'Roo Beer'. According to Scrappy, the Old Man Who Carries the Universe in a Sack goes around adding new continents to different worlds, and putting kangaroos on them is his signature.

* ''Radio/GoodnessGraciousMe'' averts this with "Skipinder the Punjabi Kangaroo", which was a GagDub of ''[[Series/SkippyTheBushKangaroo Skippy]]''.

* ''Series/SkippyTheBushKangaroo'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCHY6n907OE Skippy is built entirely on this trope.]]

* Australian airline Qantas uses a kangaroo in its logo, and is often referred to as the "flying kangaroo."

* A kangaroo is used in the center of the roundel on [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Ensign_of_the_Royal_Australian_Air_Force.svg the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) ensign,]] and is used as the Army's roundel as well.

* The Navajo word for Australia translates as "Land of the Kangaroos".[[note]]The word for kangaroo means "big kangaroo rat".[[/note]]

If it's a male, expect him to be named "Joey", have a comically exaggerated Aussie accent and possibly [[MisterSeahorse have a pouch]] (even though, in reality, [[AnimalGenderBender only the females]] [[ArtisticLicenseBiology have pouches]]). It may also be depicted {{boxing|Kangaroo}}, [[KangarooPouchRide carrying someone in its pouch]], maybe sporting an Australian Army slouch hat with one brim pinned up, or just plain jumping really high.

Be warned: kangaroos have very sharp claws on their huge feet, and will use them on you if you get too close. Although it is rare, they are capable of killing a human being (just like [[EverythingTryingToKillYou pretty much everything else in]] [[http://www.cracked.com/funny-163-australia/ Australia]]).

* Averted in ''Anime/LucyMayOfTheSouthernRainbow''. It's about an English family that immigrates to Australia in the 1800s, but instead of kangaroos, koalas and dingos are used to highlight Australia's wacky wildlife. Lucy even domesticates a dingo and names it Little.

** Another ''G Gundam'' spinoff manga shows a different Australian Gundam from an earlier tournament, the Southern Cross Gundam. While it's based on an aborigine warrior with a giant boomerang with a fannypack containing a smaller Gundam sticking out of it presumably to mimic a kangaroo pouch for some bizarre reason.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Hayato Maeda uses an Australian themed deck, with his main AnimalMotif being koalas, supplemented with kangaroos as the secondary animals of his deck. His Ace Monster, Master of Oz, is a Fusion between Big Koala and Des Kangaroo, and therefore has the characteristics of both animals. Funnily enough, Jim "Crocodile" Cook, the actual Australian, goes for a completely different animal instead, the [[CaptainObvious crocodile]]; but he doesn't center his deck around that animal either.

* Scrappy is a magical kangaroo character (and ShoutOut to [[Series/SkippyTheBushKangaroo Skippy]]) in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Literature/TheLastContinent''. Actually, he's a magpie called, or at least described as 'trickster', the Kangaroo thing is just his normal early avatar (he also uses a pony and a sheep, pandering to other well-known aussie works). There's also a brand of beer called 'Roo Beer'. According to Scrappy, the Old Man Who Carries the Universe in a Sack goes around adding new continents to different worlds, and putting kangaroos on them is his signature.

* In ''Son of Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'', Buncan and his companions find a land which is a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Australia, complete with UsefulNotes/AustralianSlang, boomerangs, and didgeredoos (although the spellsinging version is a didgeredon't). The inhabitants are a wide range of Australian wildlife, but the majority of them are kangaroos, including their leader.

* GameShows: Virtually ever game show that has offered a trip to Australia as a prize has, on its graphic, has included a picture of a kangaroo somewhere in the artwork. On the game show ''Series/PressYourLuck'', it was ''the'' only graphic (along with the word "Australia" beneath it). On shows where filmed/video footage is used to illustrate the trip (during the announcer's voiceover), stock footage of kangaroos will invariably be used.

* The opening credits of ''Series/{{Whiplash}}'' feature multiple shots of mobs of kangaroos, presumably to inform the American and British audiences that the show is set in Australia. They often appear in the individual episodes as well.

%% No reference to Australia? * The psychotic LaughingMad blue kangaroo in straitjacket, Ripper Roo, from the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games.
* One of the playable characters in ''VideoGame/FurFighters'' is a kangaroo. He's a bit dim but a very hard worker. His theme tune is a mix of whatever level you're on and Waltzing Malitda.

