Why is Raygun?

So, Netflix has released as documentary about Australia’s least loved celebrity, Dr Rachael Gunn – better known by her breakdancing name: Raygun.

It’s bad.

Everyone from Australian comedians to professional dancers hates it, and the reasons for the numerous and interlocking. Even moreso than her infamous performance at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Background

As Untold, Raygun: Breaking Badly,1 Chapman & Maclain Way “Untold” Season 6, Episode 6, “Raygun: Breaking Badly” (1 September 2026) Netflix <netflix.com> is a “documentary” (in the loosest possible sense) that her talent agency takes credit for bringing to life and shaping.2 Stephanie Scicchitano as Born Bred Talent (1 September 2026) LinkedIn <linkedin.com>

It covers in weird amounts of detail Raygun’s childhood, her introduction to the breakdancing scene and then eventually gets around to talking about her qualifying to represent Australia at the Olympics.

It covers Raygun’s personal journey of preparation, anxiety and the various options that she explored in the build up to the Olympics – including the her fixation on winning just one point, and claimed rational behind her decision to abandon all conventional break dancing technique in the final round.

The Breaking Badly goes into Raygun’s explanation for her infamous third round performance, and then focuses in on all the backlash that came her way in the aftermath. All framed against a redemption story of her getting back into competing (in Tapei… not Australia) and commentary from a variety of figures (including her parents and her main coach from the Olympics).

It then ends on a positive note that not only does billionaire Richard Branson love Raygun, but also she actually got a lot of positive moments and praise during the whole thing – and that the Sprinkler dance move was actually invented in Australia.

(It just leaves you to believe that the move is in fact iconic and not just a thing that Raygun thought was funny, without further evidence).

It stops just shy of trying to promote the merchandise on Raygun’s official web site. Just. Barely.

Absent

More striking and noteworthy than what’s in the feature, is what isn’t in there.

Qualification

The Netflix feature does address the weird and objectively false rumour that Raygun qualified due to corruption and the influence of her husband, Samuel Free (introduced only as Sammy Sex, not Sammy the Free). It even has credible b-girl Flix testify that Raygun was, on the day the qualifiers – the best female dancer there.

What isn’t covered is how the qualifiers were scored and what allowed Raygun to be the “best” on the day. In fact it doesn’t really go into much about scoring at all beyond that battles are competitive and judges vote. Fortunately for us, Australian b-boy Jafri who was also at the qualifiers laid out the details in his (much better and more honest) video on Raygun.3 jafri “The Only Raygun Video You Will Ever Need To Watch” (16 September 2025) jafri YouTube, <youtube.com>, at 13:00

Main points are that due to a low turn out, Raygun only had to participate in 3 battles and the Trivium based scoring system did not disadvantage her. For the purposes of the qualifiers, candidates were scored equally on three criteria:

  1. Physicality
  2. Interpretive
  3. Artistitry

This makes sense if you carry in the assumption that anyone trying out for the Olympics would have factored in that they would be competing on a global stage, and thus compared to international talent.

The documentary cover that Raygun did, in fact, not look into that until she had already qualified and started training.

Olympic Scoring

The Netflix puff piece also doesn’t go into the specifics of how scoring worked at the Olympics – rather it simply has Sammy and Raygun explaining how when they started to explore what the competition was like, they realized that there were a lot of power moves and decided that those would be key.

Thanks to a video by one of the judges, BBoy Intact, we know that this is in fact not the case and that while many of the competitors favoured power moves – at the Olympics there were 5 main criteria contestants were scored by.4 bboy intact “Bboy Intact Olympic judge reaction to Raygun Breaking Badly Netflix Documentary //” (9 September 2026) bboy intact YouTube <youtube.com> This is basically a different breakdown of the same approach used for the qualifiers but a little more specific:

  1. Technique
  2. Vocabulary (in terms of moves)
  3. Originality
  4. Execution
  5. Musicality

With the patience and grace of a saint, he essentially explains both that Raygun would have been better off focusing on her fundamentals5Above, at 15:00 and that what we saw of her power move training seemed ineffectual.6Above, at 18:00 The power moves are nice if you have them, but they’re not a central feature and they will work against you if you can’t do them in time with the beat – and they require a special approach that’s not necessarily viable to start in your mid-30s.

