New Zealand's accent being voted the most attractive in the world in an international survey shocked many Kiwis, but it's also left a lot of foreigners fuming.
Travel website 'Big 7 Media' polled more than 1.5 million people from 60 countries across the globe and found Kiwis had the sexiest accent.
Reports of the poll result surprised many Kiwis who admitted cringing when they hear it on television or in conversation.
"I'll hear a kiwi on American TV, and I'll want to vomit. Our accent is awful," said one Twitter user, while another said: "I really don't think Kiwis have the world's sexiest accent because most of the world can't understand us."
Flight of the Conchords' Jermaine Clement tweeted that he had noticed both Kiwis and Australians were "having a tough time accepting this".
An opinion piece on the website of Australian media outlet Pedestrian was extremely critical of the result, asking readers to imagine a person with a Kiwi accent "doing dirty talk".
"I apologise for having put you through that ordeal, but it was to prove a point: The sheer ridiculousness of a poll in which people voted the New Zealand accent to be the sexiest in the world," writer Ben McLeay said.
McLeay said he wasn't objecting to Kiwis taking the crown because of any Australia versus New Zealand rivalry. He even admitted the Aussie accent sounded like being "yelled at by a flock of birds".
"I'm objecting to this because of the other, substantially more deserving, accents that were robbed."
He noted the Spanish, Irish, Norwegian, Argentinean, and Arabic accents as being overlooked.
"No one tell the New Zealanders about [the results], it'll go straight to their heads."
Other foreigners on social media also lambasted the results.
"The Kiwi accent is hideous," said one Australia Twitter user, while an Englishman said a South African accent is "like a poor man's Kiwi accent, which is itself a poor man's Australian accent".
The South African accent came second in the poll.
"The Kiwi accent has apparently beaten the South African accent as the sexiest in the world. I've now heard everything!" said one unhappy South African lady.
Behind South African was the Irish accent, with the long-romanticised Italian accent taking fourth.
The other countries in the top 10 are Spanish, French, Scottish, US Southern, Brazilian Portuguese and Australian.
The full top 50 list can be found here.
Newshub.
