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Titania McGrath - political satire for the 21st century

Started by Monsieur Verdoux, January 17, 2020, 01:34:44 AM

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As I mentioned on here a short while back, my dad got me the Titania McGrath book 'Woke' for Christmas as a bit of a trolling gesture, probably to pop my bubble or some such thing, and curiosity was piqued enough that I actually read the damn thing and here are some scattered thoughts (there's already a Doyle thread but I thought I'd start a new thread because this is more specifically about his McGrath project):

- The book is only 150 pages long, with large print and many, many blank pages, one after every chapter and there are about 30 chapters.

- The first 100 pages are basically 'character development' of a sort, in which we find out about Titania and what she thinks of herself and her habits. She's a vegan (Doyle manages to get in an 'avocado toast' reference for the baying dogs), she's 'ecosexual', hates men, and is basically a strawman version of a bunch of positions that Doyle basically imagines that 20something bloggers online hold. What baffled me through most of the book was a sense of "why bother with this?". We all know that 'woke culture' is an annoying online trend, but are a bunch of overly earnest and misguided people on twitter really worth fulminating over at such length?

- He gives the game away a bit when he depicts Titania as professionally unsuccessful, her work being relegated to obscure blogs because there is no self-respecting publication that would accept her poetry. This reminds me somewhat of that Zucker film 'American Carol' which is a piss-take of Michael Moore, where the film is very eager to emphasise that Moore is a mere documentary filmmaker whose films are too obscure to be known by the public. That film was made in 2008, at the height of Moore's rather inexplicable popularity, including major box office success with Fahrenheit 9/11. Why satirise his work if nobody is aware of it? The fact that people are aware of it is what makes it worth going after! It's a bit dishonest. So in turn, with Titania, if this is truly the hellworld of woke that Doyle imagines it is then why isn't Titania McGrath a broadsheet columnist? He goes out of his way to emphasise that she attended some kind of gender studies course at Oxford, surely that would have provided her with enough connections to be an awful opinion writer for The Guardian? Apparently not, she's an unsuccessful blogger. So why is she worth the attention then? He mentions Laurie Penny in the book a couple of times. Fair enough, Penny is somewhat annoying sometimes. He refers to Penny as having '12 readers'. Pick a lane, either the woke brigade is a massive all-consuming blob that threatens to undermine all culture and our institutions or its most prominent cheerleaders have little to no audience.

- The actual politics of the book are a bit difficult to parse. There is no mention of Theresa May or Boris Johnson or Trump, Brexit is implicitly defended against Titania's liberal remoaner hysteria (much of the satire in this book consists of Doyle simply mockingly stating versions of things he clearly disagrees with in a silly voice in a way that is just quite didactic and mirthless), the EU is criticised from the left as a neoliberal corporate institution, Obama is criticised from the left as someone who was reckless in foreign policy matters (again, I stress, zero mention of Trump in this book), Titania is depicted as explicitly rejecting 'class consciousness' as if Doyle thinks that the rejection is a bad thing that makes her not a true leftist, which is fair enough, but then there's a passage about Corbyn in which it is implied that Corbyn's policies will turn Britain into... Venezuela. Doyle knows his audience. If this was just a satire of 'woke culture' then it might sail along fine, but Doyle drafts in some much bigger issues so it's clear that he's making a larger point, but about what exactly? Doyle is ostensibly not a Conservative, so what's the angle here? The left needs to be less woke and drop the Idpol. Alright, then we're left with the material policies that will lead us to Venezuela. So what's the goal? What makes this vital satire and not the same old partisan stuff but in a squeaky voice? 

- He saves the hardcore stuff for the last third of the book, '#MeToo has gone too far' (because Titania loves it), Douglas Murray-style 'Islam will erode Britain's liberal values' (Titania thinks that the niqab is empowering) and Transgenderism is some kind of existential threat (Titania is like 100 genders or something, I can't even remember the joke angle). No comment on this stuff, fill your boots if it's your kind of thing, but it's funny to see views that are regularly expressed on an almost daily basis but The Times, The Sun, The Daily Express, The Daily Telegraph and even sometimes the dreaded Guardian being presented as marginalised perspectives.

- There's a great deal of Titania's poetry in there, which is supposed to be bad for comic effect, but which is mostly just bad on a comedic level. I don't understand the reference point for this kind of overly anatomical feminist poetry, because I clearly don't pay as much attention to this stuff as Doyle does.