Similarly, he stresses that it’s not enough to simply have the moves – you have to be able to execute them magnificently. Raygun’s moves didn’t have the power they needed, they didn’t have the refinement and they didn’t have the flow.7 Above, at 29:00

Like Jafri, he stresses the reality that due to Australia have a very small breaking community and limited access to the international community – it would be unrealistic for Australia to supply a super-star or even a contender for a medal.

The Community

Nationally or internationally, the documentary does not give a shit about the community. The 2 b-girls they speak to are retired, and despite there being a heavy focus on the Olympics they don’t even talk about who won medals, and what those performances looked like.

Obviously, they also didn’t reach out to the judges – even the one’s with YouTube channels and who are paragons of civility.

Notably, Raygun also has never given back to the community – quite the opposite. She dug her heels in and asserted she did nothing wrong, and that it was the public who didn’t understand breakdancing. Her return to battling is not an event in Australia that she sponsors or supports, but a random event in Tapei.

She’s also essentially offended the wider dancing community with her attempts to claim that her originality is so impressive that transcends her need to execute well. As … explains, if you went to a ballet full of dancers who were off beat and couldn’t perform the moves, but the director told you that’s part of the “originality” you wouldn’t take them seriously.

Cultural sentiments

The Netflix long-run advertisement is pretty careful to avoid much commentary about the cultural sentiments of the wider community – instead trying to make Raygun’s husband the unbiased voice of breaking, and allowing a few side comments.

This is kind of weird since this is the hotbed area for international audiences. Generally the breaking community internationally is very aware that the artform is from black and brown communities from New York, and like the hip-hop music it is connected to – a form of counter culture that is often targeted for appropriation.

While Raygun has literally written a thesis on sexism in Sydney’s breakdancing scene, she demonstrated pretty much no interest in the elements of race or privilege. This has been, very loudly noticed by people in the scene – even weirdos who seem to be sponsored by Bitcoin (somehow) and refer to feminism as a “woke ideology” unironically.

Internationally, it’s universally agreed that Raygun continues to present her self as a spoilt, insensitive rich white lady who feels entitled to everyone else’s culture.

Post-Olympic Misadventures

Back in Australia, there is whole hearted agreement with the above but also a strong sentiment that Raygun’s refusal to laugh at herself, to admit she messed up and embrace the larrikin spirit is fundamentally un-Australian.

Particularly since there’s that small issue that she threatened to sue a small comedy club for making a parody musical about her – the proceeds of which were to go to a women’s shelter.8 Emma Rossiter “Raygun musical cancelled after viral Olypian’s legal threat” (8 December 2024) BBC News <bbc.com>

This is fundamentally un-Australian not just for the refusal to have a laugh, but also the fundamental belief in Australia that there is and never will be anyone so important that they should not be made fun of from time to time. Rubbery Figures came out the same year Raygun did and opinions of important people in Australia have not become more reverent since.

The entire chapter of it, from Raygun’s complaining that other people were making money of her (by selling Halloween costumes), to the ludicrousness of the legal threats made and the inevitable faux-apology issued for insisting only Rachel Gunn had the creativity to think of posing a like a kangaroo – to the inspiring resilience of comedian Steph Broadbridge. They just pretend it never happened.

It’s disgraceful. Raygun and everyone with decision making power on the production should be ashamed of themselves and sentenced to a public booting.

Misrepresentations

Not satisfied with lies by omission, the Netflix misinformation campaign also just outright misrepresents the order of events, and the nature of conversations that were being held.

Negativity

For dramatic reasons, it is portrayed as though there was a consistent storm of resentment against Raygun that came from a place of deep misogyny, with pockets of positivity in the background. This is sheer nonsense.

While yes, of course there were and continue to be misogynistic wankers and people who are offended that gender studies exists ranting about Raygun and her PhD of dubious value: There was definitely a timeline and definitely other basis.

