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How politicians use comedy

Started by Fambo Number Mive, January 21, 2020, 10:59:19 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Fambo Number Mive

The most obvious example of this is Have I Got News For You,a once-good show which has turned into little more than a stage for Tories like Boris Johnson and Rees-Mogg. I know Johnson's first time on Have I Got Neoliberalism For You didn't go so well (although perhaps it made him look like a good sport), but he has been on six times since then (hosting the programme twice I think) which I would argue created a false image of his as a jovial bumbling good sport. His "amusing" stunts have been lapped up by the churnalist media, for example he drove a digger with "Get Brexit Done" on it through a wall with "Gridlock" on it and the Independent created a photo gallery. Rees-Mogg has also used the platform of Have I Got News For You to create the image of a funny toff, having been on the show 4 times.

Trump, meanwhile I think is more focused on doing stand-up style "pieces" to his base.

Shit Good Nose

A topic I feel VERY strongly about as Mogg is my local MP.

I've been saying for years that HIGNFY should not allow politicians go on it - it's made heroes for the ignorant out of Johnson and Mogg, and Mogg's quick rise, by his own admission, is solely down to HIGNFY.  And I know previously non-tory people who voted for the tories purely because they thought Boris was a great bunch of lads on HIGNFY.  And there are still loads of people who think that now - see any of his appearances in public where the vocal criticism and negative voices are drowned out by the masses of people who think it's a great comedy performance, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the same "comedian" is now running the country and arguably has more power than any PM since Thatcher.

What I'm saying is that HIGNFY should be cancelled with immediate effect.

EOLAN

Before Boris; two politicians I would regularly associate with HIGNFY that went on to some success were his Mayoral predecessor and rival Ken Livingstone; and Charles Kennedy; a man who probably made the Lib Dems likable to a few on here before Clegg and Swinson helped change those minds. Livingstone also did a bit on Drop the Dead Donkey I believe.
They both established themselves more in the public mind and could be argued set the template for Boris. Also; I think the Deayton era HIGNFY wouldn't have given Boris such a strong opportunity to take centre-stage and dominate programs in a way that makes his shtick come across so favorably.

PS: Of course; there is always Maggie Thatcher's attempt at a Yes Minister sketch (written by her advisers rather than Jay and Lynn).

Blue Jam

I still struggle to believe Nigel Farage was on Harry and Paul.

ajsmith2

Quote from: Blue Jam on January 21, 2020, 12:17:32 PM
I still struggle to believe Nigel Farage was on Harry and Paul.

It still seems jarringly weird, and I'd still say that if it had been a less contentious figure. But it actually being Farage was just the icing on the bizzaro level of the scene. Have they ever explained why they got him in for that bit? Are they fans/supporters? It wasn't as if the scene seemed specifically tailored for Farage to deliver the bit he did: it could have been anyone at all at a comparable level in the public eye. What makes it even weirder/eerily prescient is that the sketch begins as a riff on Gervais: where they possessed by tachyonic signals from nearly a decade hence into creating a sketch that mashed up two right wing populist folk heroes of 2019/20 as some kind of garbled warning?

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on January 21, 2020, 12:10:47 PM
A topic I feel VERY strongly about as Mogg is my local MP.

You have my deepest sympathy.

lankyguy95

Quote from: ajsmith2 on January 21, 2020, 12:50:25 PM
It still seems jarringly weird, and I'd still say that if it had been a less contentious figure. But it actually being Farage was just the icing on the bizzaro level of the scene. Have they ever explained why they got him in for that bit? Are they fans/supporters?
Wasn't it to emulate the Gervaisian tendency for shoehorning in random celebrity appearances into his shows? Farage is about as odd a public figure you could get on a show like that.

gilbertharding

It's been said before, but Norman Tebbitt must have absolutely loved his Spitting Image puppet.

ajsmith2

Quote from: lankyguy95 on January 21, 2020, 12:57:15 PM
Wasn't it to emulate the Gervaisian tendency for shoehorning in random celebrity appearances into his shows? Farage is about as odd a public figure you could get on a show like that.

I guess: (and that's the explanation the Youtube comments give) however Farage is so politically charged that if that was the intent it doesn't work as a parody of that tendency imo and becomes it's own strange thing. Weren't Gervais's celeb cameos typically a contrasting mix of Hollywood A listers and hasbeen UK C listers?  A more accurate parody of his style would've been, I dunno, if they'd had Dustin Hoffman walk in carrying Dusty Bin or something.


Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on January 21, 2020, 12:53:09 PM
You have my deepest sympathy.

I have one genuinely decent true story about him (which has not been reported in any form of press), but I've not told anyone about it that didn't know, or posted on here for fear of potential of people going soft on him.  Otherwise he's just a rude, clueless privileged cunt whose multi-millionaire mother is still trying to destroy the environmentally sensitive areas in the acres surrounding her mansion for housing development, purely to make money.  Which she does not need.  And neither do the rest of the family.

Fambo Number Mive

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on January 21, 2020, 12:10:47 PM
A topic I feel VERY strongly about as Mogg is my local MP.

I've been saying for years that HIGNFY should not allow politicians go on it - it's made heroes for the ignorant out of Johnson and Mogg, and Mogg's quick rise, by his own admission, is solely down to HIGNFY.  And I know previously non-tory people who voted for the tories purely because they thought Boris was a great bunch of lads on HIGNFY.  And there are still loads of people who think that now - see any of his appearances in public where the vocal criticism and negative voices are drowned out by the masses of people who think it's a great comedy performance, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the same "comedian" is now running the country and arguably has more power than any PM since Thatcher.

