Australian Curiosity: When Flaming Underpants Joined the Olympic Torch Relay

Before the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the Olympic flame was carried across Australia. It was meant to be a solemn national ritual. The torch travelled all the way from Cairns to Melbourne, carried by thousands of young runners, day and night, with the whole country wrapped in a very official Olympic mood.

Then the flame reached Sydney, and the whole thing suddenly turned into Australian comedy.

A few students from the University of Sydney thought the ceremony was a bit too serious, so they decided to play a joke. They made a fake torch out of simple materials, reportedly a chair leg, a tin can, and a pair of underpants soaked in kerosene. In other words, while everyone else was carrying the Olympic flame, they were carrying a pair of burning underpants.

The most ridiculous part was that when the fake torchbearer, Barry Larkin, ran out, the police thought he was the real one. They even escorted him along the route. The crowd cheered, the atmosphere was lively, and he eventually ran all the way to Sydney Town Hall, where he handed the fake torch to the mayor. The mayor accepted it and was about to begin his speech before people realised something was wrong.

The real torchbearer arrived later. So for a short while, Sydney had very sincerely welcomed a fake Olympic torch whose central fuel source was a pair of underpants.

This story feels very Australian. It was not really destructive. It was a very Australian kind of joke. On the surface, it was mischief. Underneath, it was a reminder that whenever a ceremony becomes too solemn, Australians often feel an urge to add a bit of earthiness, a bit of irony, and a bit of “don’t take yourself too seriously”.

So the 1956 Melbourne Olympics did not only leave behind the history of the Olympic torch relay. It also left behind a much stranger side story. Other countries remember the Olympic flame. Australia somehow managed to put a pair of burning underpants into history as well. The story even left behind its own little English phrase: flaming underpants. Literally, it sounds absurd. Culturally, it is strangely accurate. It almost sums up a certain Australian humour: not against solemnity, but always willing to leave solemnity an escape hatch for a joke.