Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
mind you on the plus side he was a lot more entertaining than biden
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
That about sums up what John Oliver's show became, 30 mins where this was the only punchline. He has managed to move a little bit away from that more recently, but still can't resist.
What I did notice in British audiences was "take the piss out of thick Brexit voters" routines weren't working come end of 2019. I went to a few events and soon as the comedians started down this line there was an applaudable groan.
I saw Mark Watson, who came out and said no Brexit jokes tonight, nobody wants that shit, and there was a massive cheer (and this event was in a town that you would be hard to find a Brexit voter).
Alas, virtually all 'comedy' talk shows in the US are just this. Unwatchable rants. Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher ... The list goes on. Clever people capable of being witty but who have become just too lazy.
Has Colbert become tediously Woke as well? That's a damn shame. He used to be hilarious in his old incarnation, because it was layered
I confess I haven't watched the new talk show (which started about 5 years back?)
Every single one of the US late night talk shows are now predictably tediously identikit stuff. It is like the same writers just write for all of them, change around a few words in the "gag" for each show.
Maybe you guys are not the target audience anymore
How are you feeling sir?
Absolutely fine. Just have another 7 days of isolation ffs.
It’s mad isn’t it?
It's frustrating. By the time my PCR had come back positive the illness was basically over. I wish i had recorded my "symptoms start date" a few days earlier, which in hindsight would probably have been accurate.
Surely the time is 7 days from date of test?
It's from first symptoms I think.
Correct. Does enable a certain amount of "interpretation"
When do we expect the Work From Home If You Can to be lifted?
I am thinking end of Jan? Need to get a cheapo motor for station runs before it’s lifted.
I don't think that any of the relatively modest restrictions we've got will be lifted until it is obvious both that the case wave has peaked and that the hospitals are over the worst of it (exception: the self-isolation rules might be reviewed again if they're preventing society from continuing to function.) That'd put us some distance into February at least. It's all about optics, of course: lifting any of the rules before that would make it look as if the Government wasn't taking the situation seriously and didn't care about the suffering of the NHS or the patients, even if the rules themselves were demonstrably useless.
Which is the big problem with bringing in rules without evidence: they tend to hang around even though they are useless.
So theatregoers and fashion shopping trips will remain under masks until February? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you could be right.
OTOH, think Plan B has a sunset clause on 26 Jan. Would require a fresh vote and continued Labour C&S. Let’s see where we are on the data.
This is nothing more than a half-educated guess on my part, but I suspect that the end of January may coincide with the peak of hospital admissions and that the headline figures for those will be horrendous (the large majority of them will be incidental admissions, but that fine distinction won't make it through the media filter - only horrified screaming about 6k-7k patients a day.) The Government should have no trouble ramming through an extension under those circumstances.
How long the extension may last for, and whether the rules will remain in force for all of it or be repealed early, is a different matter.
The incidental admissions thing is utterly bonkers - as such patients have by definition not been admitted to hospital for covid, they have simply failed a covid test at some point during their stay.
This means that a nontrivial amount of ‘covid admissions’ are in fact ‘asymptomatic covid hospitalisations’ - a concept so utterly bonkers and bizarre it is worthy of much greater billing.
"Asymptomatic" is probably not correct. Most of them will either have cold like symptoms, or will get them soon.
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
Odd story - seemingly Daniel Kawczynski has had state subsidised polish lessons. I'm trying to work out i) Is it true. ii) Why on earth they would be a state subsidised expense. iii) Can't he speak it already ?
Plenty of people can't speak (very well) the language of their minority origin.
He grew up in Poland until he was 6 and has previously described himself as fluent in the language.
He is a Tory, why would anyone expect he was not be robbing the public
If he hasn't spoken Polish daily since he was six, he may have found himself getting very rusty. Even if they spoke Polish in the family home, he wouldn't have had much opportunity since leaving home.
This might be true and very commendable to learn to speak the language of your birth fluently...but not sure how it is justifiable to charge the public purse for this. I don't see how it is essential to his ability to be an MP.
According to the Times, it is part of an obscure parliamentary scheme for language lessons so that bit's legit. There was a discussion of Kawczynski's costs on the last thread.
You would hope if this is the case, there would be an upper bound of the cost on any such scheme.
I once worked for a company that had a very generous scheme that allowed you to claim for personal development i.e. it could be any sort of random night school course from basket weaving to language courses, but there was a cap on how much you could claim every year, so you couldn't a) just get your mate to charge £100 / hr to teach you car mechanics and b) you couldn't just sign up for a different class every night of the week.
Indeed, it used to be common for larger corporations and government departments both to budget for, and expect, continuing training for personnel. I received a fair bit of it while with the FCO - writing, speed reading, public speaking, management, Arabic (formal, and in country x 2), French, economics, EU institutions and laws, personal security, addressing alcoholism are the courses I can remember.
But GBP20k seems on the excessive side for one language.
I think this kind of problem is inevitable until we actually come up with a better definition of what MPs do and are for. Are they company directors with essentially unlimited expense account making it up as they go? Or are they professionals with actual career development?
We have a hybrid system where MP was really supposed to be a part time hobby for people rich enough to have the time to spare. And the amount of time it took to be an MP was quite small. In addition politics was the ultimate job in more ways than one - a career after politics was not expected.
We have bolted that onto an expectation of modern middle managers, as paid employees. Complete with the social status aspirations of the original.
They are a bunch of trough swillers swindling the public. Blackford had over 260K expenses and was hardly in Westminster due to covid. hate to think what the Tories will be claiming, guaranteed to make him look an amateur.
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
That about sums up what John Oliver's show became, 30 mins where this was the only punchline. He has managed to move a little bit away from that more recently, but still can't resist.
What I did notice in British audiences was "take the piss out of thick Brexit voters" routines weren't working come end of 2019. I went to a few events and soon as the comedians started down this line there was an applaudable groan.
I saw Mark Watson, who came out and said no Brexit jokes tonight, nobody wants that shit, and there was a massive cheer (and this event was in a town that you would be hard to find a Brexit voter).
Alas, virtually all 'comedy' talk shows in the US are just this. Unwatchable rants. Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher ... The list goes on. Clever people capable of being witty but who have become just too lazy.
Has Colbert become tediously Woke as well? That's a damn shame. He used to be hilarious in his old incarnation, because it was layered
I confess I haven't watched the new talk show (which started about 5 years back?)
Every single one of the US late night talk shows are now predictably tediously identikit stuff. It is like the same writers just write for all of them, change around a few words in the "gag" for each show.
Maybe you guys are not the target audience anymore
How are you feeling sir?
Absolutely fine. Just have another 7 days of isolation ffs.
It’s mad isn’t it?
When did you test positive? I thought you can get out on day 7 if you test neg on day 6 and 7? Apologies if it was today.
When do we expect the Work From Home If You Can to be lifted?
I am thinking end of Jan? Need to get a cheapo motor for station runs before it’s lifted.
I don't think that any of the relatively modest restrictions we've got will be lifted until it is obvious both that the case wave has peaked and that the hospitals are over the worst of it (exception: the self-isolation rules might be reviewed again if they're preventing society from continuing to function.) That'd put us some distance into February at least. It's all about optics, of course: lifting any of the rules before that would make it look as if the Government wasn't taking the situation seriously and didn't care about the suffering of the NHS or the patients, even if the rules themselves were demonstrably useless.
Which is the big problem with bringing in rules without evidence: they tend to hang around even though they are useless.
So theatregoers and fashion shopping trips will remain under masks until February? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you could be right.
OTOH, think Plan B has a sunset clause on 26 Jan. Would require a fresh vote and continued Labour C&S. Let’s see where we are on the data.
This is nothing more than a half-educated guess on my part, but I suspect that the end of January may coincide with the peak of hospital admissions and that the headline figures for those will be horrendous (the large majority of them will be incidental admissions, but that fine distinction won't make it through the media filter - only horrified screaming about 6k-7k patients a day.) The Government should have no trouble ramming through an extension under those circumstances.
How long the extension may last for, and whether the rules will remain in force for all of it or be repealed early, is a different matter.
The incidental admissions thing is utterly bonkers - as such patients have by definition not been admitted to hospital for covid, they have simply failed a covid test at some point during their stay.
This means that a nontrivial amount of ‘covid admissions’ are in fact ‘asymptomatic covid hospitalisations’ - a concept so utterly bonkers and bizarre it is worthy of much greater billing.
"Asymptomatic" is probably not correct. Most of them will either have cold like symptoms, or will get them soon.
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
Agreed, although presumably some will indeed be asymptomatic - just as is the case outside hospitals?
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
That about sums up what John Oliver's show became, 30 mins where this was the only punchline. He has managed to move a little bit away from that more recently, but still can't resist.
What I did notice in British audiences was "take the piss out of thick Brexit voters" routines weren't working come end of 2019. I went to a few events and soon as the comedians started down this line there was an applaudable groan.
I saw Mark Watson, who came out and said no Brexit jokes tonight, nobody wants that shit, and there was a massive cheer (and this event was in a town that you would be hard to find a Brexit voter).
Alas, virtually all 'comedy' talk shows in the US are just this. Unwatchable rants. Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher ... The list goes on. Clever people capable of being witty but who have become just too lazy.
Has Colbert become tediously Woke as well? That's a damn shame. He used to be hilarious in his old incarnation, because it was layered
I confess I haven't watched the new talk show (which started about 5 years back?)
Every single one of the US late night talk shows are now predictably tediously identikit stuff. It is like the same writers just write for all of them, change around a few words in the "gag" for each show.
Maybe you guys are not the target audience anymore
How are you feeling sir?
Absolutely fine. Just have another 7 days of isolation ffs.
It’s mad isn’t it?
When did you test positive? I thought you can get out on day 7 if you test neg on day 6 and 7? Apologies if it was today.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
That about sums up what John Oliver's show became, 30 mins where this was the only punchline. He has managed to move a little bit away from that more recently, but still can't resist.
What I did notice in British audiences was "take the piss out of thick Brexit voters" routines weren't working come end of 2019. I went to a few events and soon as the comedians started down this line there was an applaudable groan.
I saw Mark Watson, who came out and said no Brexit jokes tonight, nobody wants that shit, and there was a massive cheer (and this event was in a town that you would be hard to find a Brexit voter).
Alas, virtually all 'comedy' talk shows in the US are just this. Unwatchable rants. Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher ... The list goes on. Clever people capable of being witty but who have become just too lazy.
Has Colbert become tediously Woke as well? That's a damn shame. He used to be hilarious in his old incarnation, because it was layered
I confess I haven't watched the new talk show (which started about 5 years back?)
Every single one of the US late night talk shows are now predictably tediously identikit stuff. It is like the same writers just write for all of them, change around a few words in the "gag" for each show.
Maybe you guys are not the target audience anymore
How are you feeling sir?
Absolutely fine. Just have another 7 days of isolation ffs.
It’s mad isn’t it?
It's frustrating. By the time my PCR had come back positive the illness was basically over. I wish i had recorded my "symptoms start date" a few days earlier, which in hindsight would probably have been accurate.
Are you not able to revise the symptoms start date? That seems daft if not.
A mate recently staged a complete recovery from a mild bout of covid in 48 hours. Then spent five days in isolation with nothing wrong with him, except extreme cabin fever.
When do we expect the Work From Home If You Can to be lifted?
I am thinking end of Jan? Need to get a cheapo motor for station runs before it’s lifted.
I don't think that any of the relatively modest restrictions we've got will be lifted until it is obvious both that the case wave has peaked and that the hospitals are over the worst of it (exception: the self-isolation rules might be reviewed again if they're preventing society from continuing to function.) That'd put us some distance into February at least. It's all about optics, of course: lifting any of the rules before that would make it look as if the Government wasn't taking the situation seriously and didn't care about the suffering of the NHS or the patients, even if the rules themselves were demonstrably useless.
Which is the big problem with bringing in rules without evidence: they tend to hang around even though they are useless.
So theatregoers and fashion shopping trips will remain under masks until February? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you could be right.
OTOH, think Plan B has a sunset clause on 26 Jan. Would require a fresh vote and continued Labour C&S. Let’s see where we are on the data.
This is nothing more than a half-educated guess on my part, but I suspect that the end of January may coincide with the peak of hospital admissions and that the headline figures for those will be horrendous (the large majority of them will be incidental admissions, but that fine distinction won't make it through the media filter - only horrified screaming about 6k-7k patients a day.) The Government should have no trouble ramming through an extension under those circumstances.
How long the extension may last for, and whether the rules will remain in force for all of it or be repealed early, is a different matter.
