It’s an unforgiving, bitter, cynical world out there, but at The Urban List we always look on the bright side of life.
Maybe our workplace is so cheerful all the time because we only hire people with a natural joy de vivre. Maybe it’s because our office doubles as an infant pet care facility and is always full of puppy dogs and kittens. Maybe we just had too much of that special cough syrup.
Whatever it is, we are generally very shiny, happy people. It’s true that not everyone is like that, and we acknowledge some people don’t wear the same rose-coloured Prada sunglasses that we do.
Brisbane’s finest daily tabloid newspaper, The Courier-Mail, for example, recently published a list of 50 Aussies they love to hate. We love The Courier-Mail. We love their list. But we could never understand what it’s like to hate so many Australians.
As a karmic counterweight, we thought we’d sprinkle some of our feelgood fairydust on the discussion and come up with our own list. Rather than cutting down tall poppies, we like to admire them, stroke them, nuzzle them and sometimes even lick them.
Here are 25 Aussies we love to love.
- Hugh Jackman: After millions of years of evolution, life on Earth reached its zenith on October 12, 1968 when the perfect human was born in Sydney. Hugh looks like he was chiselled out of rock and he also sings show tunes!
- Ray Meagher: Though it’s doubtful anyone is watching any more, we are almost certain Home and Away is still going on. And you know that all is right in the Universe as long as Alf Stewart is still blustering away in Summer Bay.
- Shaun Micallef: Australia’s funniest comedian does a fine job of keeping the bastards honest in the classiest way possible – through smart, abstract satire.
- Girl from the Ford ads: Makes really annoying car ads watchable because of her singular hotness.
- Kylie Minogue: The singing budgie continues to mince around purposefully despite it being unclear what she is still doing here when the 80s finished quite a while ago. Easy to forget she’s more than just a singer and gay icon, though; her performances in Bio-Dome and Street Fighter were breathtaking.
- Daniel Ricciardo: Aside from looking like a real winner on the Formula One track (unlike some other people cough cough Mark Webber cough), Dan the man has already won our hearts with his happy-go-lucky persona and cheesy grin.
- Julie Bishop: Whatever you think of her politics, Julie does remarkably well to remain dignified in the ignoble world of Australian politics as those around her become ever more unhinged.
- Cate Blanchett: This high priestess of elegance will always be on our lists of greatest Australians.
- Steve Smith: A totally lovable dork who’s fantastic at cricket.
- Virginia Trioli: Whereas every other woman on morning TV seems to either be aesthetically flawless or turn-the-dial-up-to-11 perky, ABC’s Virginia has an awkward aunty vibe that makes her our favourite.
- Hamish and Andy: A couple of knockabout lads who have managed to make bank out of being really likeable.
- Chris Hemsworth: Thor!!
- Tim Cahill: Everyone’s favourite boxing Socceroo is half Irish, half Samoan, but fully Aussie, bro'.
- Chet Faker: Nothing is more Australian than winning the Hottest 100. Chet is about the funkiest white boy we’ve got.
- David Pocock: Human rights activist and occasional rugby union player who is a shoe-in to be Prime Minister one day.
- Rose Byrne: Aww, don’t you just want to pinch her cheeks she’s so cute?
- Tim Winton: One our best, living writers, Tim is a master at capturing the laconic quirkiness of the Australian character.
- Peter Cosgrove: For a guy with a heap of titles, His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove seems like a pretty down-to-earth character. Also, he’s a war hero, humanitarian and leader of men.
- Margot Robbie: Girls, you might get a bit jealous of Margot, but remember we have to keep up our reputation overseas of being a land filled with nothing but amazingly sexy people. She is our current ambassador of sexy. Guys, I’m just going to leave this picture here.
- Nick Kyrgios: Our boy Nick is brash and sassy and a possible future world tennis number one. He has also accepted the Bonds baton from future Governor-General Pat Rafter. Until he does something completely nuts, we’ll all love him.
- Lisa Wilkinson: Ok, Lisa does fit into the ‘aesthetically perfect’ category of breakfast presenters mentioned above, but she has shown in recent times she has plenty of moxie to go with her MILFness.
- Adam Goodes: Former Australian of the year Goodsie hates racists, is bloody good at footy and called out Eddie McGuire for being a complete goose. It doesn’t get much more Aussie than that.
- Sally Fitzgibbons: Happy-go-lucky Sally is a marketer’s dream – the quintessential chilled out beach babe.
- Iggy Azalea: First thing’s first, she’s a realist. Iggy may rap in an American accent and have a fake booty, but she still calls Mullumbimby home. Probably.
- Shane Warne: If you took Mr Warne entirely seriously it might be a bit hard to find him likeable at times. The key is to think of him as a kind of Blond Jester God sent from another dimension to keep us entertained.
Image credit: Everything Hamish and Andy