That's all I can muster for now even though it barely scratches the surface

What might provoke discussion more than me struggling to write about a book that almost nobody here will read, is this clip of 'Titania McGrath' doing a stand-up act at Comedy Unleashed, the comedy venue for 'free thinkers'. Most of the material featured is adapted from the book, so it'll give you an idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5N8ibiR9o0

poodlefaker

"Woke" is an African-American term/concept, isn't it, at least originally? I think the first time I heard it was in an Erykah Badu song about 10 years ago. Now it's just one more thing for old white men to sneer at, like political correctness in the 90s.

phantom_power

It is exactly that. It is the 21st century "political correctness gone mad". The last roar of the current generation's dinosaurs

Yeah 'woke' is a term that already existed in AAVE, but gained greater prominence in 2014 after the shooting of Michael Brown and the Ferguson protests. The term has since curdled into this thing of 'woke culture' which usually denotes some kind of performative signalling around identity politics by white liberals. How we got from a murdered black man to there seems like a very deliberate act of obscuring and distortion by the worst of the culture warriors. Michael Brown is naturally not mentioned in Doyle's book.

idunnosomename

The name isnt even funny. Come on, Adrian Mole, it's the first thing you need to get right.

If "Titania" is supposed to be self-important, "McGrath" isnt really bathetic enough

NoOffenceLynn

Great synopsis Monsieur
Also,  thanks for reading the book so I don't have to. I've seen enough of Doyle's work to know he's a talentless chancer.

Blumf

Quote from: idunnosomename on January 17, 2020, 09:00:50 AM
If "Titania" is supposed to be self-important, "McGrath" isnt really bathetic enough

Makes me wonder if there's supposed to be a link to Rory McGrath.

phantom_power

Quote from: Monsieur Verdoux on January 17, 2020, 08:38:31 AM
Yeah 'woke' is a term that already existed in AAVE, but gained greater prominence in 2014 after the shooting of Michael Brown and the Ferguson protests. The term has since curdled into this thing of 'woke culture' which usually denotes some kind of performative signalling around identity politics by white liberals. How we got from a murdered black man to there seems like a very deliberate act of obscuring and distortion by the worst of the culture warriors. Michael Brown is naturally not mentioned in Doyle's book.

The right will always take progressive terminology and twist it to become derogatory. Unfortunately in the modern online world there are plenty of people who make it easier for them to do that now

ajsmith2

Quote from: idunnosomename on January 17, 2020, 09:00:50 AM
The name isnt even funny. Come on, Adrian Mole, it's the first thing you need to get right.

If "Titania" is supposed to be self-important, "McGrath" isnt really bathetic enough

Always makes me think of Joe McGrath, arguably a far bigger contributor to the world of comedy.

gilbertharding

Quote from: idunnosomename on January 17, 2020, 09:00:50 AM
The name isnt even funny. Come on, Adrian Mole, it's the first thing you need to get right.

If "Titania" is supposed to be self-important, "McGrath" isnt really bathetic enough

Bel Littlejohn.

Barry Admin

Glad you bumped this, now I know who it is, and am interested in Doyle. Looking forward to rereading the analysis.

Dewt


Brundle-Fly

Viz Comic has covered this ground comprehensively with Millie Tant, Student Grant, The Critics, and Modern Parents. Where does the panel stand on these? I think over-earnestness in any form should be poked in the tummy now and again.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: ajsmith2 on January 17, 2020, 01:29:58 PM
Always makes me think of Joe McGrath, arguably a far bigger contributor to the world of comedy.

Fucking * Rory* Mcgrath was a far bigger contributor to comedy than this ' un.

#15
Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 17, 2020, 03:50:36 PM
Viz Comic has covered this ground comprehensively with Millie Tant, Student Grant, The Critics, and Modern Parents. Where does the panel stand on these? I think over-earnestness in any form should be poked in the tummy now and again.

obviously Rik from The Young Ones was a good jab at this sort of thing too

Barry Admin

All brilliant.

Totally agree with you, it's just a shame that Doyle is such a hack. The sort of cunts he'd pandering to sicken me, too. The SJW/woke types can be insufferable bastards, for sure, but that seems to be Doyle's entire shtick. Guy needs to get off Twitter and develop more than just one point of view.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 17, 2020, 03:50:36 PM
Viz Comic has covered this ground comprehensively with Millie Tant, Student Grant, The Critics, and Modern Parents. Where does the panel stand on these? I think over-earnestness in any form should be poked in the tummy now and again.

As long as it's funny ( never liked the Modern Parents anyways with its sledgehammer satire and always ending happily for their son, who'd be fed chip butties on white bread, washed down with lashings of Coca Cola by his kindly Uncle Prole).

Cursus

The state of these endorsements::

QuoteBeautiful classic satire. Ricky Gervais.

