An Italian erotic cartoonist has responded grumpily after finding himself unexpectedly caught up in the contest for the leadership of the Australian Labor party.
The likely successor to the outgoing Labor party leader, Bill Shorten, leftwinger Anthony Albanese, has for years been known by the nickname Albo.
Albanese shares his nickname with @Albo, an Italian artist whose handiwork is best viewed away from your work computer.
For the original @albo, the cartoonist who joined Twitter about four years before @AlboMP, the mix-up has been quite frustrating.
But it has never been worse than these past few days, when Albanese has sought to saturate the media in his bid for Labor’s top job, following Shorten’s resignation after Labor’s shock election defeat last Saturday.
“Sometimes he does or says something awkward and it starts the mentions flooding,” @Albo said, a reference to the many misdirected tweets sent to Albo the artist, rather than Albo MP.
The cartoonist’s understandable fear is that things will only get “worse if he will become the leader”.
“He has the same right of being called Albo like me, this is not the point,” he added graciously in another tweet. “I’m complaining about his careless supporters that don’t know even his correct name on Twitter.”
hundreds of mentions and all for an Australian politician whose name is Albo too. He as an username slightly different but lots of australian keep mentioning me instead of him... 😭
— Albo draws lewds 🔞 (@Albo) May 22, 2019
Sounds like @albo and @jechalmers will announce tomorrow whether he will stand or not.
— 💧Jackie (@jaquix173) May 22, 2019
Just saw @Albo on TV - looks like we voted at same booth in Balmain East!
— Rami Mandow 🏳️🌈 (@CosmicRami) May 18, 2019
Whole lotta people tagging @Albo instead of @AlboMP today and I am living for it.
— Jordan Raskopoulos (@JordanRasko) May 22, 2019
The Italian artist does not seem to be a fan of his Australian namesake. According to one Twitter user, Albanese appeared to follow @Albo on Twitter until recently. That is not currently the case.
Fantastic that he follows them pic.twitter.com/BtjCXKlYRQ
— Chris Gatfield (@christofergat) May 18, 2019
It is not the first time an overseas Twitter user has found themselves bombarded by perplexing messages from Australia.
Spare a thought for Ashley Kerekes, a Massachusetts woman whose account @theashes has warned “I’m not a freaking cricket match” since 2010.
And there was Peter Dutton, from Texas, one of many Peter Duttons who distanced themselves from their namesake after the home affairs minister challenged Malcolm Turnbull for the leadership of the Liberal party last year.
For the Texas Peter Dutton, it meant some welcome publicity for the popcorn company where he is a sales manager. He now calls himself ‘“the People’s PM of Australia”.
I wish the people of Australia would look at my profile and realize I’m a 30 yr old black man before sending me tweets and DMs. https://t.co/vzTF8JeMlZ
— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton5) August 23, 2018
It is unclear whether Albo, the Italian erotic cartoonist, will enjoy a similar fate, though some Twitter users have apparently enjoyed the mixup.
I’d vote for you
— LEVINS (@levdawg) May 19, 2019
On the plus side, you’ve just made a HEAP of new fans and followers! 😂 #NewFan
— 💧 Androgynous Wallflower (@andwal79) May 23, 2019
It is also yet to be seen what impact the @Albo and @AlboMP confusion will have on the burgeoning Australian political tradition created by MPs in the last parliament: calling in the federal police after accusing cyber criminals of hacking their account to “like” a pornographic tweet.