The incidental admissions thing is utterly bonkers - as such patients have by definition not been admitted to hospital for covid, they have simply failed a covid test at some point during their stay.
This means that a nontrivial amount of ‘covid admissions’ are in fact ‘asymptomatic covid hospitalisations’ - a concept so utterly bonkers and bizarre it is worthy of much greater billing.
"Asymptomatic" is probably not correct. Most of them will either have cold like symptoms, or will get them soon.
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
Agreed, although presumably some will indeed be asymptomatic - just as is the case outside hospitals?
Has it ever been truly resolved if people are able to spread assymptomatically? I’d always believed it unlikely, and the spread was people with very mild symptoms, but happy to be shown I’m wrong about this (as about so much!).
The royalists are at the don't let rotten Andy spoil our barrel of superb apples stage.
Pretty sure that HMQ is the only obstacle stopping 'the Firm' indulging in one of its periodic acts of self preservation by leaving the colonel of the Grenadier Guards to hang out to dry.
Not really an accurate article given even Harry and his children with Meghan are now higher in the line of succession than Prince Andrew.
Andrew is now only 9th in line to the throne, he is far less relevant to the future of the monarchy than he was in 1980 when he was 2nd in line behind Charles before William and Harry and their children were born
Mm. But the point about monarchy is that we don't get to choose. If things had turned out slightly differently, we'd now have King Andrew I, and we would have to suck it up.
That's why the system is ridiculous.
Whereas we could have elected a president who would never go near Epstein? I doubt the counterfactual that Andrew as king would have been allowed even to meet him. It is precisely because he is peripheral that he could get involved. Seriously, the fault on the part of Trump and Clinton is a million times more grave than anything Andrew has done, much as I dislike him. This is all about power corrupting, whether it's royal or presidential power.
I assume you aren't in favour of pinning stuff Piers does, onto Jeremy?
No, I agree, and anyway we all have to reserve judgement on Andrew too. But my point about Presidents is that you can get rid of them. You can't get legally rid of the King, regardless of what he's like. There will be all kinds of social constraints on what the royals are expected to do, and IMO the Queen has been exemplary in that way. But we have seen enough recent examples that social constraints don't always work to want a mechanism to remove people who ignore them.
We have a constitutional monarch not an absolute monarch so parliament has far more impact on our lives than the monarch does now. However as the abdication showed monarchs can be replaced while still alive, though God clearly intervened to give Charles heirs and grandchildren so Andrew never got near the throne anyway
God must have going through an odd phase in the 1460's, given he got rid of Henry VI, only to bring in him back a few years later as a puppet of the Earl of Warwick, before changing his mind about six months later and then ending the Lancastrian main line for good.
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
Both stats are probably right - which rather makes the point that the South Africans were roundly derided for several weeks ago.
That there is such confusion about the isolation rules amongst the generally well-informed on here says something in itself. Regardless of who's right.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
I absolutely cannot stand the likes of Russell Howard. The only thing that separates him from racist, misogynistic old school comics of the 1970s is that the latter were sometimes funny, despite their egregious bigotry
If you want a challenging, brilliant comedian who takes on all-comers, try Dave Chapelle? If you haven't already?
The Closer on Netflix is magnificent. Edgy, creative, unexpected, with proper regular if shocking LOLs. And his timing is immaculate
If you head to the Witham in Barnard Castle, joke 1 is always specsavers or equivalent just to get it out of the way
people still doing "barnard castle eye test" material can literally get in the sea.
They did a Barnard Castle gag at the Sunderland panto
Point proven I think :-)
Absolutely proven. If a joke is so tired it can only be warmed over and served at a pantomime, then it is utterly dead to the world
Pantos were, rather strikingly, the retirement home of mother-in-law jokes. The last place they could be heard
They are also the bedrock of provincial Britain
They really really aren't. lol. How many people go to pantos? A few hundred thousand, mostly bewildered kids and a lot of mindlessly bored parents. Plus some strange retarded adults without kids. Literally: retarded. Drooling.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
The royalists are at the don't let rotten Andy spoil our barrel of superb apples stage.
Pretty sure that HMQ is the only obstacle stopping 'the Firm' indulging in one of its periodic acts of self preservation by leaving the colonel of the Grenadier Guards to hang out to dry.
Not really an accurate article given even Harry and his children with Meghan are now higher in the line of succession than Prince Andrew.
Andrew is now only 9th in line to the throne, he is far less relevant to the future of the monarchy than he was in 1980 when he was 2nd in line behind Charles before William and Harry and their children were born
Mm. But the point about monarchy is that we don't get to choose. If things had turned out slightly differently, we'd now have King Andrew I, and we would have to suck it up.
That's why the system is ridiculous.
Whereas we could have elected a president who would never go near Epstein? I doubt the counterfactual that Andrew as king would have been allowed even to meet him. It is precisely because he is peripheral that he could get involved. Seriously, the fault on the part of Trump and Clinton is a million times more grave than anything Andrew has done, much as I dislike him. This is all about power corrupting, whether it's royal or presidential power.
I assume you aren't in favour of pinning stuff Piers does, onto Jeremy?
No, I agree, and anyway we all have to reserve judgement on Andrew too. But my point about Presidents is that you can get rid of them. You can't get legally rid of the King, regardless of what he's like. There will be all kinds of social constraints on what the royals are expected to do, and IMO the Queen has been exemplary in that way. But we have seen enough recent examples that social constraints don't always work to want a mechanism to remove people who ignore them.
We have a constitutional monarch not an absolute monarch so parliament has far more impact on our lives than the monarch does now. However as the abdication showed monarchs can be replaced while still alive, though God clearly intervened to give Charles heirs and grandchildren so Andrew never got near the throne anyway
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
That about sums up what John Oliver's show became, 30 mins where this was the only punchline. He has managed to move a little bit away from that more recently, but still can't resist.
What I did notice in British audiences was "take the piss out of thick Brexit voters" routines weren't working come end of 2019. I went to a few events and soon as the comedians started down this line there was an applaudable groan.
I saw Mark Watson, who came out and said no Brexit jokes tonight, nobody wants that shit, and there was a massive cheer (and this event was in a town that you would be hard to find a Brexit voter).
Alas, virtually all 'comedy' talk shows in the US are just this. Unwatchable rants. Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher ... The list goes on. Clever people capable of being witty but who have become just too lazy.
Has Colbert become tediously Woke as well? That's a damn shame. He used to be hilarious in his old incarnation, because it was layered
I confess I haven't watched the new talk show (which started about 5 years back?)
Every single one of the US late night talk shows are now predictably tediously identikit stuff. It is like the same writers just write for all of them, change around a few words in the "gag" for each show.
Maybe you guys are not the target audience anymore
How are you feeling sir?
Absolutely fine. Just have another 7 days of isolation ffs.
It’s mad isn’t it?
When did you test positive? I thought you can get out on day 7 if you test neg on day 6 and 7? Apologies if it was today.
Ha, am I late to the party in just noticing that the PoliticsForAll guy finally got kicked off Twitter?
The whole network of accounts and personal accounts got torpedoed.
My presumption is there has to be more to the story. They don't normally nuke all your accounts like that if say it was a copyright issue or claims of an inaccurate statement.
I’m surprised it took so long.
It was clearly a bot that scraped headlines from news websites as they were published, and reprinted the headline unattributed, then had hundreds of likes within seconds, manipulating Twitter’s platform in order to be seen as the original source of the story on Twitter.
I would have thought that all the genuine press sources were completing to Twitter about the copyright infringement, which was quite deliberate and widespread. The correct etiquette is to link to the source of the story, which he was making a point of not doing.
I believe they recently registered as a business, I wonder if that also triggered it, as now there is a legal entity trying to monetarise this approach.
The conspiracy theory was it was really some sort of covert Tory plan to do (non) independent news, but that always seemed rubbish to me. The guy behind it might have been a Tory voter, but it spammed out all sorts of headlines that were not exactly in the interests of the Tories to be widely disseminated.
I think it is might more like as you say there was botting going on and the guy had found an exploit within the twitter algorithm that meant those account always got lots of spread. The speed of their growth, even if they did early get some plugs by established journalists, just seemed unrealistic. It was nowhere to everywhere in a no time. Most new brands can only dream of doing this.
I’m not sure it was any particular political opinion or side, it was just picking up every single story and Tweeting it before anyone else did, including the original source of the story, backed up with a bot network to immediately like it. So all the journalists following politics, see that account at the top of the feed all the time.
It was said to be a student doing it, but if he was running multiple accounts and then registered a company, he was clearly guilty of platform manipulation and copyright infringement. It’s a bit like the definition of pornography, that one knows it when one sees it. Doing what he was doing, but commercially, clearly sends the dubious behaviour over the line.
Its very smart exploit in some senses. We all know the journalists these days just circle jerk tweets from other media outlets, and somebody has just short circuited that process for them, inserted himself into the process by putting it all in one place so they can get their direction from a single account, leading to even more engagement, leading to wider spread.....
I believe the Spectator hired him to aid their social media, which is a bit awkward if the basis of his operation is all botted accounts. But I imagine other companies would be very interested in seeing what he can do for their brands (makes you wonder if he is already doing so).
I’m sure if he’s now working for an actual media org, they might appreciate him actually linking to their stories rather than simply putting “Breaking” in front of a scraped headline, several hundred times a day
Nonetheless, maybe a good way of getting noticed in a crowded field, and the Speccie are well known for taking unconventionally-qualified people on for internships. Everyone in the political media will now know of him.
What I find slightly odd is I can see media organisations being pissed of with him, although it seems a lot of journalists didn't seem to be at all (as I say, I think its because it made their job easier). There is a fair number of supportive messages from blue checkmarks.
But tw@tterverse, especially the lefty ones, seem to detest him. I guess it was because he said he voted Brexit and Tory, when the scraped headlines weren't even remotely one sided in say the way Guido Fawkes is. I am not sure why they would be so angry about a bot account just retweeting the national newspaper headlines.
Presumably it’s going to be easier to put a really good social media algorithm guy on a course in journalistic ethics, than it is to put a journalist on a social media optimisation course?
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
My god, you're a humourless fuckwit
Yea, but at least he isn't a swivel-eyed c*nt!
Boasting about yourself again
Could have been referring to you perhaps? Can't be many unswerving fanbois for the fat little creep that was described by his own QC as a bully and a sex pest can there? How are the anger management classes going Malc? I bet those nationalistic hate filled eyes are going into swivelling overdrive as you read this eh? You silly little man.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
That about sums up what John Oliver's show became, 30 mins where this was the only punchline. He has managed to move a little bit away from that more recently, but still can't resist.
What I did notice in British audiences was "take the piss out of thick Brexit voters" routines weren't working come end of 2019. I went to a few events and soon as the comedians started down this line there was an applaudable groan.
I saw Mark Watson, who came out and said no Brexit jokes tonight, nobody wants that shit, and there was a massive cheer (and this event was in a town that you would be hard to find a Brexit voter).
Alas, virtually all 'comedy' talk shows in the US are just this. Unwatchable rants. Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher ... The list goes on. Clever people capable of being witty but who have become just too lazy.
Has Colbert become tediously Woke as well? That's a damn shame. He used to be hilarious in his old incarnation, because it was layered
I confess I haven't watched the new talk show (which started about 5 years back?)
Every single one of the US late night talk shows are now predictably tediously identikit stuff. It is like the same writers just write for all of them, change around a few words in the "gag" for each show.
Maybe you guys are not the target audience anymore
How are you feeling sir?
Absolutely fine. Just have another 7 days of isolation ffs.
It’s mad isn’t it?
When did you test positive? I thought you can get out on day 7 if you test neg on day 6 and 7? Apologies if it was today.
Sorry meant him. Just confused about when he took his test as that’s when the 7 days starts surely?
Was only a day or two ago I believe.
But should still be shorter than 7 days. Trying to help him get out sooner!
As I said earlier I was still positive yesterday and that was at least a week. Seems to be a bit of a lottery.
My next door neighbour has the same. Although she's been without symptoms since New Year's Eve, she's still positive after nine days. Somewhat bizarre all round.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
Satirizing dumbo enablers of the most toxic politician in the western world in 2021 is like laughing at Mother in Law jokes in 1971?
Hmm. Ok.
Of course you don't understand the point. How could you?
I get the point you're making. That both are lazy. True. But so are lots of jokes. I'd go as far as to say most. So it's a rather banal point.
I'm then making my point to this point of yours - to upgrade it slightly as it were. Which is that in one the target is a target because they're enabling a poisonous brand of politics, whereas in the other the target is a target because of an age & gender stereotype.
