Life's a beach, as Kiwis say it

In the first episode of <i>Beached Az</i>, the whale tells the seagull why he can't eat 'chups'. Photo / Supplied

A YouTube sensation featuring a beached Kiwi whale and his friendly seagull mate has been picked up for an 11-part Australian TV series.

The Beached Az animated series, created by Australians Jarod Green, Nick Boshier and Anthony MacFarlane, and poking fun at the New Zealand accent, is screening on ABC as a run of one-minute episodes.

The original clip generated more than five million hits on YouTube. Fans included Kiwi actors Sam Neill and Fred Dagg creator John Clarke, who appeared in an online mockumentary, The Making of Beached Az.

The latest episodes feature an array of new characters including a crab, a slow-talking snail, a dead stingray, a duck and a drugged-up squid.

"We really should be flattered because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," said Allan Bell, director of the AUT Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication.

The linguist specialist attributes the exaggerated accent to the fact we are starting to speak "more like Kiwis" than ever before.

"There was a theory a few years back that we would start to sound more like Americans, but, in fact, it's gone the other way and our accent has become stronger and more distinctive," said Bell.

"We don't want to be Australian or sound Australian, so we exaggerate. It's not quite saying, 'fush and chups' but it's close."

ABC's blog site quotes the makers of the clips as saying Beached Az works because it has a broad appeal.

"At one end, you can enjoy it as a collection of cute characters in bright colours flashing across a screen and, at the other end, as an intellectual look at the diverging linguistics of the New Zealand dialect," they wrote.

New episodes are rolled out weekly online at www.abc.net.au/tv/beachedaz before being screened on ABC2. The website links to an online shop with whale merchandise.

* Beached Az script

Baby whale: Oh nu, I'm beached bru. I'm beached az.

Seagull: Hey bru.

Baby whale: Hey bru.

Seagull: You're shrunking!

Baby whale: Chull out bru, I'm just a kud.

Seagull: A kud?

Beached whale: Hey bru.

Baby whale: Yeah, I'm a kud whale. I haven't grown bug yet.

Beached whale: Shudn't you be swumming?

Baby whale: Nah, I've just funushed, bru.

Beached whale: Funushed?

Baby whale: I only swum in fufteen munute untervals. I don't want my skun to go wrunkly.

Seagull: Like a prune?

Baby whale: Yeah, as un really shruvelled.

Beached whale: Aw, but now you're beached az luttle bru.

Baby whale: Nah, I fund if I wruggle my fluppers, I can wruggle back un.

Seagull: (To beached whale) You should try that. (Beached whale tries but fails)

Seagull: You're soooo beached!