Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 06:06:28 PM

Login with username, password and session length

99 Ways the Private Eye can fuck off

Started by Twit 2, September 08, 2018, 04:36:29 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Twit 2

I have a permanent subscription as a gift, and I do really like Street of Shame and the stuff that exposes corruption and incompetence, but so much of it gets on my tits.

I find that there is a vein of unpleasant inverse snobbery and sneering philistinism, which often manifests itself in pseud's corner. By all means, put corporate guff and Goop-style woo in there, but the latest one, for example, has Will Self for saying he used to have 10 books on the go, but since using an e-reader has 50. I work full time and often have 15 books on the go, as I read a lot of stuff that lends itself to that: poetry, anthologies, short stories, aphorisms, novellas, non-fiction etc. I think it's fair to say 50 books at a time for a wealthy full-time novelist/journalist is about right, especially one who is known for being a voracious reader in the first place. It's basically his job to do that, so if he can't, who can? It just smacks of 'nerdy likes his booky-wooks' jealousy. Fuck off.

Another bug-bear is the book reviews, which are invariably shooting fish in a barrel take-downs of trash like celebrity autobiographies. Funnily enough, the current edition has a letter which takes them to task for this. I find Craig Brown's parodies about as funny as cancer, too.

Over to you.

Fambo Number Mive

Private Eye is a bit of a mixed bag but is worth it for In The Back (which has exposed a lot of stories the rest of the media ignore), HP Sauce, the first page, as you say street of Shame and Rotten Boroughs. These bits I feel should be essential reading for anyone.

It is the only media source I really pay attention to, although its parody of Corbyn is often just reinforcing the MSM bullshit.

I pretty much ignore Pseud's corner tbh.

The satire pages sometimes miss the mark and sometimes get it, but really it would be nice to cut down the satire to two pages and focus more on the investigative section. I suppose some people just buy it for the parodies.


BritishHobo

Glad you mentioned the book reviews, as I was about to say - the existence of Pseud's Corner is pretty fucking rich given how tiresomely and drearily negative the book review section is, constantly.

a duncandisorderly

haven't liked it since the days of peter cook.
it ought to have a rival mag edited by paul merton, in a properly symmetrical world, which would bring it back down to earth & slap it about & once in a while.

then I could ignore both of them, symmetrically.

Maurice Yeatman

#4
Quote from: Twit 2 on September 08, 2018, 04:36:29 PM
I have a permanent subscription as a gift, and I do really like Street of Shame and the stuff that exposes corruption and incompetence, but so much of it gets on my tits.

I find that there is a vein of unpleasant inverse snobbery and sneering philistinism, which often manifests itself in pseud's corner. By all means, put corporate guff and Goop-style woo in there, but the latest one, for example, has Will Self for saying he used to have 10 books on the go, but since using an e-reader has 50. I work full time and often have 15 books on the go, as I read a lot of stuff that lends itself to that: poetry, anthologies, short stories, aphorisms, novellas, non-fiction etc. I think it's fair to say 50 books at a time for a wealthy full-time novelist/journalist is about right, especially one who is known for being a voracious reader in the first place. It's basically his job to do that, so if he can't, who can? It just smacks of 'nerdy likes his booky-wooks' jealousy. Fuck off.

Another bug-bear is the book reviews, which are invariably shooting fish in a barrel take-downs of trash like celebrity autobiographies. Funnily enough, the current edition has a letter which takes them to task for this. I find Craig Brown's parodies about as funny as cancer, too.

Over to you.

Their end of year reviews at the National Theatre sound right up your street.  https://www.youtube.com/user/ntdiscovertheatre/search?query=private+eye

(Let us know how long you last.)

Clive Langham

I gave up reading it about three years ago, when Ian Hislop said he knew David Cameron hadn't stuck his dick in a dead pig's gob because he (Hislop) had been a member of the same elite Oxford university society, and knew such things didn't go on there.

Fucking hell, I thought, the editor of our leading satirical publication was in the same secret, debaunched club as the fucking Prime Minister. What's the point in reading anything he writes? He's one of them.