This difference (in the target) is imo more meaningful than the similarity (of both being lazy). Good to type all that out, actually, so thanks for making me.
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
I absolutely cannot stand the likes of Russell Howard. The only thing that separates him from racist, misogynistic old school comics of the 1970s is that the latter were sometimes funny, despite their egregious bigotry
If you want a challenging, brilliant comedian who takes on all-comers, try Dave Chapelle? If you haven't already?
The Closer on Netflix is magnificent. Edgy, creative, unexpected, with proper regular if shocking LOLs. And his timing is immaculate
If you head to the Witham in Barnard Castle, joke 1 is always specsavers or equivalent just to get it out of the way
people still doing "barnard castle eye test" material can literally get in the sea.
They did a Barnard Castle gag at the Sunderland panto
Point proven I think :-)
Absolutely proven. If a joke is so tired it can only be warmed over and served at a pantomime, then it is utterly dead to the world
Pantos were, rather strikingly, the retirement home of mother-in-law jokes. The last place they could be heard
They are also the bedrock of provincial Britain
They really really aren't. lol. How many people go to pantos? A few hundred thousand, mostly bewildered kids and a lot of mindlessly bored parents. Plus some strange retarded adults without kids. Literally: retarded. Drooling.
I think you’re underestimating the sales of a form of media that sells out theatres up and down the land for a month every single year. There are lots & lots of people who go to the panto every year with their family - it’s part of the whole Christmas Season (with a capital S) for them.
A quick check reveals that according to The Stage, three million panto tickets were sold in 2017 & that’s just the mainstream theatres who are members of UK Theatre & won’t include all the amateur productions up & down the land:
When do we expect the Work From Home If You Can to be lifted?
I am thinking end of Jan? Need to get a cheapo motor for station runs before it’s lifted.
I don't think that any of the relatively modest restrictions we've got will be lifted until it is obvious both that the case wave has peaked and that the hospitals are over the worst of it (exception: the self-isolation rules might be reviewed again if they're preventing society from continuing to function.) That'd put us some distance into February at least. It's all about optics, of course: lifting any of the rules before that would make it look as if the Government wasn't taking the situation seriously and didn't care about the suffering of the NHS or the patients, even if the rules themselves were demonstrably useless.
Which is the big problem with bringing in rules without evidence: they tend to hang around even though they are useless.
So theatregoers and fashion shopping trips will remain under masks until February? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you could be right.
OTOH, think Plan B has a sunset clause on 26 Jan. Would require a fresh vote and continued Labour C&S. Let’s see where we are on the data.
This is nothing more than a half-educated guess on my part, but I suspect that the end of January may coincide with the peak of hospital admissions and that the headline figures for those will be horrendous (the large majority of them will be incidental admissions, but that fine distinction won't make it through the media filter - only horrified screaming about 6k-7k patients a day.) The Government should have no trouble ramming through an extension under those circumstances.
How long the extension may last for, and whether the rules will remain in force for all of it or be repealed early, is a different matter.
The incidental admissions thing is utterly bonkers - as such patients have by definition not been admitted to hospital for covid, they have simply failed a covid test at some point during their stay.
This means that a nontrivial amount of ‘covid admissions’ are in fact ‘asymptomatic covid hospitalisations’ - a concept so utterly bonkers and bizarre it is worthy of much greater billing.
"Asymptomatic" is probably not correct. Most of them will either have cold like symptoms, or will get them soon.
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
Agreed, although presumably some will indeed be asymptomatic - just as is the case outside hospitals?
Has it ever been truly resolved if people are able to spread assymptomatically? I’d always believed it unlikely, and the spread was people with very mild symptoms, but happy to be shown I’m wrong about this (as about so much!).
Asymptomatic people do shed less virus, but they are also the ones who are doing least to modify their behaviours, particularly if they do not know they are infected. It is well established that they are able to transmit COVID.
And, even those who do become symptomatic shed before their symptoms appear - indeed, they are at their most infectious in the 12-24 hours before symptoms appear. It was measured early on in the pandemic that 40% of all transmission was during this period. That was in spring 2020 so I don't have the reference to hand.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
Yep. Two Brit comedy specials over Christmas on Netflix - Russell Howard and Jimmy Carr. Carr was his usual self, taking no prisoners and offending everyone. Howard, on the other hand, was trying to do a Rachel Maddow impression.
When do we expect the Work From Home If You Can to be lifted?
I am thinking end of Jan? Need to get a cheapo motor for station runs before it’s lifted.
I don't think that any of the relatively modest restrictions we've got will be lifted until it is obvious both that the case wave has peaked and that the hospitals are over the worst of it (exception: the self-isolation rules might be reviewed again if they're preventing society from continuing to function.) That'd put us some distance into February at least. It's all about optics, of course: lifting any of the rules before that would make it look as if the Government wasn't taking the situation seriously and didn't care about the suffering of the NHS or the patients, even if the rules themselves were demonstrably useless.
Which is the big problem with bringing in rules without evidence: they tend to hang around even though they are useless.
So theatregoers and fashion shopping trips will remain under masks until February? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you could be right.
OTOH, think Plan B has a sunset clause on 26 Jan. Would require a fresh vote and continued Labour C&S. Let’s see where we are on the data.
This is nothing more than a half-educated guess on my part, but I suspect that the end of January may coincide with the peak of hospital admissions and that the headline figures for those will be horrendous (the large majority of them will be incidental admissions, but that fine distinction won't make it through the media filter - only horrified screaming about 6k-7k patients a day.) The Government should have no trouble ramming through an extension under those circumstances.
How long the extension may last for, and whether the rules will remain in force for all of it or be repealed early, is a different matter.
The incidental admissions thing is utterly bonkers - as such patients have by definition not been admitted to hospital for covid, they have simply failed a covid test at some point during their stay.
This means that a nontrivial amount of ‘covid admissions’ are in fact ‘asymptomatic covid hospitalisations’ - a concept so utterly bonkers and bizarre it is worthy of much greater billing.
"Asymptomatic" is probably not correct. Most of them will either have cold like symptoms, or will get them soon.
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
Agreed, although presumably some will indeed be asymptomatic - just as is the case outside hospitals?
The actual number of completely asymptomatic cases - whether vaccinated or not - is comparatively small. Most people who test positive without any symptoms turn out to be presymptomatic.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
That about sums up what John Oliver's show became, 30 mins where this was the only punchline. He has managed to move a little bit away from that more recently, but still can't resist.
What I did notice in British audiences was "take the piss out of thick Brexit voters" routines weren't working come end of 2019. I went to a few events and soon as the comedians started down this line there was an applaudable groan.
I saw Mark Watson, who came out and said no Brexit jokes tonight, nobody wants that shit, and there was a massive cheer (and this event was in a town that you would be hard to find a Brexit voter).
Alas, virtually all 'comedy' talk shows in the US are just this. Unwatchable rants. Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher ... The list goes on. Clever people capable of being witty but who have become just too lazy.
Has Colbert become tediously Woke as well? That's a damn shame. He used to be hilarious in his old incarnation, because it was layered
I confess I haven't watched the new talk show (which started about 5 years back?)
Every single one of the US late night talk shows are now predictably tediously identikit stuff. It is like the same writers just write for all of them, change around a few words in the "gag" for each show.
Maybe you guys are not the target audience anymore
How are you feeling sir?
Absolutely fine. Just have another 7 days of isolation ffs.
It’s mad isn’t it?
When did you test positive? I thought you can get out on day 7 if you test neg on day 6 and 7? Apologies if it was today.
Sorry meant him. Just confused about when he took his test as that’s when the 7 days starts surely?
Was only a day or two ago I believe.
But should still be shorter than 7 days. Trying to help him get out sooner!
As I said earlier I was still positive yesterday and that was at least a week. Seems to be a bit of a lottery.
My next door neighbour has the same. Although she's been without symptoms since New Year's Eve, she's still positive after nine days. Somewhat bizarre all round.
People’s immune systems will be different. Older folk are likely to have weaker immune systems. Younger people may well throw this off in a matter of 2-3 days.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
Satirizing dumbo enablers of the most toxic politician in the western world in 2021 is like laughing at Mother in Law jokes in 1971?
Hmm. Ok.
Of course you don't understand the point. How could you?
I get the point you're making. That both are lazy. True. But so are lots of jokes. I'd go as far as to say most. So it's a rather banal point.
I'm then making my point to this point of yours - to upgrade it slightly as it were. Which is that in one the target is a target because they're enabling a poisonous brand of politics, whereas in the other the target is a target because of an age & gender stereotype.
This difference (in the target) is imo more meaningful than the similarity (of both being lazy). Good to type all that out, actually, so thanks for making me.
The best jokes are the ones you don't know where they are going or what the punch line is, in the fact the ones where you make assumption only for the punch line to be a total flip on your expectation.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
I absolutely cannot stand the likes of Russell Howard. The only thing that separates him from racist, misogynistic old school comics of the 1970s is that the latter were sometimes funny, despite their egregious bigotry
If you want a challenging, brilliant comedian who takes on all-comers, try Dave Chapelle? If you haven't already?
The Closer on Netflix is magnificent. Edgy, creative, unexpected, with proper regular if shocking LOLs. And his timing is immaculate
If you head to the Witham in Barnard Castle, joke 1 is always specsavers or equivalent just to get it out of the way
people still doing "barnard castle eye test" material can literally get in the sea.
They did a Barnard Castle gag at the Sunderland panto
Point proven I think :-)
Absolutely proven. If a joke is so tired it can only be warmed over and served at a pantomime, then it is utterly dead to the world
Pantos were, rather strikingly, the retirement home of mother-in-law jokes. The last place they could be heard
They are also the bedrock of provincial Britain
They really really aren't. lol. How many people go to pantos? A few hundred thousand, mostly bewildered kids and a lot of mindlessly bored parents. Plus some strange retarded adults without kids. Literally: retarded. Drooling.
They've made one of your books into a panto?
Characteristically wrong as well from the man who needs to be right about everything.
'But while ticket sales for 99 pantos this year are higher than before the pandemic, they remain under 500,000, compared to three million sales for 199 pantos in 2019/20.'
Pantos are big money for the stars, 6 figure sums in some cases, though gruelling. Knock on with wages for large casts and production staff as well obviously.
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
Those two figures - together - are very positive, surely? They indicate that an extraordinarily high proportion of the Scottish population have Covid, and therefore the case hospitalisation rate is even lower than we think. I would suggest it also means we may be further into the Omicron wave than we previously suspected.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
I absolutely cannot stand the likes of Russell Howard. The only thing that separates him from racist, misogynistic old school comics of the 1970s is that the latter were sometimes funny, despite their egregious bigotry
If you want a challenging, brilliant comedian who takes on all-comers, try Dave Chapelle? If you haven't already?
The Closer on Netflix is magnificent. Edgy, creative, unexpected, with proper regular if shocking LOLs. And his timing is immaculate
If you head to the Witham in Barnard Castle, joke 1 is always specsavers or equivalent just to get it out of the way
people still doing "barnard castle eye test" material can literally get in the sea.
They did a Barnard Castle gag at the Sunderland panto
They did a 'BJ and his crew are hypocritical, troughing arseholes' (I paraphrase) gag at the Glasgow one just before Christmas.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
Satirizing dumbo enablers of the most toxic politician in the western world in 2021 is like laughing at Mother in Law jokes in 1971?
Hmm. Ok.
The point is not to equate Mother-in-Laws to Trumpsters, but to equate the laziness of the comedians.
Yes, sure. Comedians in their comfort zone. But is there more of that now than in previous times? I'd need a lot of convincing.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
I absolutely cannot stand the likes of Russell Howard. The only thing that separates him from racist, misogynistic old school comics of the 1970s is that the latter were sometimes funny, despite their egregious bigotry
If you want a challenging, brilliant comedian who takes on all-comers, try Dave Chapelle? If you haven't already?
The Closer on Netflix is magnificent. Edgy, creative, unexpected, with proper regular if shocking LOLs. And his timing is immaculate
If you head to the Witham in Barnard Castle, joke 1 is always specsavers or equivalent just to get it out of the way
people still doing "barnard castle eye test" material can literally get in the sea.
They did a Barnard Castle gag at the Sunderland panto
Point proven I think :-)
Absolutely proven. If a joke is so tired it can only be warmed over and served at a pantomime, then it is utterly dead to the world
Pantos were, rather strikingly, the retirement home of mother-in-law jokes. The last place they could be heard
They are also the bedrock of provincial Britain
They really really aren't. lol. How many people go to pantos? A few hundred thousand, mostly bewildered kids and a lot of mindlessly bored parents. Plus some strange retarded adults without kids. Literally: retarded. Drooling.