Initially there was a lot of positivity – with Raygun’s fellow Olympians celebrating her and lots of people thinking that it was all a bit of fun. Really the only major gripe with her was that her performance was very much not in line with the spirit of the Olympics, she’d completely overshadowed the other performers and embarrassed the Australian break dancing scene.9 Kate Cunningham “‘It doesn’t reflect us’: Global mockery of Raygun’s Paris Olympics performance affecting Australian scene, local B-girls say” (13 August 2024) Australian News The Guardian <theguardian.com>

Resentment started to build and become wider as Raygun:

  1. Gave weird, narcissistic interviews where she tried to portray herself as representative of breaking in Oceania and indeed the objectively best breaker in the world (due to holding #1 spot on technicalities);10 Amanda Yeo “Australia’s viral breakdancer Raygun is ranked no. 1 in the world. Here’s how” (11 September 2024) Digital Culture Mashable <mashable.com> and
  2. Kept wanting to be in the spotlight when it was good for her, but just be a smol bean whenever there was something else going on; and
  3. Betrayed Australia (see above).

This is a critical flaw, since her fall from grace is in fact well documented.

Do We Know Them?

During the section about the conspiracy theory of Sammy Sex having secret control of the Olympic qualifier judges (a theory that is as absurd as it sounds), they have a smash cut of “people” talking about it.

I put scare quotes on people there because one of the people is famous meathead misinformation vendor Joe Rogan but he’s just mashed in there with a bunch of random Tiktokers like they all have equivalent audiences – and the hosts of Do We Know Them?

Which is a fundamentally bizarre thing to do given that in order to provide this framing, they had to edit the segment in a deceptive manner. Do We Know Them? actively combatted that rumour,11 “RAYGUN The Olympic Break Dancer Takes Over The Internet + Jojo Siwa CALLS OUT Trisha Paytas (169)” (17 August 2024) Do We Know Them? YouTube <youtube.com>, at 54:07 so it’s incredibly dishonest to portray them as spreading misinformation like a Tiktoker – or really associate them with Joe Rogan in any way, shape or form.

It’s difficult to overstate how poor a decision this is, given that this kind of thing would make them potentially liable for defamation by way of “false light” even in the United States but for the entire thing being completely devoid of credibility and thus unable to harm someone’s reputation.

Agreement

There are a few points of agreement between the Netflix delusion manifest digital media, and reality.

Media is the real villain

As usual, everyone is correct that the media is the problem – by that I mean our ultra-commercialized media engine that constantly competes for attention and pays little care to the consequences.

Prior to her performance, Raygun was granted a plethora of interviews by the Australian media largely because she was the main Olympian candidate who was willing to attend interviews as a means to procrastinate from training. Regular appearances meant escalations, and somehow against all human comprehension the idea that Raygun could win gold despite:

  • Never having really competed internationally before; and
  • Being substantially older and out of shape compared to the other breakers; and
  • Coming from a nation that had a very small breakdancing scene that was very isolated from the rest of the world’s; and
  • I mean just look at the actual medalists.

When the actual event happened, pretty much all the global media took it as a joke and focused on it as though it were the only noteworthy event from the Olympics – much to the detriment of breaking as a sport, an artform and the Australian breaking community.12 jafri, above n 3, at 21:00

Raygun is also evil

One thing that is consistent among pretty much all the breakdancing people I’ve seen talking about the sport, is that it is heavily focused on community. “Battles” are oppositional, but to be conducted with respect and the closest to exclusionary is “no free props”.

So it’s incredibly shitty that Raygun has made exactly no effort to help her community of breakers in Australia, and every effort to put herself above them and present herself as a kind of superior version who can’t dance but is “creative”.

As Youtuber Thought Knots observed, this is just nonsense – if you went to a ballet show where they were off beat, uncoordinated and clearly was a work in progress, nobody would care if it was the most “original” concept, at – it would simply be agreed it was disrespectful to the art and shit.13 “Why Raygun’s Netflix Documentary is Offensive- A Dancer’s Perspective” (8 September 2026) Thought Knots YouTube <youtube.com>

You don’t need to be genius or educated to work that out, it’s pretty obvious. But it does tie into a complex conversation about class and commercialism that Raygun is educated enough to have, but absolutely avoids.

