We can’t say we ever thought UK comedian Jimmy Carr and GWS rookie Jason Gillbee would ever have a reason to communicate. Or even know of each other’s existence.
Yet the Brit was left stunned by the milk-loving Giant’s story when they came face-to-face on Ten’s The Project on Wednesday evening.
Gillbee began this year as perhaps the most anonymous AFL player possible – a NSW zone selection by the rebuilding Giants, who will begin his footy career as a category B rookie.
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Yet one story changed everything, as it was revealed Gillbee drinks milk instead of water.
Like, all the time. Just drowns himself in it. Guzzles it down. Chugs away at the stuff.
Perhaps unsurprisingly this startling revelation has seen Gillbee doing the media rounds – with people mostly asking some variation on the same question: “Why??????” Then, as a follow-up, “how???!?”
After speaking to most of the sports media world, Gillbee popped up on the light nightly news show, where he first answered the obvious question.
“It’s just the taste of it. It’s a taste thing, a flavour, texture thing, no other real reason. It helps me put on a bit of weight but I just love the taste of it,” he explained.
Then it was the turn of Carr, a rather buttoned-up 50-year-old deadpan comedian, to have a crack at Gillbee.
He began with: “I think we’ve buried the lead on this story. I think the headline is: ‘World’s Largest Toddler Also Plays Aussie Rules’.”
Gillbee cracked up, but Carr wasn’t done.
“A personal question, my young friend – when did you stop breastfeeding? Was there a transition period?” he asked.
Gillbee tried to answer, saying “I don’t actually know,” but that saw Carr jump back in and say “you don’t know?! Are you still breastfeeding now?!”
“No, not any more,” the Giants utility bizarrely had to explain on live TV, “I’m not actually sure what age it was. I don’t think I went that long but yeah, who knows?”
After a few more reasonable questions – he doesn’t like other milks and his teammates were a bit puzzled – Carr came back.
“Am I correct in saying you’re yet to debut at senior level? Because, same here, and I wonder what’s holding me back – possibly my milk consumption?” he joked.
Gillbee responded relatively comfortably, saying “Yeah, I dunno, if that’s what’s holding me back – I don’t know if I’d even give it up then, still…”
Carr jumped back in: “Sorry, does he not know that milk is legal? He’s talking about milk like it’s crystal meth! It’s milk, you’re allowed to drink milk!”
Gillbee responded: “That’s what I think as well, but sometimes I think people think the other way.”
Naturally the interview concluded with Gillbee chugging the remainder of a two-litre bottle of milk he’d been working on through the… well, presumably the last hour rather than the whole day – and then tipped it over his head.
“He may be the most Australian man I’ve ever seen,” Carr concluded.
Yeah. Fair.