They've made one of your books into a panto?
A jolly jape where some blond old Etonian goes to London to look for the streets paved with gold and a subplot with conspiratorial Orientals helped on by aliens from the planet Woke that are intent on thwarting Brexit and imposing a new world order. It will be another short lister for the Dan Brown Prize for terrible literature.
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
Those two figures - together - are very positive, surely? They indicate that an extraordinarily high proportion of the Scottish population have Covid, and therefore the case hospitalisation rate is even lower than we think. I would suggest it also means we may be further into the Omicron wave than we previously suspected.
Bang on, as usual. I would caveat that I suspect the true number in hospital in Scotland because of omicron us almost certainly bigger, as not everyone will have had their virus sequenced.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
Satirizing dumbo enablers of the most toxic politician in the western world in 2021 is like laughing at Mother in Law jokes in 1971?
Hmm. Ok.
Of course you don't understand the point. How could you?
I get the point you're making. That both are lazy. True. But so are lots of jokes. I'd go as far as to say most. So it's a rather banal point.
I'm then making my point to this point of yours - to upgrade it slightly as it were. Which is that in one the target is a target because they're enabling a poisonous brand of politics, whereas in the other the target is a target because of an age & gender stereotype.
This difference (in the target) is imo more meaningful than the similarity (of both being lazy). Good to type all that out, actually, so thanks for making me.
The best jokes are the ones you don't know where they are going or what the punch line is, in the fact the ones where you make assumption only for the punch line to be a total flip on your expectation.
Indeed, the art of which the late great Jethro was a master. RIP.
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
Those two figures - together - are very positive, surely? They indicate that an extraordinarily high proportion of the Scottish population have Covid, and therefore the case hospitalisation rate is even lower than we think. I would suggest it also means we may be further into the Omicron wave than we previously suspected.
Yes, but....
Is that 20K cases, the total for the last 3 days? i.e. they have not reported cases for 2 days, so presumable this will be a triple data dump?
"Government policy towards Covid-19 has come full circle. For now, at least, England has returned to the Swedish way of dealing with the pandemic. Tough, officially imposed lockdowns are out. Trusting the people to do the sensible thing is back in."
Guardian.
Of course those of us who said the UK should seriously look at Sweden months and months ago were derided and accused of all sorts.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
Satirizing dumbo enablers of the most toxic politician in the western world in 2021 is like laughing at Mother in Law jokes in 1971?
Hmm. Ok.
Of course you don't understand the point. How could you?
I get the point you're making. That both are lazy. True. But so are lots of jokes. I'd go as far as to say most. So it's a rather banal point.
I'm then making my point to this point of yours - to upgrade it slightly as it were. Which is that in one the target is a target because they're enabling a poisonous brand of politics, whereas in the other the target is a target because of an age & gender stereotype.
This difference (in the target) is imo more meaningful than the similarity (of both being lazy). Good to type all that out, actually, so thanks for making me.
The best jokes are the ones you don't know where they are going or what the punch line is, in the fact the ones where you make assumption only for the punch line to be a total flip on your expectation.
Indeed, the art of which the late great Jethro was a master. RIP.
The other lost art is the audience interaction. Knowing how to perform a brutal take down, without overstepping the mark, or taking a something they say and running it into a joke.
Jimmy Carr is famed for the former and Ross Noble USP is all the later, but there aren't many comedians who can do this these days. It is much more, I have written a script, its been carefully honed at Edinburgh festival and you are going to listen to it in the way you might watch a play..
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
The government Omicron figures are obviously out of date and incomplete. Unless you somehow believe that Omicron is causing admission for Delta.
As an aside, regarding comedy targeting left wingers rather than right wingers...
Today comedy tends to be created by the urban young (ish). It's very hard to make a life as a jobbing stand-up in small towns or the countryside, because there simply aren't that many venues available by public transport from where you are. You will therefore be urban and young yourself, and have an audience of urban and young people. Two groups that are - it is fair to say - more left wing than normal.
This contrasts to the 1950s, where the market for a jobbing comic would be touring working mens clubs. Then material would need to be targeted at an older, almost exclusively white and male audience.
Little wonder we get the young and the woke, and they got Bernard Manning.
There has been some very good comedy targeting left wing governments: The Thick of It being the best.
But while there was lots of anti-Trump comedy (stand up Saturday Night Live) there is virtually nothing targeting Biden. Part of this, though, is simply that Biden is boring and invisible. He doesn't tweet memorable things or give contraversial speeches. Absence is a hard thing to get more than a few minutes of comedy out of.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
Yep. Two Brit comedy specials over Christmas on Netflix - Russell Howard and Jimmy Carr. Carr was his usual self, taking no prisoners and offending everyone. Howard, on the other hand, was trying to do a Rachel Maddow impression.
Please don't post anti-vaxxer disinformation on this site. This is selective data and is shite. The intention is to give succour to the unvaxxed. Anyone who disseminates this nonsense is helping to prolong the pandemic and put peoples lives at risk
As an aside, regarding comedy targeting left wingers rather than right wingers...
Today comedy tends to be created by the urban young (ish). It's very hard to make a life as a jobbing stand-up in small towns or the countryside, because there simply aren't that many venues available by public transport from where you are. You will therefore be urban and young yourself, and have an audience of urban and young people. Two groups that are - it is fair to say - more left wing than normal.
This contrasts to the 1950s, where the market for a jobbing comic would be touring working mens clubs. Then material would need to be targeted at an older, almost exclusively white and male audience.
Little wonder we get the young and the woke, and they got Bernard Manning.
There has been some very good comedy targeting left wing governments: The Thick of It being the best.
But while there was lots of anti-Trump comedy (stand up Saturday Night Live) there is virtually nothing targeting Biden. Part of this, though, is simply that Biden is boring and invisible. He doesn't tweet memorable things or give contraversial speeches. Absence is a hard thing to get more than a few minutes of comedy out of.
There is another problem.....very small number of agencies totally control the industry now. If you aren't on their books, your chance of getting gigs in the limited venues that pay ok, is very difficult, and same with telly work, Avalon totally dominants.
When Jongleurs were booming they needed massive amounts of talent every week, so loads of people got a go and it was sink or swim.
When do we expect the Work From Home If You Can to be lifted?
I am thinking end of Jan? Need to get a cheapo motor for station runs before it’s lifted.
I don't think that any of the relatively modest restrictions we've got will be lifted until it is obvious both that the case wave has peaked and that the hospitals are over the worst of it (exception: the self-isolation rules might be reviewed again if they're preventing society from continuing to function.) That'd put us some distance into February at least. It's all about optics, of course: lifting any of the rules before that would make it look as if the Government wasn't taking the situation seriously and didn't care about the suffering of the NHS or the patients, even if the rules themselves were demonstrably useless.
Which is the big problem with bringing in rules without evidence: they tend to hang around even though they are useless.
So theatregoers and fashion shopping trips will remain under masks until February? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you could be right.
OTOH, think Plan B has a sunset clause on 26 Jan. Would require a fresh vote and continued Labour C&S. Let’s see where we are on the data.
This is nothing more than a half-educated guess on my part, but I suspect that the end of January may coincide with the peak of hospital admissions and that the headline figures for those will be horrendous (the large majority of them will be incidental admissions, but that fine distinction won't make it through the media filter - only horrified screaming about 6k-7k patients a day.) The Government should have no trouble ramming through an extension under those circumstances.
How long the extension may last for, and whether the rules will remain in force for all of it or be repealed early, is a different matter.
The incidental admissions thing is utterly bonkers - as such patients have by definition not been admitted to hospital for covid, they have simply failed a covid test at some point during their stay.
This means that a nontrivial amount of ‘covid admissions’ are in fact ‘asymptomatic covid hospitalisations’ - a concept so utterly bonkers and bizarre it is worthy of much greater billing.
"Asymptomatic" is probably not correct. Most of them will either have cold like symptoms, or will get them soon.
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
Agreed, although presumably some will indeed be asymptomatic - just as is the case outside hospitals?
The actual number of completely asymptomatic cases - whether vaccinated or not - is comparatively small. Most people who test positive without any symptoms turn out to be presymptomatic.
Yes. 80% of asymptomatic positive test patients go on to develop symptoms. I have seen one study suggesting the overall percentage of infected persons who remain asymptomatic is around 13%.
When do we expect the Work From Home If You Can to be lifted?
I am thinking end of Jan? Need to get a cheapo motor for station runs before it’s lifted.
I don't think that any of the relatively modest restrictions we've got will be lifted until it is obvious both that the case wave has peaked and that the hospitals are over the worst of it (exception: the self-isolation rules might be reviewed again if they're preventing society from continuing to function.) That'd put us some distance into February at least. It's all about optics, of course: lifting any of the rules before that would make it look as if the Government wasn't taking the situation seriously and didn't care about the suffering of the NHS or the patients, even if the rules themselves were demonstrably useless.
Which is the big problem with bringing in rules without evidence: they tend to hang around even though they are useless.
So theatregoers and fashion shopping trips will remain under masks until February? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you could be right.
OTOH, think Plan B has a sunset clause on 26 Jan. Would require a fresh vote and continued Labour C&S. Let’s see where we are on the data.
This is nothing more than a half-educated guess on my part, but I suspect that the end of January may coincide with the peak of hospital admissions and that the headline figures for those will be horrendous (the large majority of them will be incidental admissions, but that fine distinction won't make it through the media filter - only horrified screaming about 6k-7k patients a day.) The Government should have no trouble ramming through an extension under those circumstances.
How long the extension may last for, and whether the rules will remain in force for all of it or be repealed early, is a different matter.
The incidental admissions thing is utterly bonkers - as such patients have by definition not been admitted to hospital for covid, they have simply failed a covid test at some point during their stay.
This means that a nontrivial amount of ‘covid admissions’ are in fact ‘asymptomatic covid hospitalisations’ - a concept so utterly bonkers and bizarre it is worthy of much greater billing.
"Asymptomatic" is probably not correct. Most of them will either have cold like symptoms, or will get them soon.
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
Agreed, although presumably some will indeed be asymptomatic - just as is the case outside hospitals?
Has it ever been truly resolved if people are able to spread assymptomatically? I’d always believed it unlikely, and the spread was people with very mild symptoms, but happy to be shown I’m wrong about this (as about so much!).
Asymptomatic people do shed less virus, but they are also the ones who are doing least to modify their behaviours, particularly if they do not know they are infected. It is well established that they are able to transmit COVID.
And, even those who do become symptomatic shed before their symptoms appear - indeed, they are at their most infectious in the 12-24 hours before symptoms appear. It was measured early on in the pandemic that 40% of all transmission was during this period. That was in spring 2020 so I don't have the reference to hand.
Hmmm: when say 'most infectious before symptoms appear', do you include coughing and sneezing? Because those are - presumably - the virus's best chance of getting into a new host.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
Satirizing dumbo enablers of the most toxic politician in the western world in 2021 is like laughing at Mother in Law jokes in 1971?
Hmm. Ok.
Of course you don't understand the point. How could you?
I get the point you're making. That both are lazy. True. But so are lots of jokes. I'd go as far as to say most. So it's a rather banal point.
I'm then making my point to this point of yours - to upgrade it slightly as it were. Which is that in one the target is a target because they're enabling a poisonous brand of politics, whereas in the other the target is a target because of an age & gender stereotype.
This difference (in the target) is imo more meaningful than the similarity (of both being lazy). Good to type all that out, actually, so thanks for making me.
The best jokes are the ones you don't know where they are going or what the punch line is, in the fact the ones where you make assumption only for the punch line to be a total flip on your expectation.
Indeed, the art of which the late great Jethro was a master. RIP.
The other lost art is the audience interaction. Knowing how to perform a brutal take down, without overstepping the mark, or taking a something they say and running it into a joke.
Jimmy Carr is famed for the former and Ross Noble USP is all the later, but there aren't many comedians who can do this these days. It is much more, I have written a script, its been carefully honed at Edinburgh festival and you are going to listen to it in the way you might watch a play..
One of my favourite Jethro moments was when he had a heckler. He stared at him for a moment or two and then said: "Ain't it a shame when cousins marry". No doubt he had used it before but it was priceless.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
Satirizing dumbo enablers of the most toxic politician in the western world in 2021 is like laughing at Mother in Law jokes in 1971?
Hmm. Ok.
The point is not to equate Mother-in-Laws to Trumpsters, but to equate the laziness of the comedians.
