Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat was an unofficial mascot of the 2000 Summer Olympics created by Sydney cartoonist Paul Newell with Roy and HG from the Australian Channel Seven sports/comedy television program The Dream with Roy and HG . [1] [2] Fatso is a wombat with a lazy, cheerful expression and comically pronounced rump. It usually appeared on The Dream broadcasts, sometimes as a life-size stuffed toy on Roy and HG's desk.
Fatso was a spoof of the official Olympic mascots Olly, Millie, and Syd, whom Roy & HG disparaged as "Olly, Millie and Dickhead". [3] He was nicknamed "the battlers' prince" and proved to be more popular among Australian fans of the duo (and some visitors who viewed the program) than the official mascots. [4] Fatso appeared with gold medalists Susie O'Neill, Grant Hackett and the Australian men's 4×200-metre relay team on the winners' dais. [1] [2] He consequently appears on an official commemorative postage stamp of the Australian men's 4×200-metre relay team in the arms of Michael Klim. [5] During the Olympics, the Australian Olympic Committee attempted to ban athletes appearing with Fatso to stop him upstaging their official mascots. [2] The ensuing public relations disaster forced the president of the AOC, John Coates, and the director general of the IOC, Francois Carrard, to distance their organisations from these attempts. [1] [6]
In keeping with Fatso's role as a protest against the commercialisation of Olympic mascots, [3] only two Fatsos were officially produced: one for use in the studio and the other for use in the athletes' village. [1] At the end of the Olympics, one of the Fatsos was auctioned for the Olympic Aid charity, selling for A$80,450 to Seven Network executive chairman Kerry Stokes. Fatso is currently housed in a glass box in Kerry Stokes' North Sydney office. [6] A number of unofficial Fatso toys and memorabilia were sold by merchants without authorisation from the producers of The Dream. [7] [8] A statue of Fatso appeared as part of an official Olympic memorial outside the Sydney Olympic Stadium, commemorating the volunteers who worked during the Olympics. [6] The Fatso statue was vandalised in late September 2010, then stolen sometime before 8 October 2010. [9]