Why Titania is perfect for our times . . . Titania is a creation of genius . . . Finally, the plodding, establishment satire of recent years might have finally been subject to the disruption it has so badly needed . . . not just funny, but fatally accurate and true. Douglas Murray.

Hilarious . . . perfectly captures the chiding, self-righteous, intolerant, joyless tone of the "woke" Stasi. Janice Turner.

As a straight white man I don't think I was allowed to read the @TitaniaMcGrath book. But I did anyway, and I'm here to recommend it. Funniest thing I've ever read. Brilliant. Daniel Sloss.

Hilarious . . . the most artful form of subtle parody. Joe Rogan.

Absolutely hilarious. Piers Morgan.

Dewt

Quote from: Dewt on January 17, 2020, 02:33:31 PM
I hate this artless shit.

Quote from: Cursus on January 17, 2020, 04:02:43 PM
Hilarious . . . the most artful form of subtle parody. Joe Rogan.

Sometimes the universe shows you that you're on the right track.

The Joe Rogan one makes me think that there's no way that he's actually read this book. Artful and subtle it is not

Jerzy Bondov

You could definitely do a good Twitter parody of earnest identity politics people who don't actually have anyone's best interests at heart. Have a look at Joe Keskold. When I first saw that account I was taken in by it. I can't imagine anyone being fooled by Titania McGrath for even a second.

Absolutely possible to do a good parody of woke twitter people, liberal hypocrisy is a rich vein if you can tap it, but Doyle's creation is just a didactic conduit for his own cultural grievances

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on January 17, 2020, 03:56:35 PM
As long as it's funny ( never liked the Modern Parents anyways with its sledgehammer satire and always ending happily for their son, who'd be fed chip butties on white bread, washed down with lashings of Coca Cola by his kindly Uncle Prole).

Well, that made me laugh just reading it.

Barry Admin

It made me absolutely fucking dying for a white bread chip buttie with proper butter.

imitationleather

The people who enjoy Titania McGrath probably don't want it to be too convincing, or else they might be fooled by it. It barely qualifies as satire as it's hardly like what it's taking the piss out of at all. There's no consistent characterisation or anything that makes her seem like a person. Instead she's just an outlet to list everything that group of people doesn't like about left-wing types.

I don't not like it because it triggers me, it's the total laziness and lack of craft that I find maddening.

gilbertharding

The video was excruciating. Impossible to watch.

*Stands with hand on hip looking around*

*Audience wets itself*

"So. My name is Titania Gethsemane McGrath."

*Loud laughs*


Perhaps that's what they mean about free speech.

"Say what you like about ISIS, but at least they can't  be accused of Islamaphobia," is quite a good joke though.

Not sure what the over-arching point of this satire is. If it even is satire. If it even has an over-arching point. Isn't it just attention seeking?

There are a few decently funny turns of phrase like that in the book that suggest that in another incarnation Doyle wouldn't be a total write-off as a comedian. There's another one that's something like, "At least He-Man was progressive enough to declare his pronouns up front". That's about the level we're talking about. Another one was (about censorship in comedy) "Harmless jokes, if allowed to get out of hand, can be dangerous. Lest we forget, Al Queda started out as an improvisational sketch troupe".

Famous Mortimer

It's not that their ultimate target is the tiny group of people who genuinely operate using those words they hate so much, because it's such a small, disorganised group. It's to stop everyone else from sympathising with, or just attempting to understand them. It's an attempt to force a wedge into society, to put that doubt in the back of everyone's minds that people who have legitimate concerns about things happening in society are just weak and pathetic and can be ignored. "First they came for the Communists, And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Communist" becomes...well, they still hate communists, but add any word on the "woke" spectrum you like in there.

Comedy is how they try and get us. I'm bored, and have been for years, at laughing off vitriol directed at already marginalised groups, on the basis that "they're just jokes". It's like...I don't know...a knock-knock joke being told by someone whose boot is on your throat.


Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: gilbertharding on January 17, 2020, 04:29:40 PM
The video was excruciating. Impossible to watch.

*Stands with hand on hip looking around*

*Audience wets itself*

"So. My name is Titania Gethsemane McGrath."

*Loud laughs*


Perhaps that's what they mean about free speech.

"Say what you like about ISIS, but at least they can't  be accused of Islamaphobia," is quite a good joke though.

Not sure what the over-arching point of this satire is. If it even is satire. If it even has an over-arching point. Isn't it just attention seeking?

This would be the core of my main gripe. It's just not funny. The phrase " Humour is a patriarchal construct" alone gets a big laugh from that braying crowd. Reminds me of pseud types at the theatre giving it big chuckles at everything the fucking nursie character says in " Romeo and Juliet".