Yes, sure. Comedians in their comfort zone. But is there more of that now than in previous times? I'd need a lot of convincing.
maybe not. Indeed, in the past, with fewer channels through which to be exposed to comedians, we saw each comedian less frequently and fewer overall. And so their material aged less quickly, and it was harder to compare material across comedians. So you may have a point. But so what? It does not improve the quality of the material, or the validity of criticizing it.
As an aside, regarding comedy targeting left wingers rather than right wingers...
Today comedy tends to be created by the urban young (ish). It's very hard to make a life as a jobbing stand-up in small towns or the countryside, because there simply aren't that many venues available by public transport from where you are. You will therefore be urban and young yourself, and have an audience of urban and young people. Two groups that are - it is fair to say - more left wing than normal.
This contrasts to the 1950s, where the market for a jobbing comic would be touring working mens clubs. Then material would need to be targeted at an older, almost exclusively white and male audience.
Little wonder we get the young and the woke, and they got Bernard Manning.
There has been some very good comedy targeting left wing governments: The Thick of It being the best.
But while there was lots of anti-Trump comedy (stand up Saturday Night Live) there is virtually nothing targeting Biden. Part of this, though, is simply that Biden is boring and invisible. He doesn't tweet memorable things or give contraversial speeches. Absence is a hard thing to get more than a few minutes of comedy out of.
There is another problem.....very small number of agencies totally control the industry now. If you aren't on their books, your chance of getting gigs in the limited venues that pay ok, is very difficult, and same with telly work, Avalon totally dominants.
Good point. Compare to the US, where it’s much more organic and club based, and most comics are making their names on podcasts, or even putting out their hour specials on YouTube and getting millions of hits.
Netflix and Amazon have also democratised comedy, so the comics themselves are lifting each other up, rather than competing for slots on Letterman and three-a-year HBO specials.
Could someone link me to the research that shows two vaccines and a COVID infection provides better resistance than three vaccines? I need it to settle a work policy.
When do we expect the Work From Home If You Can to be lifted?
I am thinking end of Jan? Need to get a cheapo motor for station runs before it’s lifted.
I don't think that any of the relatively modest restrictions we've got will be lifted until it is obvious both that the case wave has peaked and that the hospitals are over the worst of it (exception: the self-isolation rules might be reviewed again if they're preventing society from continuing to function.) That'd put us some distance into February at least. It's all about optics, of course: lifting any of the rules before that would make it look as if the Government wasn't taking the situation seriously and didn't care about the suffering of the NHS or the patients, even if the rules themselves were demonstrably useless.
Which is the big problem with bringing in rules without evidence: they tend to hang around even though they are useless.
So theatregoers and fashion shopping trips will remain under masks until February? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you could be right.
OTOH, think Plan B has a sunset clause on 26 Jan. Would require a fresh vote and continued Labour C&S. Let’s see where we are on the data.
This is nothing more than a half-educated guess on my part, but I suspect that the end of January may coincide with the peak of hospital admissions and that the headline figures for those will be horrendous (the large majority of them will be incidental admissions, but that fine distinction won't make it through the media filter - only horrified screaming about 6k-7k patients a day.) The Government should have no trouble ramming through an extension under those circumstances.
How long the extension may last for, and whether the rules will remain in force for all of it or be repealed early, is a different matter.
The incidental admissions thing is utterly bonkers - as such patients have by definition not been admitted to hospital for covid, they have simply failed a covid test at some point during their stay.
This means that a nontrivial amount of ‘covid admissions’ are in fact ‘asymptomatic covid hospitalisations’ - a concept so utterly bonkers and bizarre it is worthy of much greater billing.
"Asymptomatic" is probably not correct. Most of them will either have cold like symptoms, or will get them soon.
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
Agreed, although presumably some will indeed be asymptomatic - just as is the case outside hospitals?
Has it ever been truly resolved if people are able to spread assymptomatically? I’d always believed it unlikely, and the spread was people with very mild symptoms, but happy to be shown I’m wrong about this (as about so much!).
I think peak transmission is in the 48 hours prior to symptoms, as told to me by Prof Tang our virologist.
One reason that it is so infective and also a reason why there is little evolutionary pressure to be less severe.
Please don't post anti-vaxxer disinformation on this site. This is selective data and is shite. The intention is to give succour to the unvaxxed. Anyone who disseminates this nonsense is helping to prolong the pandemic and put peoples lives at risk
can you explain in what way the data is "shite" please
Tim Spector @timspector W Covid cases in London now decreasing + UK slowing - it is great to see no real change in Covid deaths over last month. The health crisis is in danger of being driven by staff problems due to over- cautious isolation rules. Lets reduce this to 5 days!
The royalists are at the don't let rotten Andy spoil our barrel of superb apples stage.
Pretty sure that HMQ is the only obstacle stopping 'the Firm' indulging in one of its periodic acts of self preservation by leaving the colonel of the Grenadier Guards to hang out to dry.
Not really an accurate article given even Harry and his children with Meghan are now higher in the line of succession than Prince Andrew.
Andrew is now only 9th in line to the throne, he is far less relevant to the future of the monarchy than he was in 1980 when he was 2nd in line behind Charles before William and Harry and their children were born
Mm. But the point about monarchy is that we don't get to choose. If things had turned out slightly differently, we'd now have King Andrew I, and we would have to suck it up.
That's why the system is ridiculous.
Whereas we could have elected a president who would never go near Epstein? I doubt the counterfactual that Andrew as king would have been allowed even to meet him. It is precisely because he is peripheral that he could get involved. Seriously, the fault on the part of Trump and Clinton is a million times more grave than anything Andrew has done, much as I dislike him. This is all about power corrupting, whether it's royal or presidential power.
I assume you aren't in favour of pinning stuff Piers does, onto Jeremy?
No, I agree, and anyway we all have to reserve judgement on Andrew too. But my point about Presidents is that you can get rid of them. You can't get legally rid of the King, regardless of what he's like. There will be all kinds of social constraints on what the royals are expected to do, and IMO the Queen has been exemplary in that way. But we have seen enough recent examples that social constraints don't always work to want a mechanism to remove people who ignore them.
We have a constitutional monarch not an absolute monarch so parliament has far more impact on our lives than the monarch does now. However as the abdication showed monarchs can be replaced while still alive, though God clearly intervened to give Charles heirs and grandchildren so Andrew never got near the throne anyway
God must have going through an odd phase in the 1460's, given he got rid of Henry VI, only to bring in him back a few years later as a puppet of the Earl of Warwick, before changing his mind about six months later and then ending the Lancastrian main line for good.
But not quite. HM the Queen (and her mother, as well as of course her father) are direct descendants of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
Those two figures - together - are very positive, surely? They indicate that an extraordinarily high proportion of the Scottish population have Covid, and therefore the case hospitalisation rate is even lower than we think. I would suggest it also means we may be further into the Omicron wave than we previously suspected.
Given the moans about testing, has anyone done a comparison between the number issued and the number of results returned. Clearly loads will just be sitting unused, but it would be interesting to get a sense of the potential scope for under reporting of presumably negative results when looking at positivity rates.
I think you’re underestimating the sales of a form of media that sells out theatres up and down the land for a month every single year. There are lots & lots of people who go to the panto every year with their family - it’s part of the whole Christmas Season (with a capital S) for them.
I worked on the Panto in Edinburgh in the late 80's
8 shows a week (12 shows the week before Christmas) for 12 weeks...
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
My god, you're a humourless fuckwit
Spot on. That was not meant to be a funny post. I was taut and throbbing as I wrote it. Not very enjoyable but it has to be done sometimes.
I'll try and do a funny post soon though. You have to have a laugh, don't you, in this world, else you cry.
As an aside, regarding comedy targeting left wingers rather than right wingers...
Today comedy tends to be created by the urban young (ish). It's very hard to make a life as a jobbing stand-up in small towns or the countryside, because there simply aren't that many venues available by public transport from where you are. You will therefore be urban and young yourself, and have an audience of urban and young people. Two groups that are - it is fair to say - more left wing than normal.
This contrasts to the 1950s, where the market for a jobbing comic would be touring working mens clubs. Then material would need to be targeted at an older, almost exclusively white and male audience.
Little wonder we get the young and the woke, and they got Bernard Manning.
There has been some very good comedy targeting left wing governments: The Thick of It being the best.
But while there was lots of anti-Trump comedy (stand up Saturday Night Live) there is virtually nothing targeting Biden. Part of this, though, is simply that Biden is boring and invisible. He doesn't tweet memorable things or give contraversial speeches. Absence is a hard thing to get more than a few minutes of comedy out of.
There is another problem.....very small number of agencies totally control the industry now. If you aren't on their books, your chance of getting gigs in the limited venues that pay ok, is very difficult, and same with telly work, Avalon totally dominants.
When Jongleurs were booming they needed massive amounts of talent every week, so loads of people got a go and it was sink or swim.
In Los Angeles, there are* lots of comedy clubs with open mic nights. If you go, you will see a dozen comedians you've never heard of... die on stage. (Occasionally, you'll see someone famous try out new material, because they are brutal. If you aren't able to keep the audience's attention, they just talk among themselves.)
I can't see that working outside large cities. Not least because a comic will need to iterate their material by going from club to a next. You can't run the same material again.
What is amazing is how YouTube has not really launched the careers of many (any?) stand up comics. Their algorithms like people who produce lots of things. And comedy isn't really like that. It's hard to produce new material week in, week out. (See Saturday Night Live.)
* This was pre-pandemic. I assume the same is true now.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
My god, you're a humourless fuckwit
Spot on. That was not meant to be a funny post. I was taut and throbbing as I wrote it. Not very enjoyable but it has to be done sometimes.
I'll try and do a funny post soon though. You have to have a laugh, don't you, in this world, else you cry.
Taut and throbbing was quite funny. Funnier than anything Russell Howard has ever said.
Odd story - seemingly Daniel Kawczynski has had state subsidised polish lessons. I'm trying to work out i) Is it true. ii) Why on earth they would be a state subsidised expense. iii) Can't he speak it already ?
Plenty of people can't speak (very well) the language of their minority origin.
He grew up in Poland until he was 6 and has previously described himself as fluent in the language.
He is a Tory, why would anyone expect he was not be robbing the public
If he hasn't spoken Polish daily since he was six, he may have found himself getting very rusty. Even if they spoke Polish in the family home, he wouldn't have had much opportunity since leaving home.
This might be true and very commendable to learn to speak the language of your birth fluently...but not sure how it is justifiable to charge the public purse for this. I don't see how it is essential to his ability to be an MP.
According to the Times, it is part of an obscure parliamentary scheme for language lessons so that bit's legit. There was a discussion of Kawczynski's costs on the last thread.
You would hope if this is the case, there would be an upper bound of the cost on any such scheme.
I once worked for a company that had a very generous scheme that allowed you to claim for personal development i.e. it could be any sort of random night school course from basket weaving to language courses, but there was a cap on how much you could claim every year, so you couldn't a) just get your mate to charge £100 / hr to teach you car mechanics and b) you couldn't just sign up for a different class every night of the week.
Indeed, it used to be common for larger corporations and government departments both to budget for, and expect, continuing training for personnel. I received a fair bit of it while with the FCO - writing, speed reading, public speaking, management, Arabic (formal, and in country x 2), French, economics, EU institutions and laws, personal security, addressing alcoholism are the courses I can remember.
But GBP20k seems on the excessive side for one language.
I think this kind of problem is inevitable until we actually come up with a better definition of what MPs do and are for. Are they company directors with essentially unlimited expense account making it up as they go? Or are they professionals with actual career development?
We have a hybrid system where MP was really supposed to be a part time hobby for people rich enough to have the time to spare. And the amount of time it took to be an MP was quite small. In addition politics was the ultimate job in more ways than one - a career after politics was not expected.
We have bolted that onto an expectation of modern middle managers, as paid employees. Complete with the social status aspirations of the original.
They are a bunch of trough swillers swindling the public. Blackford had over 260K expenses and was hardly in Westminster due to covid. hate to think what the Tories will be claiming, guaranteed to make him look an amateur.
What is Salmond's lifetime total of expenses for Holyrood plus Westminster?
Please don't post anti-vaxxer disinformation on this site. This is selective data and is shite. The intention is to give succour to the unvaxxed. Anyone who disseminates this nonsense is helping to prolong the pandemic and put peoples lives at risk
can you explain in what way the data is "shite" please
Because the unvaccinated are unlikely to get tested. For fear of the man, or some crap like that.
I see the anti-woke mob have got their pitchforks out and are absolutely on fire this afternoon.
Being a simple sort of northern bloke, to me something is funny if it's funny, regardless of the target. Though being really offensive is rarely funny, and takes a rare talent to pull off.