The other problem is that, as more time goes by, the more hopelessly-silly and outdated the Eye's high-church Anglican/public school/oxbridge/only-an-oik-would-wear-a-puffer-jacket attitude to life is. It was fairly moth-eaten by the early nineties, but it's just ridiculous now.

Also I think there's still a whiff of homophobia about it - not as bad as in the Ingrams years, but still there. Any gay figure is inevitably described as "epicene", and  they continually have a go at Mandelson, not, I suspect ,for any of the actually reasons they should have a go at him, but because he's homosexual.

They massively backed the wrong horse with the Autism/MMR/Wakefield business as well, and did not apologise sufficiently for my money.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Clive Langham on September 08, 2018, 06:20:41 PM
They massively backed the wrong horse with the Autism/MMR/Wakefield business as well, and did not apologise sufficiently for my money.

Hislop still needs to apologise for the character LOLBORIS too.

thraxx

Plenty wrong with the Eye, but hella good things in it too.

They normally give everyone a hard time, and they pick on Mendelson cos he's an evil fuck and in their top tier targets with Piers Morgan and Luftur Rahman and co. They are remarkably easy going on Corbyn too, which is important when you consider that most stick they give is thoroughly deserved.

The initial temptation is to read it all because you feel you should, but ive given up doing that. Once you know your way around the mag you can easily avoid the bits that you don't like or are too opaque. I personally cant stand the 'funnies' bit in the middle with all the fake ads and cartoons and Business bit at the end is just too hard for me to read.

Craig Brown's diary is one of my favorite bits though!

The bottom line is that the Eye, though it's far from perfect, is all we've got and it needs your support (ditto Viz). Its a bargain at the subscription price.

Clive Langham


Hillbert

If you read the non-satirical bits then you'll be aware of so many stories before they break in the national media.

But the air of snobbery about it can be incredibly grating. Quite a few examples of the Guardian football writers in Pseud's Corner where it's clear they're just joking around. And they still need to be properly hauled over the coals for MMR/Wakefield at some point.

That said, if they removed the cartoon Desperate Business then I'd buy a life time subscription on the spot. Can't stand it.

petril

Quote from: a duncandisorderly on September 08, 2018, 05:36:44 PM
haven't liked it since the days of peter cook.
it ought to have a rival mag edited by paul merton, in a properly symmetrical world, which would bring it back down to earth & slap it about & once in a while.

then I could ignore both of them, symmetrically.


trad.

Clive Langham

Their religiosity is irksome; by all means have a pop at Dawkins when he's being a dildo, but the constant sneering at even the mildest of atheist thinking  is ridiculous in an increasingly-secular UK.

PlanktonSideburns


BritishHobo

How many of those stick-thin supermodel cartoons could one person possibly do?

Sebastian Cobb

I had a subscription for a year but couldn't make it through a single one.

The Viz is better I reckon. Better cartoons and fewer intellectual masturbation.

Funcrusher

Used to be a fairly regular reader, but haven't picked one up in years. The investigative stuff is well done, but being detached from any kind of radical reform agenda it just ends up being a chronicle of how venal and corrupt the British establishment is by a bunch of cynical Oxbridge grads who then toddle off for lunch in Soho. They don't have to offer any solutions, just tut tut at it all. Corbyn's the closest in my lifetime to anyone who might actually fix any of this, can't be bothered to read a bunch of rather self satisfied public schoolboys sneering at him. At some level the Eye loves being wannabe Hogarthian chroniclers of a system that was rotten to the core before they arrived and still will be after they're gone. It's not their fault that the same scumbags in Rotten Boroughs or In The City always get away with it, but at a certain point it becomes depressingly repetitive.

999 out of 1000 of the funny bits have never been funny since I started reading it in the 80's. A lot of the stuff about Yobs or reality show people is a bit punching down.

Could happily not ever again read a piece that begins 'person Y has come out strongly against X. But we seem to recall a certain individual who was heavily involved with something that we can tangentially connect to X - goes on in this vein for ages before concluding 'who could that person be?......PERSON Y!'

