The Wiggles have brough out a collection of country songs, and they’ve teamed up with Orville Peck for new tune Friends of Dorothy.
The masked country music star joins them for an ode to being a friend of their long-term member Dorothy the Dinosaur.
The cheeky song riffs of the phrase that historically indicated people are a member of the LGBTIQA+ communities.
“We friends of Dorothy”, the band sings, before adding that “Anthony is a friend of hers, and Simon is too, Lauchy’s friends with Dorothy, and I’m pretty sure that Johnny is too.”
Later in the clip the band members sit down with Dorothy the Dinosaur and ask her “What’s the tea?”, while they have some tea.
The origin of the phrase, a covert way of asking if someone is gay during times when homosexuality was illegal, is not clear. It’s been speculated that it might come from the character of Dorothy Gale in the Wizard of Oz, played famously in the film version by Judy Garland, or it might have been a reference to writer and critic Dorothy Parker.
In the late 1970 there are reports that the US Navel Intelligence Service was investigating servicemen who might be gay in the Chicago region.
At the time it was forbidden for service personnel to be gay, and in their attempts to locate offenders they came across the phrase “Friends of Dorothy” being used, not understanding the coded message they spent a lot of time trying to track down Dorothy who appeared to be at the centre of gay life.
The Wiggles new album Wiggle Up, Giddy Up is a country affair with appearances from Dolly Parton, Troy Caesar-Daley, Lucky Oceans, and the late Slim Dusty making appearances. It’s the band’s 101st album.