When do we expect the Work From Home If You Can to be lifted?
I am thinking end of Jan? Need to get a cheapo motor for station runs before it’s lifted.
I don't think that any of the relatively modest restrictions we've got will be lifted until it is obvious both that the case wave has peaked and that the hospitals are over the worst of it (exception: the self-isolation rules might be reviewed again if they're preventing society from continuing to function.) That'd put us some distance into February at least. It's all about optics, of course: lifting any of the rules before that would make it look as if the Government wasn't taking the situation seriously and didn't care about the suffering of the NHS or the patients, even if the rules themselves were demonstrably useless.
Which is the big problem with bringing in rules without evidence: they tend to hang around even though they are useless.
So theatregoers and fashion shopping trips will remain under masks until February? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you could be right.
OTOH, think Plan B has a sunset clause on 26 Jan. Would require a fresh vote and continued Labour C&S. Let’s see where we are on the data.
This is nothing more than a half-educated guess on my part, but I suspect that the end of January may coincide with the peak of hospital admissions and that the headline figures for those will be horrendous (the large majority of them will be incidental admissions, but that fine distinction won't make it through the media filter - only horrified screaming about 6k-7k patients a day.) The Government should have no trouble ramming through an extension under those circumstances.
How long the extension may last for, and whether the rules will remain in force for all of it or be repealed early, is a different matter.
The incidental admissions thing is utterly bonkers - as such patients have by definition not been admitted to hospital for covid, they have simply failed a covid test at some point during their stay.
This means that a nontrivial amount of ‘covid admissions’ are in fact ‘asymptomatic covid hospitalisations’ - a concept so utterly bonkers and bizarre it is worthy of much greater billing.
"Asymptomatic" is probably not correct. Most of them will either have cold like symptoms, or will get them soon.
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
Agreed, although presumably some will indeed be asymptomatic - just as is the case outside hospitals?
Has it ever been truly resolved if people are able to spread assymptomatically? I’d always believed it unlikely, and the spread was people with very mild symptoms, but happy to be shown I’m wrong about this (as about so much!).
Asymptomatic people do shed less virus, but they are also the ones who are doing least to modify their behaviours, particularly if they do not know they are infected. It is well established that they are able to transmit COVID.
And, even those who do become symptomatic shed before their symptoms appear - indeed, they are at their most infectious in the 12-24 hours before symptoms appear. It was measured early on in the pandemic that 40% of all transmission was during this period. That was in spring 2020 so I don't have the reference to hand.
Hmmm: when say 'most infectious before symptoms appear', do you include coughing and sneezing? Because those are - presumably - the virus's best chance of getting into a new host.
Yes. This was data early in the pandemic, when sneezing was not a symptom. Wuhan variant. I guess things might have changed, particularly with omicron where sneezing is a major symptom. But the early data was very much that a large portion of transmission happened prior to onset of any symptoms.
Edit: The association with infectiousness and pre-symptoms was linked with the time curve for viral load, which peaked just before symptoms onset. Somewhere I have the graph.
Please don't post anti-vaxxer disinformation on this site. This is selective data and is shite. The intention is to give succour to the unvaxxed. Anyone who disseminates this nonsense is helping to prolong the pandemic and put peoples lives at risk
can you explain in what way the data is "shite" please
Because, as with most "information" peddled by anti-vax loons it is selective and therefore not even indicative. If there is any veracity to this information it would be important, but the reality is that it is being selectively interpreted by someone who almost certainly is not a scientist. Of course you didn't notice that the tweet came from someone calling himself "Corona Realism"? Another c*nt that wants to get a following from the stupid and gullible.
I see the anti-woke mob have got their pitchforks out and are absolutely on fire this afternoon.
Being a simple sort of northern bloke, to me something is funny if it's funny, regardless of the target. Though being really offensive is rarely funny, and takes a rare talent to pull off.
Being deliberately offensive is often funny surely? See Frankie Boyle.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
My god, you're a humourless fuckwit
Spot on. That was not meant to be a funny post. I was taut and throbbing as I wrote it. Not very enjoyable but it has to be done sometimes.
I'll try and do a funny post soon though. You have to have a laugh, don't you, in this world, else you cry.
Don't worry, most of the time folk on here don't laugh with Leon, they laugh AT him
As an aside, regarding comedy targeting left wingers rather than right wingers...
Today comedy tends to be created by the urban young (ish). It's very hard to make a life as a jobbing stand-up in small towns or the countryside, because there simply aren't that many venues available by public transport from where you are. You will therefore be urban and young yourself, and have an audience of urban and young people. Two groups that are - it is fair to say - more left wing than normal.
This contrasts to the 1950s, where the market for a jobbing comic would be touring working mens clubs. Then material would need to be targeted at an older, almost exclusively white and male audience.
Little wonder we get the young and the woke, and they got Bernard Manning.
There has been some very good comedy targeting left wing governments: The Thick of It being the best.
But while there was lots of anti-Trump comedy (stand up Saturday Night Live) there is virtually nothing targeting Biden. Part of this, though, is simply that Biden is boring and invisible. He doesn't tweet memorable things or give contraversial speeches. Absence is a hard thing to get more than a few minutes of comedy out of.
There is another problem.....very small number of agencies totally control the industry now. If you aren't on their books, your chance of getting gigs in the limited venues that pay ok, is very difficult, and same with telly work, Avalon totally dominants.
When Jongleurs were booming they needed massive amounts of talent every week, so loads of people got a go and it was sink or swim.
In Los Angeles, there are* lots of comedy clubs with open mic nights. If you go, you will see a dozen comedians you've never heard of... die on stage. (Occasionally, you'll see someone famous try out new material, because they are brutal. If you aren't able to keep the audience's attention, they just talk among themselves.)
I can't see that working outside large cities. Not least because a comic will need to iterate their material by going from club to a next. You can't run the same material again.
What is amazing is how YouTube has not really launched the careers of many (any?) stand up comics. Their algorithms like people who produce lots of things. And comedy isn't really like that. It's hard to produce new material week in, week out. (See Saturday Night Live.)
* This was pre-pandemic. I assume the same is true now.
This was my point, Jongleurs in the UK in early 2000s was the next stepping stone after open mic. If you did ok with some open mics, they chucked you on Jongleurs, and if you did well you gradually ended up doing more and more across the country.
It was the equivalent of the Beatles back in the day playing all the small clubs day in day out.
Please don't post anti-vaxxer disinformation on this site. This is selective data and is shite. The intention is to give succour to the unvaxxed. Anyone who disseminates this nonsense is helping to prolong the pandemic and put peoples lives at risk
can you explain in what way the data is "shite" please
Because, as with most "information" peddled by anti-vax loons it is selective and therefore not even indicative. If there is any veracity to this information it would be important, but the reality is that it is being selectively interpreted by someone who almost certainly is not a scientist. Of course you didn't notice that the tweet came from someone calling himself "Corona Realism"? Another c*nt that wants to get a following from the stupid and gullible.
could you please analyze the data for me and explain why it is "shite" ....i accept that severe illness is less likely in the vaccinated but surely we should examine this infection data carefully
Odd story - seemingly Daniel Kawczynski has had state subsidised polish lessons. I'm trying to work out i) Is it true. ii) Why on earth they would be a state subsidised expense. iii) Can't he speak it already ?
Plenty of people can't speak (very well) the language of their minority origin.
He grew up in Poland until he was 6 and has previously described himself as fluent in the language.
He is a Tory, why would anyone expect he was not be robbing the public
If he hasn't spoken Polish daily since he was six, he may have found himself getting very rusty. Even if they spoke Polish in the family home, he wouldn't have had much opportunity since leaving home.
This might be true and very commendable to learn to speak the language of your birth fluently...but not sure how it is justifiable to charge the public purse for this. I don't see how it is essential to his ability to be an MP.
According to the Times, it is part of an obscure parliamentary scheme for language lessons so that bit's legit. There was a discussion of Kawczynski's costs on the last thread.
You would hope if this is the case, there would be an upper bound of the cost on any such scheme.
I once worked for a company that had a very generous scheme that allowed you to claim for personal development i.e. it could be any sort of random night school course from basket weaving to language courses, but there was a cap on how much you could claim every year, so you couldn't a) just get your mate to charge £100 / hr to teach you car mechanics and b) you couldn't just sign up for a different class every night of the week.
Indeed, it used to be common for larger corporations and government departments both to budget for, and expect, continuing training for personnel. I received a fair bit of it while with the FCO - writing, speed reading, public speaking, management, Arabic (formal, and in country x 2), French, economics, EU institutions and laws, personal security, addressing alcoholism are the courses I can remember.
But GBP20k seems on the excessive side for one language.
I think this kind of problem is inevitable until we actually come up with a better definition of what MPs do and are for. Are they company directors with essentially unlimited expense account making it up as they go? Or are they professionals with actual career development?
We have a hybrid system where MP was really supposed to be a part time hobby for people rich enough to have the time to spare. And the amount of time it took to be an MP was quite small. In addition politics was the ultimate job in more ways than one - a career after politics was not expected.
We have bolted that onto an expectation of modern middle managers, as paid employees. Complete with the social status aspirations of the original.
They are a bunch of trough swillers swindling the public. Blackford had over 260K expenses and was hardly in Westminster due to covid. hate to think what the Tories will be claiming, guaranteed to make him look an amateur.
What is Salmond's lifetime total of expenses for Holyrood plus Westminster?
Darling: So you see, Blackadder, Field Marshal Haig is most anxious to eliminate all these German spies.
Melchett: Filthy Hun weasels fighting their dirty underhand war!
Darling: And, fortunately, one of *our* spies–
Melchett: Splendid fellows, brave heroes, risking life and limb for Blighty!
I see the anti-woke mob have got their pitchforks out and are absolutely on fire this afternoon.
Being a simple sort of northern bloke, to me something is funny if it's funny, regardless of the target. Though being really offensive is rarely funny, and takes a rare talent to pull off.
But in "modern" comedy, many leading comedians make a big play that is verboten, target is really important, you must only punch up. What people are pointing out is these same comedians break their own rules and resort to lazy sterotyping.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
My god, you're a humourless fuckwit
Spot on. That was not meant to be a funny post. I was taut and throbbing as I wrote it. Not very enjoyable but it has to be done sometimes.
I'll try and do a funny post soon though. You have to have a laugh, don't you, in this world, else you cry.
But you aren't funny. That's the first point. And your automatic reaction to this debate about "anti Trumpian hectoring" was to hector us: about the evils of Trump. That's the second point
There's no sin in being a humourless fuckwit, but you chose an awkward moment to prove it
As an aside, regarding comedy targeting left wingers rather than right wingers...
Today comedy tends to be created by the urban young (ish). It's very hard to make a life as a jobbing stand-up in small towns or the countryside, because there simply aren't that many venues available by public transport from where you are. You will therefore be urban and young yourself, and have an audience of urban and young people. Two groups that are - it is fair to say - more left wing than normal.
This contrasts to the 1950s, where the market for a jobbing comic would be touring working mens clubs. Then material would need to be targeted at an older, almost exclusively white and male audience.
Little wonder we get the young and the woke, and they got Bernard Manning.
There has been some very good comedy targeting left wing governments: The Thick of It being the best.
But while there was lots of anti-Trump comedy (stand up Saturday Night Live) there is virtually nothing targeting Biden. Part of this, though, is simply that Biden is boring and invisible. He doesn't tweet memorable things or give contraversial speeches. Absence is a hard thing to get more than a few minutes of comedy out of.
There is another problem.....very small number of agencies totally control the industry now. If you aren't on their books, your chance of getting gigs in the limited venues that pay ok, is very difficult, and same with telly work, Avalon totally dominants.
When Jongleurs were booming they needed massive amounts of talent every week, so loads of people got a go and it was sink or swim.
In Los Angeles, there are* lots of comedy clubs with open mic nights. If you go, you will see a dozen comedians you've never heard of... die on stage. (Occasionally, you'll see someone famous try out new material, because they are brutal. If you aren't able to keep the audience's attention, they just talk among themselves.)
I can't see that working outside large cities. Not least because a comic will need to iterate their material by going from club to a next. You can't run the same material again.
What is amazing is how YouTube has not really launched the careers of many (any?) stand up comics. Their algorithms like people who produce lots of things. And comedy isn't really like that. It's hard to produce new material week in, week out. (See Saturday Night Live.)
* This was pre-pandemic. I assume the same is true now.
It’s similar now, except that instead of LA and NY, the comics are all in Austin and Miami where the clubs are open.