Depressed Beyond Tables

There's something awful about these mags. The Onion is another. In Ireland there's The Phoenix. Waterford Whispers is an online satirical site. All of them are shite. Hamfisted humour. Look at us with our wry look at current affairs. Burn the fucker to the ground.

Post Cook, obviously.

Clive Langham

Was Cook the only absolutely grade A, top class talent to be involved in the Eye?

lankyguy95

I'd like to know what counts as "post-Cook", given he supposedly would go months without ever showing up at their offices.

Clive Langham

Quote from: Clive Langham on September 08, 2018, 08:44:08 PM
Was Cook the only absolutely grade A, top class talent to be involved in the Eye?

Barry Humphries I suppose.

Most of them are a fairly mediocre bunch - Ingrams, Hislop, Nick Newman, Christopher Brooker, etc.

thraxx

Quote from: Funcrusher on September 08, 2018, 08:39:40 PM
Used to be a fairly regular reader, but haven't picked one up in years. The investigative stuff is well done, but being detached from any kind of radical reform agenda it just ends up being a chronicle of how venal and corrupt the British establishment is by a bunch of cynical Oxbridge grads who then toddle off for lunch in Soho. They don't have to offer any solutions, just tut tut at it all. Corbyn's the closest in my lifetime to anyone who might actually fix any of this, can't be bothered to read a bunch of rather self satisfied public schoolboys sneering at him. At some level the Eye loves being wannabe Hogarthian chroniclers of a system that was rotten to the core before they arrived and still will be after they're gone. It's not their fault that the same scumbags in Rotten Boroughs or In The City always get away with it, but at a certain point it becomes depressingly repetitive.

999 out of 1000 of the funny bits have never been funny since I started reading it in the 80's. A lot of the stuff about Yobs or reality show people is a bit punching down.

Could happily not ever again read a piece that begins 'person Y has come out strongly against X. But we seem to recall a certain individual who was heavily involved with something that we can tangentially connect to X - goes on in this vein for ages before concluding 'who could that person be?......PERSON Y!'

This is all spot on.

Clive Langham

Are they still doing the "pretend the prime minister is Adrian Mole or something like that" thing? They should have ditched that years ago.
Realising Blair was like a trendy vicar was a masterstroke, but Cameron wasn't particularly like a headmaster.

I can't wait for Corbyn to get in so they can do an hilarious "Comrade Jezzer's Little Red Book" thing. Hilarious that'll be.

Depressed Beyond Tables

Quote from: lankyguy95 on September 08, 2018, 08:46:32 PM
I'd like to know what counts as "post-Cook", given he supposedly would go months without ever showing up at their offices.

Anything he didn't okay.

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: BritishHobo on September 08, 2018, 07:40:39 PM
How many of those stick-thin supermodel cartoons could one person possibly do?

I assumed that it was a different person every week, the previous months author having killed himself to death with a hammer after looking at what he done in the morning.

The idea of someone making one of those every month makes me feel REALLY crummy


ajsmith2

Quote from: Clive Langham on September 08, 2018, 08:44:08 PM
Was Cook the only absolutely grade A, top class talent to be involved in the Eye?

Willie Rushton! Great cartoonist.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I only read it it in WHSmith now waiting for trains, and on Xmas day as I invariably get the annual, which as you'd expect for material partly relying on it's freshness, is a bit stale by the time the end of the year rolls around.

Ferris

Some of the cartoons are impressively bad. Some of them (Scene & Heard) are quite good.

The journalism is also good, but it is a touch sanctimonious. I read it in combination with Viz which seems to balance it out.

Cuellar

All the cartoons are unmitigated dogshit. What's that one, It's Grim Up North London or something? God almighty.

The crossword is occasionally good, but a bit sixth form. "oooh rude words in a crossword! How outrageous!"

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Cuellar on September 09, 2018, 12:10:10 AM
All the cartoons are unmitigated dogshit. What's that one, It's Grim Up North London or something? God almighty.

I wanted to name that in the first post I mentioned but my google search of 'private eye cartoons hipsters' gave me fuck all.