Kangaroo emblems and popular culture
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Kangaroo emblems and popular culture deals with the uses which have been made of the image of the kangaroo such as coins, emblems, logos, mascots and in the naming of sports teams.
Kangaroo emblem and logo
The Kangaroo and Emu are standard bearers on the Australian Coat of Arms
- Australia's national airliner, Qantas, uses a bounding kangaroo for its logo. The "Company Logos" section on the Qantas article shows that the Kangaroo has always been part of the Qantas logo
- The Royal Australian Air Force roundel features a bounding red kangaroo.
Kangaroos and coins
The kangaroo has been featured on pre-decimal coins, and on decimal coins.
- The Kangaroo was featured on the Australian pre-decimal penny coin.
- The Kangaroo was also featured on the Australian pre-decimal half-penny coin.
- Five Kangaroos are featured on the Australian one dollar coin
Kangaroo mascots and sculptures
Kangaroo mascots and sculptures in Australia
- The Boxing Kangaroo – mascot for the Australia II team in the 1983 America's Cup. This rendition of the kangaroo has become a sporting icon, known informally as the green and gold "Sporting Kangaroo", and is highly popular with cricket crowds and international sporting events which feature Australian participation
- Matilda, the mascot at the 1982 Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, was represented by both a cartoon kangaroo and a 13-metre high (42 feet 8 inches) mechanical kangaroo (which winked at the spectators during the opening and closing ceremonies). The 'medal', which was worn by both the cartoon and mechanical versions of Matilda, features the 1982 Commonwealth Games logo — a stylised representation of a kangaroo bounding (in "flight") – similar to the pose of the kangaroo featured on the pre-decimal half-penny coin. [1]
- The City Roos sculptures, which were made from scrapmetal by sculptor Christopher Trotter during 1999, are in George Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Kangaroo mascots in the United States
- Kasey Kangaroo is the mascot for the University of Missouri–Kansas City
- Zippy the kangaroo is the mascot for The University of Akron
- The kangaroo is the mascot for Austin College in Sherman, Texas
- Lizzie (a purple and white kangaroo) is the mascot of Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, Washington
- Stomper is the new mascot for the TNA wrestling company.
- The kangaroo is the mascot for State University of New York at Canton in Canton (town), New York
Cultural references
Kangaroos are extremely well-represented in films, television, songs, toys and souvenirs around the world.
- Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, star of the 1960s Australian children's television series.
- There is a "Sour Kangaroo" in the Dr. Seuss tale Horton Hears a Who.
- Roo is a fighting kangaroo in the Sega Genesis video game Streets of Rage 3.
- Kanga and Roo are fictional mother and son kangaroos in the popular series of children's books and cartoons about Winnie-the-Pooh.
- Ripper Roo, a crazy kangaroo in a straitjacket villain of the video game series Crash Bandicoot.
- Sheila, a female kangaroo of the video game series Spyro the Dragon.
- Kidding Kangaroo in the Sweet Pickles book series by Ruth Lerner Perle, Jacquelyn Reinach and Richard Hefter.
- Austin of The Backyardigans is a young Kangaroo.
- Roger the boxing kangaroo from the Tekken series of video games.
- Kangaroo Jack, the title character of an American film of the same name.
- A giant kangaroo is featured in the movie Welcome to Woop Woop.
- A team of kangaroo basketball players feature in the French cartoon series Kangoo and its spin-off/prequel Kangoo Juniors.
- In several Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons, Sylvester the Cat is beaten up by Hippety Hopper the baby kangaroo, who always accomplishes this feat after escaping from the captivity of humans who have attempted to take him to a zoo in assorted American cities and whom Sylvester believes to be an oversized mouse.
- In Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry, the commentators are holding a kangaroo by the leash when the racers reach Australia.
- In Warriors of virtue the five main heros are roos.
- Kangaroos are mentioned, or featured, in the songs Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport and Six White Boomers, by Rolf Harris.
- The Pokemon Kangaskan is based on a kangaroo.
- In the anime and manga series Reborn the character Ryohei Sasagawa has a kangaroo in one of his ring boxes that enables healing and advances abilities of others.
- One of the several intelligent races in the fantasy novel Shadowkeep by Alan Dean Foster are high-bounding, fun-loving marsrupials, known as "roos" and obviously meant to be intelligent kangaroos.
- In British punk style comic strips Tank Girl the protagonist`s boyfriend is Booga, the mutant anthro kangaroo. There are some other minor roo characters. In the US movie Tank Girl, slightly based on the strips, protagonist is assisted by Rippers - mutant roo genetically eginered supersoldiers (ang Booga is among them, of course).
Kangaroos and sports teams
The kangaroo features prominently in sport. Australian sports teams with nicknames derived from the kangaroo (and wallaby) include the following:
National teams
- The Australian national rugby league team is nicknamed the Kangaroos.
- The Australia national rugby union team is nicknamed the Wallabies.
- The Australia national football (soccer) team (men's) is nicknamed the Socceroos.
- The Australia national under-23 football team plays Football at the Summer Olympics and is nicknamed Olyroos.
- The Australia national under-20 football team is nicknamed the Young Socceroos
- The Australia national under-17 football team is the Joeys
- The Australian Women's field hockey team is nicknamed the Hockeyroos.
- The Australian national ice hockey team is nicknamed the Mighty Roos.
- The Australian men's national basketball team is nicknamed the Boomers.
Major domestic teams
- The North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League is nicknamed the Kangaroos.
Other teams
- The FC Bohemians Praha, a Czech football team is nicknamed the Klokani (czech for kangaroos) since their tour in Australia in 1927.