They usually spend a few months working out material 5 or 10 minutes at a time in the big city clubs, then tour clubs (or theatres) around the country with an hour for a year or so, then record that same hour and put it out.
There was a really good documentary about the history of The Comedy Store on Sunset, a few months ago. Going there is on the wish list.
Please don't post anti-vaxxer disinformation on this site. This is selective data and is shite. The intention is to give succour to the unvaxxed. Anyone who disseminates this nonsense is helping to prolong the pandemic and put peoples lives at risk
can you explain in what way the data is "shite" please
Because, as with most "information" peddled by anti-vax loons it is selective and therefore not even indicative. If there is any veracity to this information it would be important, but the reality is that it is being selectively interpreted by someone who almost certainly is not a scientist. Of course you didn't notice that the tweet came from someone calling himself "Corona Realism"? Another c*nt that wants to get a following from the stupid and gullible.
could you please analyze the data for me and explain why it is "shite" ....i accept that severe illness is less likely in the vaccinated but surely we should examine this infection data carefully
I don't have the time to debate with anti-vaxxers, or to "analyze" (sic) raw data. If you were a scientist, or even had an understanding of any data analysis you would realise that morons like "Corona Realism" like to take data out of context and use it to "advance" their sick anti-science moronic aganda. The raw data is not necessarily shite. The attempt to take an anti-vax out of context interpretation of it is.
I see the anti-woke mob have got their pitchforks out and are absolutely on fire this afternoon.
Being a simple sort of northern bloke, to me something is funny if it's funny, regardless of the target. Though being really offensive is rarely funny, and takes a rare talent to pull off.
But in "modern" comedy, many leading comedians make a big play that is verboten, target is really important, you must only punch up. What people are pointing out is these same comedians break their own rules and resort to lazy sterotyping.
Ripping the pish out of devout believers in the Second Amendment and open carry would be classified as punching up in my comic book. It may of course result in them shooting down from a handy vantage point..
Please don't post anti-vaxxer disinformation on this site. This is selective data and is shite. The intention is to give succour to the unvaxxed. Anyone who disseminates this nonsense is helping to prolong the pandemic and put peoples lives at risk
can you explain in what way the data is "shite" please
Because, as with most "information" peddled by anti-vax loons it is selective and therefore not even indicative. If there is any veracity to this information it would be important, but the reality is that it is being selectively interpreted by someone who almost certainly is not a scientist. Of course you didn't notice that the tweet came from someone calling himself "Corona Realism"? Another c*nt that wants to get a following from the stupid and gullible.
could you please analyze the data for me and explain why it is "shite" ....i accept that severe illness is less likely in the vaccinated but surely we should examine this infection data carefully
I hope because the selfish, irresponsible fools are hiding on remote Hebridean islands with a 5 year stock of baked beans.
I would actually respect that. Don't mind anti-vaxxers in the slightest, this country has a proud history of batty eccentrics.
Go join that hermit who lives on Loch Treig, build a hut and avoid blocking that hospital bed, that's all we ask.
It's far more likely, though, that they just don't believe they have Covid. We've seen enough US examples.
Wonder how much crossover there is between people who don't believe it exists, anti-vaxxers, and people who don't get tested. I have one (former) close friend who believes in it, is terrified of it, tests constantly, has been in semi-isolation near two years, but refuses the vaccine.
I see the anti-woke mob have got their pitchforks out and are absolutely on fire this afternoon.
Being a simple sort of northern bloke, to me something is funny if it's funny, regardless of the target. Though being really offensive is rarely funny, and takes a rare talent to pull off.
Being deliberately offensive is often funny surely? See Frankie Boyle.
Rather suggests that he is not actually interested in anything other than pushing his particular line.
Firstly, the idea that testing rates per 100k are comparable between those countries is utterly ridiculous.
Secondly, shall we look at excess death rates for the bottom ten and the top ten?
i have conceded the points on deaths....and the chart you have shown is irrrelevant to the point he was making about higher infection rates in vaccinated for omicron ......look he could be wrong but if someone more intelligent than me could fully analyze the data that would be helpful
As an aside, regarding comedy targeting left wingers rather than right wingers...
Today comedy tends to be created by the urban young (ish). It's very hard to make a life as a jobbing stand-up in small towns or the countryside, because there simply aren't that many venues available by public transport from where you are. You will therefore be urban and young yourself, and have an audience of urban and young people. Two groups that are - it is fair to say - more left wing than normal.
This contrasts to the 1950s, where the market for a jobbing comic would be touring working mens clubs. Then material would need to be targeted at an older, almost exclusively white and male audience.
Little wonder we get the young and the woke, and they got Bernard Manning.
There has been some very good comedy targeting left wing governments: The Thick of It being the best.
But while there was lots of anti-Trump comedy (stand up Saturday Night Live) there is virtually nothing targeting Biden. Part of this, though, is simply that Biden is boring and invisible. He doesn't tweet memorable things or give contraversial speeches. Absence is a hard thing to get more than a few minutes of comedy out of.
There is another problem.....very small number of agencies totally control the industry now. If you aren't on their books, your chance of getting gigs in the limited venues that pay ok, is very difficult, and same with telly work, Avalon totally dominants.
When Jongleurs were booming they needed massive amounts of talent every week, so loads of people got a go and it was sink or swim.
In Los Angeles, there are* lots of comedy clubs with open mic nights. If you go, you will see a dozen comedians you've never heard of... die on stage. (Occasionally, you'll see someone famous try out new material, because they are brutal. If you aren't able to keep the audience's attention, they just talk among themselves.)
I can't see that working outside large cities. Not least because a comic will need to iterate their material by going from club to a next. You can't run the same material again.
What is amazing is how YouTube has not really launched the careers of many (any?) stand up comics. Their algorithms like people who produce lots of things. And comedy isn't really like that. It's hard to produce new material week in, week out. (See Saturday Night Live.)
* This was pre-pandemic. I assume the same is true now.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
My god, you're a humourless fuckwit
Spot on. That was not meant to be a funny post. I was taut and throbbing as I wrote it. Not very enjoyable but it has to be done sometimes.
I'll try and do a funny post soon though. You have to have a laugh, don't you, in this world, else you cry.
But you aren't funny. That's the first point. And your automatic reaction to this debate about "anti Trumpian hectoring" was to hector us: about the evils of Trump. That's the second point
There's no sin in being a humourless fuckwit, but you chose an awkward moment to prove it
I think you are proving that the hat fits you rather better than it fits Kinabalu.
I see the anti-woke mob have got their pitchforks out and are absolutely on fire this afternoon.
Being a simple sort of northern bloke, to me something is funny if it's funny, regardless of the target. Though being really offensive is rarely funny, and takes a rare talent to pull off.
Being deliberately offensive is often funny surely? See Frankie Boyle.
Yes, proves my point - he's a rare talent.
His old stuff was. Not now. His act used to be nobody was out of bounds, you literally had no idea who was going to get it next, now his attacks are confined.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
I absolutely cannot stand the likes of Russell Howard. The only thing that separates him from racist, misogynistic old school comics of the 1970s is that the latter were sometimes funny, despite their egregious bigotry
If you want a challenging, brilliant comedian who takes on all-comers, try Dave Chapelle? If you haven't already?
The Closer on Netflix is magnificent. Edgy, creative, unexpected, with proper regular if shocking LOLs. And his timing is immaculate
If you head to the Witham in Barnard Castle, joke 1 is always specsavers or equivalent just to get it out of the way
people still doing "barnard castle eye test" material can literally get in the sea.
They did a Barnard Castle gag at the Sunderland panto
Point proven I think :-)
Absolutely proven. If a joke is so tired it can only be warmed over and served at a pantomime, then it is utterly dead to the world
Pantos were, rather strikingly, the retirement home of mother-in-law jokes. The last place they could be heard
They are also the bedrock of provincial Britain
They really really aren't. lol. How many people go to pantos? A few hundred thousand, mostly bewildered kids and a lot of mindlessly bored parents. Plus some strange retarded adults without kids. Literally: retarded. Drooling.
I think you’re underestimating the sales of a form of media that sells out theatres up and down the land for a month every single year. There are lots & lots of people who go to the panto every year with their family - it’s part of the whole Christmas Season (with a capital S) for them.
A quick check reveals that according to The Stage, three million panto tickets were sold in 2017 & that’s just the mainstream theatres who are members of UK Theatre & won’t include all the amateur productions up & down the land:
A universal part of Christmas? No. Still a fairly big deal? Looks like it.
Fair enough. That's more people than I expected, perhaps I was warped by my loathing of panto, especially the last one I saw: a Woke panto in Hackney which was so cringe I nearly prolapsed
However my larger point is right. If 3m people go to a panto that's about 4% of the UK population. Hardly "the bedrock of provincial Britain". The claim is absurd
Rather suggests that he is not actually interested in anything other than pushing his particular line.
Firstly, the idea that testing rates per 100k are comparable between those countries is utterly ridiculous.
Secondly, shall we look at excess death rates for the bottom ten and the top ten?
i have conceded the points on deaths....and the chart you have shown is irrrelevant to the point he was making about higher infection rates in vaccinated for omicron ......look he could be wrong but if someone more intelligent than me could fully analyze the data that would be helpful
If he included links to his source data (rather than saying simply saying 'official') it would help, so we could test it. As it is, we're rather taking his word for it.
You know a page with some numbers we could download would be great.
Watched Don't Look Up last night. It is properly entertaining, and a clever premise - comet as allegory for climate change. And there are some brilliant moments, especially at the start, when the astronomers encounter outrageous NORMALCY BIAS
But then it becomes uneven in tone, sometimes low farce, sometimes witty comedy, sometimes sentimental drama, and they jar, and the parochial Americanism is tedious, especially the laboured, lazy assaults on Trumpism and silly white people. Yes yes yes we know they are awful but it's such a crappy obvious target, and it is annoying and boring.
It's a film that wants to be Doctor Strangelove for global warming but lacks the Southern/Kubrick Strangelove script - and it lacks Peter Sellers - one star to bring together a stellar cast. Something of a missed opportunity. Coulda been a masterpiece
For all the talk among the "right on" lefty comedians that one should only punch up and speak truth to power, it does seem thick (British / American) white working class (Brexit / Trump voter) have become the go to punch line of lazy joke in the way the "thick" Irish were at one point for right wing comedians.
Yes, exactly. Laughing at Maga hat wearers is like laughing at Mother in Law Jokes in the 70s. Pathetically feeble comedy
If you have to do it find a new and stealthy way, at least. The racist old school pilot was cringeworthy
I made the mistake of watching Russell Howard's Netflix special and it was literally this....insert "right on" big talking point, e.g. trans rights...oh look thicky (puts on accent) says they ain't proppa women....rinse and repeat in between talking the piss out of his thick (white working class Bristolian) brother and mother and odd pop at Boris.
We have gone through four years plus where punchlines could be "Trump, am I right?" and people would merrily applaud.
Better than what far too many other people did - spend those 4 years making excuses for him, having a chuckle at how he trolled the libs, downplaying the horror of his presidency, offering fatuous 'man of the world' context instead of plain & simple condemnation of his racism and misogyny and pig ignorance and utter lack of ethics, seeking to find redeeming features where there were none, drawing false equivalences with the left, pretending there was some strategic intelligence in his politics, that he'd "identified some real problems" as opposed to simply being the biggest of them, in denial at the threat to democracy and civic life he posed and staying in denial about it long past the point where anybody in their right mind could see it.
Course people deny now that they did all or most or some of the above but I am here to inform otherwise. It was knee deep and it used to drive me potty sometimes.
My god, you're a humourless fuckwit
Yea, but at least he isn't a swivel-eyed c*nt!
Boasting about yourself again
Could have been referring to you perhaps? Can't be many unswerving fanbois for the fat little creep that was described by his own QC as a bully and a sex pest can there? How are the anger management classes going Malc? I bet those nationalistic hate filled eyes are going into swivelling overdrive as you read this eh? You silly little man.
Change the record sad git. Crawl back under your rock with the other spineless creatures. You are like gollum a creature of teh dark who has to be pitied.
Rather suggests that he is not actually interested in anything other than pushing his particular line.
Firstly, the idea that testing rates per 100k are comparable between those countries is utterly ridiculous.
Secondly, shall we look at excess death rates for the bottom ten and the top ten?
i have conceded the points on deaths....and the chart you have shown is irrrelevant to the point he was making about higher infection rates in vaccinated for omicron ......look he could be wrong but if someone more intelligent than me could fully analyze the data that would be helpful
If he included links to his source data (rather than saying simply saying 'official') it would help, so we could test it. As it is, we're rather taking his word for it.