* Three guesses on which animal species can bee seen fleeing from ''VideoGame/{{Octogeddon}}'''s titular monster octopus during his rampage on Sydney. Also, this world's boss is Kongaroo, a jumbo-sized robotic kangaroo, which wields a Battle Boomerang to make things even more stereotypical.

* Now disgraced artist and children's' entertainer (Australian born) Rolf Harris, when doing a series for British TV explaining how animation works and using classic cartoons as examples, devised an AuthorAvatar animated character called the Rolferoo -- a sort of kangaroo-centaur that was a caricatured Harris from the waist up.

* During UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, the [[NumberTwo XO]] of a Royal Australian Navy destroyer, sick of being mistaken for British ([[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships with his British-designed ship flying the British naval ensign]] -- the RAN wouldn't get a unique flag for another decade[[note]]It wasn't until UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar that it became important for the RAN to have a unique naval ensign, because that was the first time Australia fought in a war that Britain was not also fighting. Thus flying the British naval ensign became politically inappropriate.[[/note]]), got the biggest sheet of brass he could find, cut a kangaroo silhouette out of it, and stuck it to the top of the ship as a weathervane. Nowdays, all major RAN warships have a red kangaroo icon fitted somewhere visible on the ship. Usually on the side of a funnel, but other locations are used if a ship's funnels aren't particularly prominent.[[note]]Such as the ''Adelaide''-class frigates of the 1980s through 2010s, which had unusually short funnels and exceptionally large superstructure for their size, resulting in the kangaroo being painted on the side of the superstructure just aft of the bridge)[[/note]]

Ah yes, the kangaroo. Perhaps one of the silliest looking animals around: It hops around on two huge feet, it has a thick tail and, of course, it has a pouch. Because of their almost cartoonish nature, kangaroos are certainly ubiquitous in fiction. Sort of another animalistic RuleOfCool, if you will. Maybe it's just that exotic feel that UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} gives — after all, this is the country that's also home to the PuzzlingPlatypus. If the work is set in Australia, this is commonly a way to say "Hey! We're in Australia, ''mate''!"

* ''Series/SkippyTheBushKangaroo'' - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCHY6n907OE Skippy is built entirely on this trope.]]

-->'''Roosevelt''': Every single word feels like throwing up.\\
'''Bruce''': "Shrimp on the barbie?" We're ''herbivores''.

* Now disgraced artist and children's' entertainer (Australian born) Rolf Harris, when doing a series for British TV explaining how animation works and using classic cartoons as examples, devised an AuthorAvatar animated character called the Rolferoo - a sort of kangaroo-centaur that was a caricatured Harris from the waist up.

** Boomers (Men's basketball - a male kangaroo is called a "boomer")
** Socceroos (Soccer)
** Hockeyroos (Women's hockey)

* During UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, the [[NumberTwo XO]] of a Royal Australian Navy destroyer, sick of being mistaken for British ([[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships with his British-designed ship flying the British naval ensign]] - the RAN wouldn't get a unique flag for another decade[[note]]It wasn't until UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar that it became important for the RAN to have a unique naval ensign, because that was the first time Australia fought in a war that Britain was not also fighting. Thus flying the British naval ensign became politically inappropriate.[[/note]]), got the biggest sheet of brass he could find, cut a kangaroo silhouette out of it, and stuck it to the top of the ship as a weathervane. Nowdays, all major RAN warships have a red kangaroo icon fitted somewhere visible on the ship. Usually on the side of a funnel, but other locations are used if a ship's funnels aren't particularly prominent.[[note]]Such as the ''Adelaide''-class frigates of the 1980s through 2010s, which had unusually short funnels and exceptionally large superstructure for their size, resulting in the kangaroo being painted on the side of the superstructure just aft of the bridge)[[/note]]

* Averted with the mascots for the Sydney 2000 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames - a kookaburra, an echidna, and a platypus. The organizers felt that kangaroos and koalas were {{Cliche}}.

* ''westernAnimation/KangarooJackGDayUSA'', the animated sequel to ''Film/KangarooJack'', where poachers kidnap kangaroo Jackie Legs from the Australian Outback. His friends leap into action and their attempts to save him route them back to the U.S. into the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas.

