Actress Kate McKinnon has made Australians laugh after revealing her obsession with the “majestic” white ibis only to then discover the urban pest’s local nickname of “bin chicken”.
The Saturday Night Live star was recently in Queensland to film new scripted series Joe vs Carole. She plays Carole Baskin opposite John Cameron Mitchell, who plays Tiger King star Joe Exotic.
Speaking to The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, Kate McKinnon said while over here, she was amazed to see “loose wallabies” roaming Queensland.
But McKinnon said a much more common bird on the streets of Brisbane also peaked her excitement – the ibis.
“I was walking on the street and I saw what I thought was the most beautiful bird I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said.
“This gigantic thing with a beautiful white plumage and a long, elegant beak, flapping and just walking on the sidewalk.
“And I was like, ‘What is this majestic heron just loose in the street that I’ve encountered?’ I’ve been blessed here. This is a sight!
“And I asked some guy that I ran into and he was like, ‘Oh, that’s a bin chicken.’
“And what I learned was that the ibis is called a bin chicken because they eat garbage out of the dumpsters.
“[The ibis] is their pigeon, and they have about eight songs about how much they hate them.
“To me, this was, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. To them, it’s a pigeon. ‘Oh, the ibis. We hate the ibis.'”
Watch the full chat below, if for no other reason than to hear Kate McKinnon’s top quality Australian accent:
New series Joe vs Carole filmed in Queensland
Kate McKinnon travelled to Queensland to film new series Joe vs Carole, premiering this week.
She plays eccentric big cat lover Carole Baskin alongside John Cameron Mitchell as her equally eccentric rival Joe Exotic.
Joe vs Carole follows the true events surrounding their rivalry as Carole sets out to shut down Joe Exotic’s zoo after learning he profits from breeding and using big cats.
In Queensland, the Gold Coast’s Main Beach stood in for Florida’s Tampa and Alexandra Hills for Oklahoma’s GW Zoo.
Kate McKinnon told Jimmy Fallon the new series is based on the true crime podcast Over My Dead Body.
“I listened to the amazing podcast and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this Carole Baskin. What a kook,'” she said.
“I love kooky ladies. I’m always on the hunt.
“Then [Netflix’s Tiger King] documentary came out, and I felt people didn’t walk away with the most rounded picture of who she is, what she’s about, and what she’s been through.
“She’s had quite a tough life.
“Her main thing is trying to end private ownership of big cats in the United States.
“There are currently more tigers living in cages in captivity in the US than there are in the wild in the whole world.
“We revere these majestic animals. You wouldn’t do that to something you revere.
“That’s her life’s mission. And I thought, ‘Well, she deserves some reconsideration.'”
Joe vs Carole is streaming in Australia on Stan on Friday (March 4).
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