You know a page with some numbers we could download would be great.
well im sure more information will come out in the coming weeks...we will than have a clearer idea of what is happening
Odd story - seemingly Daniel Kawczynski has had state subsidised polish lessons. I'm trying to work out i) Is it true. ii) Why on earth they would be a state subsidised expense. iii) Can't he speak it already ?
Plenty of people can't speak (very well) the language of their minority origin.
He grew up in Poland until he was 6 and has previously described himself as fluent in the language.
He is a Tory, why would anyone expect he was not be robbing the public
If he hasn't spoken Polish daily since he was six, he may have found himself getting very rusty. Even if they spoke Polish in the family home, he wouldn't have had much opportunity since leaving home.
This might be true and very commendable to learn to speak the language of your birth fluently...but not sure how it is justifiable to charge the public purse for this. I don't see how it is essential to his ability to be an MP.
According to the Times, it is part of an obscure parliamentary scheme for language lessons so that bit's legit. There was a discussion of Kawczynski's costs on the last thread.
You would hope if this is the case, there would be an upper bound of the cost on any such scheme.
I once worked for a company that had a very generous scheme that allowed you to claim for personal development i.e. it could be any sort of random night school course from basket weaving to language courses, but there was a cap on how much you could claim every year, so you couldn't a) just get your mate to charge £100 / hr to teach you car mechanics and b) you couldn't just sign up for a different class every night of the week.
Indeed, it used to be common for larger corporations and government departments both to budget for, and expect, continuing training for personnel. I received a fair bit of it while with the FCO - writing, speed reading, public speaking, management, Arabic (formal, and in country x 2), French, economics, EU institutions and laws, personal security, addressing alcoholism are the courses I can remember.
But GBP20k seems on the excessive side for one language.
I think this kind of problem is inevitable until we actually come up with a better definition of what MPs do and are for. Are they company directors with essentially unlimited expense account making it up as they go? Or are they professionals with actual career development?
We have a hybrid system where MP was really supposed to be a part time hobby for people rich enough to have the time to spare. And the amount of time it took to be an MP was quite small. In addition politics was the ultimate job in more ways than one - a career after politics was not expected.
We have bolted that onto an expectation of modern middle managers, as paid employees. Complete with the social status aspirations of the original.
They are a bunch of trough swillers swindling the public. Blackford had over 260K expenses and was hardly in Westminster due to covid. hate to think what the Tories will be claiming, guaranteed to make him look an amateur.
What is Salmond's lifetime total of expenses for Holyrood plus Westminster?
Go on you are desperate to tell me, do a comparison table and give us a laugh. PS: will be few duck ponds or claims for half pints of milk.
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted The Daily Record @Daily_Record · 9h The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel @chrischirp · 53m Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
Does anyone know the England positivity rate?
I can’t find it on the dashboard.
The Scottish numbers sort of make the point that restrictions don’t exactly work against a virus as transmissible as Omichron?
Please don't post anti-vaxxer disinformation on this site. This is selective data and is shite. The intention is to give succour to the unvaxxed. Anyone who disseminates this nonsense is helping to prolong the pandemic and put peoples lives at risk
can you explain in what way the data is "shite" please
Because, as with most "information" peddled by anti-vax loons it is selective and therefore not even indicative. If there is any veracity to this information it would be important, but the reality is that it is being selectively interpreted by someone who almost certainly is not a scientist. Of course you didn't notice that the tweet came from someone calling himself "Corona Realism"? Another c*nt that wants to get a following from the stupid and gullible.
could you please analyze the data for me and explain why it is "shite" ....i accept that severe illness is less likely in the vaccinated but surely we should examine this infection data carefully
Well, read the whole thing
"Update: German CDC just uploaded corrected version with 5-fold increase of unvaccinated cases (suspicious, I know).
We still have negative vaccine efficacy though, with testbias directed to more detected unvaccinated cases.
It‘s now less extreme, but still: negative VE 2 dose"
On the corrected figures his point pretty much disappears. And note that the whole thread is predicated expressly on the absolute validity of "German CDC figures" right up to the moment they turn against him
Also see his pinned tweet about delta in June 2021 and ask yourself: what happened next? Nothing good for the minimally vaxxed countries he thought were getting off scot free
to be fair whilst some of her views are irrational they are no more irrational than some of those on the woke left
Go on then - let's have a Woke Left view that's as irrational as the world is run by a liberal elite in the spare time they get from raping toddlers?
Babies are born with no sex
The difference is the QAnon idiocy is believed by a subset of voters with no power, the "babies have no sex" insanity is believed - and loudly espoused - by the Woke liberal elite that runs the Anglo-Saxon world
It is just not true that higher turnout helps Democrats and hurts Republicans. In their 2020 book “The Turnout Myth,” the political scientists Daron R. Shaw and John R. Petrocik review half a century of evidence decisively refuting that common misperception. That’s not to say that turnout doesn’t shape particular election outcomes, but it doesn’t systematically benefit one party or the other.
Comments
What is important is that they do not have covid of sufficient severity to be hospitalized *for* it.
(((Dan Hodges))) Retweeted
The Daily Record
@Daily_Record
·
9h
The figures show fewer than 100 people with the new variant have required hospital treatment in Scotland
Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
·
53m
Not only has Scotland reported new record numbers of cases today (over 20K) but its positive rate is sky high at almost 35%.
as a puppet of the Earl of Warwick, before changing his mind about six months later and then ending the Lancastrian main line for good.Regardless of who's right.
I can’t find it on the dashboard.
I'm then making my point to this point of yours - to upgrade it slightly as it were. Which is that in one the target is a target because they're enabling a poisonous brand of politics, whereas in the other the target is a target because of an age & gender stereotype.
This difference (in the target) is imo more meaningful than the similarity (of both being lazy). Good to type all that out, actually, so thanks for making me.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing?areaType=nation&areaName=England
24.5% in 7 days to w/e 26/12
Ouch. Probably >30% by now.
A quick check reveals that according to The Stage, three million panto tickets were sold in 2017 & that’s just the mainstream theatres who are members of UK Theatre & won’t include all the amateur productions up & down the land:
https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/features/how-pantomime-contributes-to-the-british-theatre-economy
A universal part of Christmas? No. Still a fairly big deal? Looks like it.
And, even those who do become symptomatic shed before their symptoms appear - indeed, they are at their most infectious in the 12-24 hours before symptoms appear. It was measured early on in the pandemic that 40% of all transmission was during this period. That was in spring 2020 so I don't have the reference to hand.
'But while ticket sales for 99 pantos this year are higher than before the pandemic, they remain under 500,000, compared to three million sales for 199 pantos in 2019/20.'
Pantos are big money for the stars, 6 figure sums in some cases, though gruelling. Knock on with wages for large casts and production staff as well obviously.
Is that 20K cases, the total for the last 3 days? i.e. they have not reported cases for 2 days, so presumable this will be a triple data dump?
https://twitter.com/holmenkollin/status/1477797112553390082?s=20
Guardian.
Of course those of us who said the UK should seriously look at Sweden months and months ago were derided and accused of all sorts.
Jimmy Carr is famed for the former and Ross Noble USP is all the later, but there aren't many comedians who can do this these days. It is much more, I have written a script, its been carefully honed at Edinburgh festival and you are going to listen to it in the way you might watch a play..
Today comedy tends to be created by the urban young (ish). It's very hard to make a life as a jobbing stand-up in small towns or the countryside, because there simply aren't that many venues available by public transport from where you are. You will therefore be urban and young yourself, and have an audience of urban and young people. Two groups that are - it is fair to say - more left wing than normal.
This contrasts to the 1950s, where the market for a jobbing comic would be touring working mens clubs. Then material would need to be targeted at an older, almost exclusively white and male audience.
Little wonder we get the young and the woke, and they got Bernard Manning.
There has been some very good comedy targeting left wing governments: The Thick of It being the best.
But while there was lots of anti-Trump comedy (stand up Saturday Night Live) there is virtually nothing targeting Biden. Part of this, though, is simply that Biden is boring and invisible. He doesn't tweet memorable things or give contraversial speeches. Absence is a hard thing to get more than a few minutes of comedy out of.
When Jongleurs were booming they needed massive amounts of talent every week, so loads of people got a go and it was sink or swim.
maybe not. Indeed, in the past, with fewer channels through which to be exposed to comedians, we saw each comedian less frequently and fewer overall. And so their material aged less quickly, and it was harder to compare material across comedians. So you may have a point. But so what? It does not improve the quality of the material, or the validity of criticizing it.
Netflix and Amazon have also democratised comedy, so the comics themselves are lifting each other up, rather than competing for slots on Letterman and three-a-year HBO specials.
Thanks!
One reason that it is so infective and also a reason why there is little evolutionary pressure to be less severe.
@timspector
W Covid cases in London now decreasing + UK slowing - it is great to see no real change in Covid deaths over last month. The health crisis is in danger of being driven by staff problems due to over- cautious isolation rules. Lets reduce this to 5 days!
8 shows a week (12 shows the week before Christmas) for 12 weeks...
That's a lot of bums on seats
I'll try and do a funny post soon though. You have to have a laugh, don't you, in this world, else you cry.
I can't see that working outside large cities. Not least because a comic will need to iterate their material by going from club to a next. You can't run the same material again.
What is amazing is how YouTube has not really launched the careers of many (any?) stand up comics. Their algorithms like people who produce lots of things. And comedy isn't really like that. It's hard to produce new material week in, week out. (See Saturday Night Live.)
* This was pre-pandemic. I assume the same is true now.
Being a simple sort of northern bloke, to me something is funny if it's funny, regardless of the target. Though being really offensive is rarely funny, and takes a rare talent to pull off.
Edit: The association with infectiousness and pre-symptoms was linked with the time curve for viral load, which peaked just before symptoms onset. Somewhere I have the graph.
It was the equivalent of the Beatles back in the day playing all the small clubs day in day out.
Darling: So you see, Blackadder, Field Marshal Haig is most anxious to eliminate all these German spies.
Melchett: Filthy Hun weasels fighting their dirty underhand war!
Darling: And, fortunately, one of *our* spies–
Melchett: Splendid fellows, brave heroes, risking life and limb for Blighty!
There's no sin in being a humourless fuckwit, but you chose an awkward moment to prove it
https://twitter.com/holmenkollin/status/1475724708012249090
Rather suggests that he is not actually interested in anything other than pushing his particular line.
Firstly, the idea that testing rates per 100k are comparable between those countries is utterly ridiculous.
Secondly, shall we look at excess death rates for the bottom ten and the top ten?
They usually spend a few months working out material 5 or 10 minutes at a time in the big city clubs, then tour clubs (or theatres) around the country with an hour for a year or so, then record that same hour and put it out.
There was a really good documentary about the history of The Comedy Store on Sunset, a few months ago. Going there is on the wish list.
for a easy read, for start.
Then move onto the reports/papers linked in the index.
Go join that hermit who lives on Loch Treig, build a hut and avoid blocking that hospital bed, that's all we ask.
It's far more likely, though, that they just don't believe they have Covid. We've seen enough US examples.
Wonder how much crossover there is between people who don't believe it exists, anti-vaxxers, and people who don't get tested. I have one (former) close friend who believes in it, is terrified of it, tests constantly, has been in semi-isolation near two years, but refuses the vaccine.
I guess it shows that each nation has its share of contrarians with the skills to make it look like they know what they are talking about.
However my larger point is right. If 3m people go to a panto that's about 4% of the UK population. Hardly "the bedrock of provincial Britain". The claim is absurd
You know a page with some numbers we could download would be great.
PS: will be few duck ponds or claims for half pints of milk.
"Update: German CDC just uploaded corrected version with 5-fold increase of unvaccinated cases (suspicious, I know).
We still have negative vaccine efficacy though, with testbias directed to more detected unvaccinated cases.
It‘s now less extreme, but still: negative VE 2 dose"
On the corrected figures his point pretty much disappears. And note that the whole thread is predicated expressly on the absolute validity of "German CDC figures" right up to the moment they turn against him
Also see his pinned tweet about delta in June 2021 and ask yourself: what happened next? Nothing good for the minimally vaxxed countries he thought were getting off scot free
The difference is the QAnon idiocy is believed by a subset of voters with no power, the "babies have no sex" insanity is believed - and loudly espoused - by the Woke liberal elite that runs the Anglo-Saxon world
And
Easily the best pizzas I've made, would highly recommend and Ooni to anyone who makes pizza in a normal oven but would like to level up.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/opinion/voting-rights-election-reform.html