These oldies are not designed to be humorous, but this could be the funniest ever posted.

But it starts out serious.

New Zealanders are fed up. The lockdowns in New Zealand rendered that formerly free country essentially a totalitarian state in 2021. Befitting a totalitarian state, New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, actually said at one point regarding COVID-19 information, “Unless you hear it from the government, it is not true.” She locked down her entire country because one person had the delta variant. Even pro-lockdown CNN seemed to find this a bit over-the-top. It headlined on Aug. 17: “New Zealand announces it’s locking down the entire country … over one Covid case”.

THIS WEEK, when protesters descended upon the capital, Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard decided to blast music after using sprinklers to discourage the protesters didn’t work. When sprinklers were turned on, the protesters dug trenches and created makeshift drainpipes to avoid the flowing water.

So on came the music. The Macarena. Barry Manilow’s Greatest Hits. The sonic warfare tactic is nothing new.

James Hall writes on the website Stuff:

Detainees accused of crimes during the War on Terror talked of CIA operatives blasting the songs of foul-mouthed rapper Eminem into their cells at full volume for 24 hours a day in the hope that they’d crack.

This tactic was famously used in December 1989 when the US invaded Panama. The country’s military dictator, Manuel Noriega, took refuge in The Holy See’s embassy in Panama City but the compound was surrounded by US troops. Opera fan Noriega surrendered days later. It is not known whether the station’s ironic spin of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up proved to be the final straw.

When David Koresh was holed up near Waco, Texas, USA with members of his Branch Davidian cult, authorities used aural bombardment to try to end the siege. They piped an endless stream of wailing bagpipes, speeding trains, buzzing drills, animal noises (such as rabbits screaming) and snippets of These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ by Nancy Sinatra into the air. They failed to end the stand-off, which resulted in the deaths of over 70 cult members.

As for NZ, the musical blitzkrieg didn’t work. The demonstrators responded by playing songs such as Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It. And protesters merely danced along to Macarena and Manilow who once said, “I think my music is like anchovies – some people like it, some people get nauseous.”