What I'm saying is that HIGNFY should be cancelled with immediate effect.

I agree.

HIGNFY used to be quite an informative show in the Major and early Blair years. Then it became a cynical little show where conservative politicians could make themselves look like men and women of the people.

I don't want to make this thread all about HIGNFY but I do feel quite angry about what the show has done to Britain.

I don't think politicians go on the News Quiz but whenever I've listened to that show

Fambo Number Mive

Sorry, whenever I listened to the News Quiz it seemed very safe centrist humour.

Trump hosting SNL is to me an example of when politicians using comedy didn't work so much as I doubt it encouraged many of the SNL audience to vote for him. Does make you wonder why SNL would allow someone like Trump to host it -maybe to appeal to conservative viewers.

Dewt

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on January 21, 2020, 10:59:19 AM
The most obvious example of this is Have I Got News For You,a once-good show which has turned into little more than a stage for Tories like Boris Johnson and Rees-Mogg. I know Johnson's first time on Have I Got Neoliberalism For You didn't go so well
I think it did excellently. I can remember the conversations I had with my friend Will. "Who was that buffoonish floppy haired guy? He was brilliant", etc.

It planted those thoughts into the brains of 100s of thousands of 14 year olds who are in their mid-30s now.

Fambo Number Mive

The last time the Tories had a majority many comedians were part of the movement against them. Now it feels that aside from a few comedians like Rob Delaney and Ava Videl , many comedians and comedy shows are happy to chuckle along with Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg as they use comedy for their own ends. Maybe the most high-profile comedians are more concerned about not having to pay a little bit more tax on their large amounts of money than a better Britain?

Fambo Number Mive

Quote from: Dewt on January 21, 2020, 06:09:02 PM
I think it did excellently. I can remember the conversations I had with my friend Will. "Who was that buffoonish floppy haired guy? He was brilliant", etc.

It planted those thoughts into the brains of 100s of thousands of 14 year olds who are in their mid-30s now.

I was thinking of the Guppy part, but it's been a long time since I watched it so maybe Johnson didn't come across as badly as I remember. Didn't he get quite angry at HIGNFY about it? Although I can imagine him getting angry about any criticism.

EOLAN

My love of Deayton may make me bias. But I think his version of HIGNFY; whilst not necessarily going to destroy Boris wouldn't have given him as strong a platform to just promote himself. There was a lot more rigidity to the format and would have maintained a stronger cynicism.
It was probably actually an episode hosted by Bruce Forsyth (RIP) that truly made me realise how someone could come in on the new format and take much stronger control of the direction their episodes took. 

studpuppet

I thought David Gauke's videos for the election campaign were really clever. He used comedy combined with the fact he was on a hiding to nothing, to set himself up in the future as the 'nice' face of Conservatism.

I think the most successful politicians aren't necessarily the ones who get large popular support, but the ones who get grudging respect from the people that don't support them. I'd never vote for him, but discovering he's got a sense of humour and a smidge of humility did leave me thinking that the Tories might be ever so slightly less unpalatable with people like him involved.

In a sense he's won me over in the long term because if he's ever in government again and he's the face of some disagreeable policy there'll be a little voice in my head saying, "Oh come on, he seemed a good bloke in those videos - probably doesn't even believe in it himself."

Sebastian Cobb

I was really annoyed with Tony Blair lying and leading us into an unlawful war, and also doing a bait-and-switch on the working classes and being the poster boy for the friendly side of neoliberalism. But when he appeared on comic relief and said 'am I bovvered' to Catherine Tate all was forgiven. Nice one Tone!

ArtParrott

#19
Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on January 22, 2020, 08:02:15 AM
The last time the Tories had a majority many comedians were part of the movement against them. Now it feels that aside from a few comedians like Rob Delaney and Ava Videl , many comedians and comedy shows are happy to chuckle along with Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg as they use comedy for their own ends. Maybe the most high-profile comedians are more concerned about not having to pay a little bit more tax on their large amounts of money than a better Britain?

I've been meaning to google the name of the comic I heard for about 2 minutes on TalkSport one afternoon last week, who described Boris Johnson as "a gift" in terms of the material he "unintentionally" provides to "comedians".

Fake edit: Just searched twitter and I think it may have been Matt Forde.


Shit Good Nose

Quote from: ArtParrott on January 22, 2020, 01:32:17 PM
I've been meaning to google the name of the comic I heard for about 2 minutes on TalkSport one afternoon last week, who described Boris as "a gift" in terms of the material he "unintentionally" provides to "comedians".

Fake edit: Just searched twitter and I think it may have been Matt Forde.

Just after Trump got in, Patton Oswalt did a bit about how people were going up to him and saying "you stand up comedians must be rubbing your hands with glee with Trump getting in", to which he said that he and his contemporaries (Brian Posehn, Blaine Capatch, Louis CK, Sarah Silverman, Maria Bamford etc) would happily trade the 10 minutes "TOPS" of decent material they would mine from him without repeating the same jokes, for absolutely anyone else being president.

KennyMonster



Tony Blair was quite the regular on The Friday/Saturday Night Armistice wasn't he?

gilbertharding


remedial_gash

I remember quite enjoying Michael Gove on HIGNY in the nineties - before he became that massive cunt - think he was billed as a humourist and columnist. That is not particularly funny and not a journalist. How awful of teenage me.