* Although the ''VideoGame/{{Bomberman}}'' series features the kangaroo-esque [[SpellMyNameWithAnS roois/ruis/Looeys/Louies]], there's nothing really Australian about them. The FanGame ''VideoGame/PowerBomberman'', however, features [[OriginalCharacter a brand new one]] called Buckarooi, who wears a slouch hat and whose main ability is throwing a boomerang, both common LandDownUnder stereotypes.

* A 1952 Hollywood film called ''Film/KangarooTheAustralianStory'' augments its banal bushranger story with plenty of wildlife footage, including (you guessed it) kangaroos. It's claimed that an early draft of the script showed roving herds of kangaroos murdering people... until Australian crew members informed the director how ridiculous that was.

* Averted in ''Anime/LucyMayOfTheSouthernRainbow''. It's about an English family that immigrates to Australia in the 1800s, but instead of kangaroos, koalas and dingos are used to highlight Australia's wacky wildlife, and Lucy even domesticates a dingo and names it Little.

* Marvel has the villain Kangaroo, a ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' LegacyCharacter villain who first appeared in the seventies. The original trained himself to jump like a kangaroo, the second had kangaroo-themed PowerArmor. Both were Australian.
* In ''ComicBook/TankGirl'', set in the Australian outback, the title character's boyfriend is a male kangaroo named Booga.

%% Image and caption selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1428253795029789500
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

* The red kangaroo is all over the decorations and marketing in ''VideoGame/PlanetZoo''[='=]s Australia Pack to an even greater extent than the other Australian animals. Ironically, they're not actually particularly popular with guests in-game.
* Kangaskhan is a ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' based on a BoxingKangaroo, but aside from the pouch with a baby, she looks more like a dinosaur. In ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'', they can only be caught by players in Australia.
* Three guesses on which animal species can bee seen fleeing from ''VideoGame/{{Octogeddon}}'''s titular monster octopus during his rampage on Sydney. Also, this world's boss is Kongaroo, a jumbo-sized robotic kangaroo, which wields a Battle Boomerang to make things even more stereotypical.
* Debuting in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} VI'', the Australian's symbol is a kangaroo.

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * ''Webcomic/MacropodMadness''.

* The biggest Creator/RoosterTeeth fan group outside the US is the Australian [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/roosterteeth/images/e/ea/Roo-teeth.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/400?cb=20150331082510 Roo Teeth]] (whose founder is [[PromotedFanboy now herself part of RT]]), whose logo replaces the cock in RT's emblem with a BoxingKangaroo.

* ''WesternAnimation/OvideAndTheGang'' featured a female kangaroo character named Matilda, as in "Waltzing...".

%% * Dinny Kangaroo, voiced by Creator/CarlReiner, was a character on ''WesternAnimation/LinusTheLionhearted''.

%% * Austin in ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans''; one of the few examples that doesn't have an Aussie accent.
* A kangaroo can be seen adopting a frog in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E16BartVsAustralia Bart vs Australia]]", where Bart is forced to go to Australia to [[LiteralAssKicking have his butt kicked]] for prank-calling them. When pursued, Bart and Homer attempt to get away in kangaroos' pouches, only to find that, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome unlike in cartoons]], they're filled with disgusting slime.
* ''WesternAnimation/SkippyAdventuresInBushtown'', an AnimatedAdaptation of the aforementioned ''Skippy the Bush Kangaroo''. It takes place in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals, and the two main heroes (Skippy and his girlfriend Matilda) are FunnyAnimal versions of kangaroos.
* ''WesternAnimation/BlinkyBill'' has Splodge and his family, as well as Nurse Angelina.
* Now disgraced artist and childrens' entertainer (Australian born) Rolf Harris, when doing a series for British TV explaining how animation works and using classic cartoons as examples, devised an AuthorAvatar animated character called the Rolferoo - a sort of kangaroo-centaur that was a caricatured Harris from the waist up.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TalesOfTheWizardOfOz'' episode "[[PunnyName Boomer Rang]]" features the titular BoxingKangaroo, who speaks with a heavy Australian accent.
%% * Kiko the Kangaroo was a protagonist from the Creator/{{Terrytoons}} studio back in the 30s. Joe Barbera was an animator on the series.
%% * ''WesternAnimation/TheHarlemGlobetrotters'': in "The Great Geese Goof-Up," two robbers use a magician's kangaroo to commit their crimes. The Trotters mistake the kangaroo as being Geese Ausbie who was taken to the hospital to treat his strained wrist and they mistook a movie soundtrack as having the magician turning Geese into a kangaroo.

