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Budgy Smuggler Are Buying Back Boardies To Rid Australia Of The 'Curtains Of Shame'

Release the thighs!
Boardies versus budgies: the great male swimwear debate.
GREG WOOD via Getty Images
Boardies versus budgies: the great male swimwear debate.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that budgie smugglers are the butt of jokes everywhere (pun intended). But one swimwear label is trying to change the image of the scant male swimwear.

Budgy Smuggler have launched a board short buyback scheme to free thighs everywhere from the "curtains of shame". The idea is you hand in your old boardies for a store discount of $10 for the first pair and five buck for each pair after that. They're taking men's and women's board shorts and will donate them to charities in the United State, where apparently they are still socially acceptable.

"We figure that a similar buy-back scheme worked with guns in the 1990's and that this can also help to make Australia a better country," the company wrote in a Facebook post. "Our goals is to rid our country of the curtains of shame that have been depriving our thighs of their rightful place in the Sun."

For non-Australians, 'budgie smugglers' are speedo-style swimwear for men that require a healthy dose of body confidence to pull off. Our former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was very fond of getting around in a pair, to the horror of the nation. The budgie smuggler name has been further tainted by the 'budgie nine' scandal last year.

The blokes behind the Australian brand declared on the Today Show this morning that there is absolutely nothing good about board shorts.

"They slow you down, they look ridiculous and you have a 100% chance of taking your mobile phone for a swim with you," Jarrod Allen, head of development and research for Budgy Smuggler said.

But what's the deal with 'Budgy' instead of 'Budgie' in the brand name? Their website reveals it was just an innocent typo:

"The sad fact is, we only realised the incorrect spelling after it was too late to change back again. So budgy smuggler should have been budgie smuggler. But you know what, however you spell it, you'll still look great in a pair of smugglers."

Do you agree?

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