All talk no action: Aussie blokes lack influence

With over half a million votes cast globally, only one Aussie made the list dominated by action men like Usain Bolt and James Bond. So who was it and where were the others?

Gotye aka Wally De Backer

AUSSIE men have gone MIA on AskMen's Top 49 Most Influential Men of 2012 which was announced today.

With over half a million votes cast globally, only one Aussie made the list dominated by action men like Usain Bolt and James Bond.

Scroll down for the list

Somebody That I Used To Know, singer Gotye was the only home-grown hero to make the cut coming in at number 45.

“The fact that Gotye made the list at all is a real credit to the influence the man had on a global scale,” says AskMen’s editor Jamie Watt.

“His song was also on GLEE and American Idol, he appeared on an episode of Saturday Night Live, and every man and his dog posted either an homage to or a parody of the song on YouTube.”

Gotye tipped out other Aussie nominees such as the Hemsworth brothers, Baz Luhrman, Julian Assange, and even Warnie who were all in the mix, but missed out on making the final list.

“Chris Hemsworth made the list last year, and in a list dominated by men of action and action movie stars, you’d think that both Chris (The Avengers) and Liam (The Hunger Games, Expendables 2) would have been shoo-ins, however because they both had such huge years in 2012, they probably stole votes from each other, resulting in neither of them making the cut.”            

But the Hemsworth boys shouldn’t feel too bad. They are in good company. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, singer Justin Timberlake and actors George Clooney and Channing Tatum also failed to make the grade.

“Thanks to Magic Mike, essentially a Hen’s party masquerading as a film, Channing had a huge influence on men this year, making us all feel instantly and utterly inadequate in the physique department,” says Watt.

“Leaving him off the list was clearly a deliberate act of defiance on the part of our readers. However, we did vote fictional super-lover Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey in at number 13, probably as a ‘thank you’ for getting our wives and girlfriends all hot and bothered this year. Men and women alike all benefitted from that.”

So what does this year’s list tell us about what makes men more powerful?  

“It’s funny,” observes Watts. “In 2011, Steve Jobs came in at number one, and the list was dominated by tech pioneers. One year later, and it’s the sports stars and the hyper-masculine action heroes. So last year we had the nerds, and this year we have the jocks.”

Most likely the Olympics increased focus on powerful, athletic bodies and physical perfection swayed people’s votes. Similarly, the iPhone 5’s lukewarm reception and Facebook shares’ nosedive probably struck blows for the nerds.

In order, the Top 20 are:

1. James Bond – Action film legend, currently played by Daniel Craig.
2. Usain Bolt – World’s fastest man.
3. Bill Clinton – The most beloved ex-president.
4. Seth MacFarlane – Creator of Family Guy, Oscars host.
5. Joseph Gordon-Levitt – Hollywood’s newest action hero with roles in TDKR and Looper.
6. Jimmy Kimmel – This surly funny man turned his show into a ratings winner.
7. Elon Musk – Billionaire PayPal cofounder and CEO of Tesla is banking on his electric car company to change the way we travel.
8. Frank Ocean – Debuted his much-lauded album, Channel Orange this year.
9. Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger – Founders of Instagram.
10. Ryan Gosling – Makes being a movie star effortless.
11. Barack Obama – The Democratic Incumbent will be pulling out all stops to maintain the Presidency.
12. Michael Phelps – US Swimmer with the record for the most Olympic medals of all time.
13. Christian Grey – This character from Fifty Shades of Grey suddenly gave husbands a lot to live up to.
14. The replacement refs – They are destroying this year’s NFL season. Still better than the NRL refs…
15. Christopher Nolan – Director of the epic Dark Knight trilogy.
16. Liam Neeson – Hollywood’s most unlikely action star gets better with age, as shown by his roles in The Grey and Taken 2.
17. Riad al-Asaad – The Free Syrian Army leader continues to wage war against oppressive government.
18. Joss Whedon – Wrote and directed the film adaptation of Marvel’s The Avengers, the third highest-grossing film of all time.
19. Peter Higgs – Nobel Prize winning Physicist.
20. Prince William – Heir to the British throne.

See the other 29 at AskMen