%% * The mascot for Malt-O-Meal's off-brand line of cereal is a blue kangaroo in sunglasses, with a joey in her (?) pouch. Their names are Cool Blue and L'il Oaty.

* In the late Seventies, the Australian government ran an advertising campaign aimed at encouraging Australians to be nicer to tourists. It listed a series of [[LandDownUnder foreign misconceptions]] about Australia, including the idea that kangaroos catch trams.
%% * Speedy Cash loans has a mascot named Speedy Roo.
* Yellow Tail, an Australian brand of wine, has a type of Wallaby on its bottle. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-fVgM9P2c8 a Super Bowl ad contains a kangaroo.]]

* Since 1986, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Made_logo Australian Made logo]], used as part of a campaign to get Australians to buy locally-made products, has consisted of a line drawing of a gold kangaroo in a green triangle.

* When the ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'' crew travel to UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}}, everyone there is either a kangaroo or a koala.

* ''Anime/AdventuresOfTheLittleKoala'' features an AnthropomorphicAnimal cast and is set in Australia, and although the main protagonist is a koala (another mammal closely identified with Australia), the closest the series has to regular antagonists are three kangaroos, Walter, Horsey, and Colt.

* Marvel has the villain Kangaroo, a ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' LegacyCharacter villain who first appeared in the seventies. The original trained himself to jump like a kangaroo, the second had kangaroo-themed PowerArmor. Both were Australian.
* ''ComicBook/ComicCavalcade'': When Cotton Top Katie's uncle from Australia sends her a gift it turns out to be an adult, and strangely intelligent, kangaroo.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' shows a kangaroo on a street amongst some humans, and one of the humans is dead and has a boomerang in his head, and the kangaroo is thinking, "That was meant for me!" Boomerangs were originally Australian hunting weapons.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* Not surprisingly, you can find a 'roo in ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder''.

%% * A mother kangaroo and her joey appear as background characters in ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}''.

* The animated sequel to ''Film/KangarooJack''.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Citizens of the titular town in ''Film/WelcomeToWoopWoop'' make pet food out of kangaroos, which isn't cool. But then a giant kangaroo god makes an appearance near the end, which is.

* The above ''Crocodile Dundee'' scene might be a ShoutOut or TakeThat to ''Film/WakeInFright'', with its notorious (unstaged) kangaroo hunting sequence.

* A direct-to-DVD movie called ''Film/{{Joey|1997}}'' features a boy trying to help the baby kangaroo find its mom in Sydney.
* In ''Film/AlexanderAndTheTerribleHorribleNoGoodVeryBadDay'', a kangaroo (along with a crocodile) is one of the animals Ben has hired for Alexander's Australian-themed birthday party. However, the kangaroo escapes and Ben has to chase it along a suburban street, getting punched in the face by the roo in the process.

* [[PunnyName Kanga and Roo]] from ''Literature/WinnieThePooh''. Kanga is the mother and Roo is her son. However, their Australian connection is never referenced except for some audiobook narrations. The Disney adaptations usually avert this as well, as Kanga and Roo consistently have American accents, though some cartoons show they have a map of Australia on the wall of their house as a background gag.

* In ''Son of Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'', Buncan and his companions find a land which is a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Australia, complete with UsefulNotes/AustralianSlang, boomerangs, and didgeredoos (although the spellsinging version is a didgeredon't). The inhabitants are a wide range of Australian wildlife, but the majority of them are kangaroos, including their leader.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' had ''The Unexpected'', which landed Cassie in Australia. Cue the kangaroo morph.
* In "The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo" from Creator/RudyardKipling's ''Literature/JustSoStories'', Kangaroo pleads with the gods to [[IJustWantToBeSpecial make him different from other animals]], so Nqong sics Yellow-Dog Dingo on him until he starts hopping all over Australia.

* ''Series/SkippyTheBushKangaroo'' - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCHY6n907OE Skippy is built entirely on this trope.]]

%% * Whazzat Kangaroo from ''Series/ZoobileeZoo''. She's a cool kangaroo in her own right, and boy, can she sing!

* ''VideoGame/RisingStorm2Vietnam'': the Australian Army is represented with a kangaroo logo, in contrast to the US Forces' eagle emblem and the ARVN's tiger symbol.

