WATCH: The Australian prime minister's tongue-in-cheek zombie apocalypse warning

Leave your hard news at the door, please.

"The end of the world is coming," claims Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a statement to her "dear remaining fellow Australians."

"It wasn't Y2K," she continued, "it wasn't even the carbon price. It turns out that the Mayan calendar was true... Whether the final blow comes from flesh-eating zombies, demonic hell-beasts or from the total triumph of K-Pop [Korean pop music], if you know one thing about me it is this — I will always fight for you to the very end."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

By now, you may have guessed that Gillard was having a laugh. South Korean pop hit "Gangnam Style" may have taken over the world, but it probably won't destroy us. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Aussie PM flashed her acting chops for a local radio station, which plans to use the video as a promotion for its "end of the world" celebrations.

According to one interpretation, the ancient Mayan calendar predicts the world will end on December 21st, 2012, though scholars have debunked that theory.

In the U.S., we're hoping President Barack Obama has time to address the imminent destruction of all mankind. It would make a nice change from the fiscal cliff or senators filibustering their own bills.

Here's the clip:

More from Latitude News:

* Starbucks angers Brits by dodging taxes (legally)

* Rise of the 'killer robots'

* In Turkey, The Simpsons and Game of Thrones are blasphemy