Having seen all the conversation about her, and the mix of feedback from the breakdancing community – Raygun has opted to simply declare they are all wrong, she is The One who does not need to learn the skills. Her shit doesn’t just not smell, it’s genius and she’s so brave for saying so.

In short, she absorbed none of the lessons Sesame Street tried to teach her:

Conclusion

Raygun is the latest in terrible warnings about many hazards in our culture, but has not been taken seriously by most because of who she impacts.

Breakdancers are the primary victims here

That scale of damage that Raygun has done to the hobby is honestly incredible given that the community has been under constant attack and belittlement by racists ever since it started. Essentially she turned an artform into a joke, then told the people that she was actually the most positive representative of it.

I really cannot imagine how painful it must be to be a competitive breakdancer and now have to deal with people wanting to compare what you do to Raygun’s goof performance. I really, really can’t imagine how it’d be to be one of the breakers at the Tapei event and see you’re going to be going up against her and forever associated with her.

And of course, almost nobody has talked at all about the actual medalists from the 2024 Olympics, which is looking to be the singular time that breakdancing will be treated at an Olmypic level.

Least of all: Raygun.

Australia is the secondary victim

While Australia does amazingly over represent in the Olympics despite it’s population size, it is a small nation and one that is fairly isolated from an international trade perspective – and boy is Raygun not helping with that.

Of the countless international sports stars we could be featuring, and the people who do unique things that are also very important in the fields of conservation, science, philosophy, sociology, etc.

Having people like Richard Branson and companies like Netflix portray her as representative – both putting her ahead of these people but also sabotaging their potential to be taken seriously, is a massive disservice to the nation.

Why is Raygun?

The attention economy.

She got her start because despite (or possibly due to) being the least impressive Olympic candidate that Australia had to offer, she was the one who took training least seriously and thus had the most free time to do interviews.

When it came time to perform, she was the singular performer who decided that it was better to be a clown for attention than put on a solid performance. She was also then happy to keep riding this and do everything to keep the attention on her.

Once that started to die down, she was happy to sue small comedy shows to try to protect her control, and then she was happy to sign up with a talent agency that would not only agree to but would brag that they’d get propaganda made to try to make her a star again.

How might she be defeated?

She kind of already is.

While there is no specific schedule for her posted, her Inspire page has nothing to show except that she will talk about herself and how she thinks she was hardly done by and is actually a good dancer. Not exactly a topic for business events, or parties (given you’re probably not supposed to point and laugh at her). It also, still lists her as lecturing in present tense, so hasn’t been updated since she got the arse from Macquarie University.

The ever classy Reuters describes her as the long shadow that breakers are struggling to escape from.14 Amy Tennery “Breaking’s next move: escaping the long shadow of Raygun” (20 August 2026) Reuters <reuters.com> Her last academic publication was in 2023, and has, at time of writing, 5 citations. Her cameo has 24 hour delivery with all the sample videos being her on a couch trying to look happy, all at twice the price, half the reviews of and a lower score than a Margo Robbie lookalike.

When she does get a sponsored post on her Instagram, the top comments are people asking her not to ruin another sport. Around the time of her big publicity comeback, she had an appearance on Jimmy Fallon was her being a 2nd Aussie to get him to eat vegemite (the first being weird cultist Hugh Jackman, 11 years ago) – followed by more of her whining how hard her life is since people don’t like her.15 Dylan Terry “Raygun forces US TV host Jimmy Fallon to eat ‘shoe polish’ in bizarre segment after ‘imposter syndrome’ revelation” (23 September 2026) Sport > Olympics News.com.au <news.com.au>

The reel where Jimmy makes fun of her is still up on his Instagram. The full segment on his YouTube. It would have been less humiliating for her to literally eat his shit.

The post from her talent agency, congratulating themselves on setting up a propaganda piece on LinkedIn has, after 3 months, a total of 5 reactions – the agency hasn’t had any big announcements since either.16 Above, at n 2

Perhaps, if nothing else, she can sink the talent agency that thought she was a hot item on the market, and wasted all their time and money on this nonsense.

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