%% * Creator/{{Atari}}'s ''Kangaroo'', a platform game similar to VideoGame/DonkeyKong.
%% No reference to Australia? * ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' has Roger, and later his nameless wife, with his son Roger Jr. in her pouch.

%% No reference to Australia? * One of the mid-bosses in ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 3'' is Roo, a kangaroo wearing boxing gloves. He can also be one of the playable characters if you [[DualBoss defeat his owner first]].
* Some mooks in the Australia level of ''VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves'' are green FunnyAnimal kangaroos.
* ''VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon'' features playable character Sheila the Kangaroo. Her level is called an 'Alp' and looks it, the other inhabitants are all obviously meant to evoke {{Oktoberfest}}, and yet Sheila has an inexplicable Aussie accent.[[note]]The Alps border Germany and ''Austria'', a country commonly mistaken for Australia. Of course they'd put a kangaroo character there for pun's sake.[[/note]] Her {{leitmotif}} also features a didgeridoo.

%% No reference to Australia? * The [[http://images.wikia.com/earthbound/images/8/80/Parental_Kangashark_Battle.PNG Parental Kangashark]] from ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' is, [[{{Portmanteau}} as you might have guessed]], a cross between a kangaroo and [[ThreateningShark a shark]]. In battle, its joey will sometimes cheer it on and help recover some of its health. [[CutenessProximity Aww.]]

* Kangaroos are enemies in ''VideoGame/TyTheTasmanianTiger'', which features a lot of Australian marsupials. There's also harmless wallabies.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' ''Yuri's Revenge'' has the fourth Allied mission in Sydney. While other maps feature [[BlandNameProduct Burger Kong]] fast-food restaurants with a giant ape standing on the roof, on this map they are replaced with giant kangaroos.

* Inverted in the SpeculativeBiology project ''WebOriginal/HamstersParadise'' where during the Therocene Era, the hopping [[FantasticFaunaCounterpart kangaroo and wallaby analogues]] known as the boingos and the oingos are found on all of the continents ''except'' the small isolated continent of Borealia, referred to as the "land up over" in the text and whose primary herbivores instead are the deer-like ungulopes.

* In the late Seventies, the Australian government ran an advertising campaign aimed at encouraging Australians to be nicer to tourists. It listed a series of [[LandDownunder foreign misconceptions]] about Australia, including the idea that kangaroos catch trams.

** The earlier ''Looney Tunes'' short, "Hop and Go" has a bungling kangaroo, Claude Hopper, heckled by a pair of rabbits after he boosts to be the champion hopper. While the Scottish rabbits are {{Funny Foreigner}}s voiced by Mel Blanc, the blatantly non-Australian Claude is voiced by Pinto Colvig in his Goofy voice.
** Similarly, a ''WesternAnimation/PixieDixieAndMrJinks'' cartoon had Mr. Jinks encounter a boxing kangaroo which Jinks thought was a giant "meece".
** And in the ''WesternAnimation/SaturdaySupercade'' videogame-cartoon series, there's Katy and Joey in ''Kangaroo'', who, like Kanga and Roo in the above example, have American accents.
* ''WesternAnimation/OvideAndTheGang'' featured a female kangaroo character named Matilda.

* As part of Website/{{Google}}'s LogoJoke, there are also kangaroos in [[http://www.google.com/doodles/australia-day-2006 the logo for 2006's Australia day]].

* Yellow Tail, an Australian brand of wine, has a type of Wallaby on its bottle. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-fVgM9P2c8 a Super Bowl ad contains a kangaroo]].

* ''"[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGCiYDWGZv4&feature=related Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport]]"'' is a song by Creator/RolfHarris which references various Australian animals, with the most prominent being the kangaroo.

* In ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' there is an animal named the Coventry Kangaroo. According to information on it the Australian colonists to Coventry took Red Kangaroos with them and genetically modified them to be larger. So large one can use them as mounts for Cavalry troopers.

* A kangaroo is used in the center of the roundel on [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Ensign_of_the_Royal_Australian_Air_Force.svg the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) ensign]], and is used as the Army's roundel as well.

* Averted with the mascots for the Sydney 2000 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames - a kookaburra, an echidna, and a platypus. The organizers felt that kangaroos and koalas were {{Cliche}}

** Similarly, a ''Pixie & Dixie'' cartoon had Mr. Jinks encounter a boxing kangaroo which Jinks thought was a giant "meece".