Last night I went to see Goon at the cinema. Its about a fella who’s not the brightest, but who has decent morals and an amazing ability to punch people and make them bleed … honestly, other than fighting on ice hockey rinks he appears to be a very sound fellow.
For the last month or so i’ve been seeing this book in shops alot, I am yet to read it, but it keeps catching my eye. Its called ‘A Visit From The Goon Squad’.
Whilst in Australia in 2006/2007 and 2009, I drank a lot of wine, boxed wine in fact. It was known as Goon and was made of all sorts of crap. Tasted pretty crappy too, but it was cheap and made me very merry in a relitively speedy manner. Now whenever I see or hear the word Goon, I’m instantly taken back to Australia, the last night dorm room parties, the beach parties, ring of fire, dares, skinny dipping … general carnage in fact.
Goon has become something of a phenomenon in Oz, the fact there is a website called www.slapthegoon.com, http://the-goon-experience.com and loads of facebook fan pages pretty underlines it popularity as the student/backpacker budget drink of choice. Drinking Goon usually means you are playing drinking games. Within minutes of starting the games, the goon bag will have been freed from its cardboard prison. The box will then no doubt transfer to someone’s head and they become know simply as ‘box head’ for the duration of the game. Goon is marketed as ‘fruity’, this is a lie, its rough. Your best bet s to mix it with something sweet such as lemonade. A goon spritzer may sound flashpacky, but its not, its you saving yourself.
People get drunk off goon, i mean REALLY drunk. Memory goes out the window and you get seriously funny dreams, also known creatively as GOON DREAMS. It not uncommon after a heavy night out to be asked ‘Did you get gooned last night?’. Its as if the hideous wine product takes you over. I’ve seen it and lived it, its not for the faint hearted. The hangovers are amongst the worst I’ve experienced. Even worse than snakebite hangovers.
Come the morning after the night before its almost inevitable that someone somewhere will have blown up the goon bag and used it as a pillow. I was once told that the aboriginal word for pillow was goon, and thats how it got its name. To this day I still doubt the validity of that story though.
So goon, its rough, cheap, gives you a cronic hangover and will no doubt produce many stories whilst on your travels. You should probably try it, as I say its a right of passage, just dont expact to like it or the effects it has on you.
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Didn’t know about the drink… I think I’m way past my “college” years but someday who knows I too shall try some Goon. Great write-up. Are the pictures from your collection?
@Raghav Not all my pics sadly, I have a few images at home of Goon induced nights which I will upload and replace the current with.
If you’re ever in Oz and have $7 spare its worth buying just to experience it … cant promise you’ll like it though. Try Fruity Lexia, I think that was the brand of choice at the time of my visit.
Oh man, I have loads of bad memories (and good ones) that feature goon sacks hahahaha. Fun to read about something so Australian, good one! Fruity Lexia was the brand we always drank growing up! :D
I actually still don’t like white wine because of that…
@Tom Thanks for the comment dude. I cant get on with wine either, red or white, the smell brings back memories for goon fuelled games of ring of fire. Can you get red wine goon? Fruity Lexia was the brand we always bought too.
@Neil – Haha yeah, you can get the red stuff too, but no-one I knew ever used it. We always got white. Can’t beat that price, but you can certainly beat that quality ;)
@Tom I dread to think what a red goon hangover is like.
I’ve been trying to put a goon website together for a couple of years now, check it out!
http://www.goodgoonguide.com