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, 05:17:10 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Jack Monroe shaming Walliams' books on twitter.

Started by Sebastian Cobb, July 06, 2020, 04:09:11 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Sebastian Cobb

https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1279860113847783432

It does seem like a load of sneering class snobbery alongside some old-fasioned basic bigotry. Lots of bits lifted from little britain too.

jobotic

My son was listening to one of his audiobooks yesterday, he enjoys them. I haven't really paid attention before. The first story was about a gross giant fat baby who ate everything like gross fat people do.

pigamus

I was just being snide about him on Twitter and somebody said to me, "my son loves his books, really got him into reading", so I felt like a bit of a shitheel.

idunnosomename

somehow his books are more problematic than Roald Dahl's, who died like three decades ago, and was a bitter anti-semitic old cunt. so well done there walliams, quite an achievement

pigamus

Must admit I didn't know his books were even a thing. Childless bald man here.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: pigamus on July 06, 2020, 04:57:20 PM
Must admit I didn't know his books were even a thing. Childless bald man here.

I knew they were a thing but being childless meant I would unlikely read them.

Cuellar

Jesus some of the stuff in that thread.

If I didn't know David Walliams was a real and distinct person I'd bet large sums on him being Martin Amis's children's book pen name.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: pigamus on July 06, 2020, 04:48:22 PM
I was just being snide about him on Twitter and somebody said to me, "my son loves his books, really got him into reading", so I felt like a bit of a shitheel.

Get him to read something else. "Harry Potter got a generation reading"..look how that turned out.

You're just creating a new generation of self-loathing tory voters.

Phil_A

The way these books are marketed as essentially faux-Dahl stories, to the extent of employing Quentin Blake to illustrate some of them, really turns my stomach. It turns out all you have to do to become one of the most popular children's authors of this century is to imitate to an absurdly slavish degree the most popular children's author of the previous century.

It's so utterly cynical and transparent that it could almost be impressive, if I was actually willing to admit being impressed by an out-and-out cunt like Walliams. But I'm not.

pigamus

Quote from: BlodwynPig on July 06, 2020, 05:57:46 PM
Get him to read something else.

What, get him to magically stop liking what he likes and like something else? Like I said, I don't have kids, but that sounds a bit oblivious.

Mister Six

Started reading OP's thread but he lost me about four tweets in with this:

QuoteLord Grandiose, TWWP. "Granville didn't laugh exactly. If he found something funny, like the misfortune of poor people..."

You what mate? Had to close the book at this point and have a small chat with my Small Boy about how 'misfortune' and 'poverty' aren't punchlines for jokes.

Bothered me enough to do a quick Google and found this - https://www.facebook.com/HarperCollinsChildrensBooksAustralia/videos/277138060280276/ - in which it seems fairly clear that Granville is not supposed to be a particularly likeable child at that point in the story.

Maybe I'm wrong, as I've not read the book, but I get the feeling these complaints are either disingenuous or just fucking stupid. Either way, I don't trust them to accurately represent the contents of the book.

Scrolled down a bit to a complaint about four pages of projectile vomiting: "Back to Little Britain, we have the Classic Projectile Vomiting Joke."

Prety sure that if I were in the target demographic for that book, I'd find that hilarious.

I'm not a fan of Walliams, and the books look to me like third-rate Dahl knockoffs illustrated by a second-rate Quentin Blake, but this Jack Monroe cunt sounds like a right tedious bore.

Mister Six

(I do certainly believe that Walliams' books might be racist, sexist, classist, sneery shit on the basis of Little Britain, but I'm not inclined to make that judgement based on what this Jack fella presents.)

peanutbutter

I think I said this in the Baddiel thread, but the children's book industry seems to have some very strong connections to the comedy industry and every failed comedian with strong connections gets parachuted into it.

Walliams seems to have been a bit more successful than most but I imagine that's a lot more down to the majority of them being really fucking bad and getting by cos the industry's standards are so bad rather than his being exceptionally good. Like, it's not hard to see how a guy behind Little Britain might be able to make things that kids find a bit amusing, it's much harder to see what about the comic mind of a David Baddiel would appeal to a kid.


Mister Six

Oh right, I dunno, I'd never heard of her because I don't live in the UK. She's got a bloke's name, it's a fair enough assumption.

Mango Chimes

#15
Quote from: Mister Six on July 06, 2020, 07:40:54 PMMaybe I'm wrong, as I've not read the book, but I get the feeling these complaints are either disingenuous or just fucking stupid. Either way, I don't trust them to accurately represent the contents of the book.

Scrolled down a bit to a complaint about four pages of projectile vomiting: "Back to Little Britain, we have the Classic Projectile Vomiting Joke."

Yeah, I was disappointed because I'd love to see Walliams get a kicking, but that thread is pretty slim. Four pages of a heavily illustrated vomit joke is fine for children's book, isn't it? I'm not sure I even understand the complaint about The Dad Who Wasn't The Brightest Spark. And doesn't he use the name Walliams because of Equity rules when he started acting?

Someone here once posted a snipped of one of his books, and that was a much more damning critique itself. It was a Dahl pastiche called something like Stinking Simon, and began with a passage no better than "Simon stank. In fact, he didn't just stink. He was the stinkingest stinker since stunk ever stank."

popcorn

Quote from: Mister Six on July 06, 2020, 07:40:54 PM
Started reading OP's thread but he lost me about four tweets in with this:

Bothered me enough to do a quick Google and found this - https://www.facebook.com/HarperCollinsChildrensBooksAustralia/videos/277138060280276/ - in which it seems fairly clear that Granville is not supposed to be a particularly likeable child at that point in the story.

I came across the Twitter thread earlier today, got to that exact same tweet and had exactly the same thought. For all I know the books are shite but that particular criticism didn't make sense as presented.

Barry Admin


BlodwynPig

Quote from: pigamus on July 06, 2020, 06:37:27 PM
What, get him to magically stop liking what he likes and like something else? Like I said, I don't have kids, but that sounds a bit oblivious.

If the kid went out and bought that book himself, fair play, otherwise...

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Mister Six on July 06, 2020, 07:46:15 PM
(I do certainly believe that Walliams' books might be racist, sexist, classist, sneery shit on the basis of Little Britain, but I'm not inclined to make that judgement based on what this Jack fella presents.)

I think they are more likely just to be beige crap wrapped up in what passes for entertainment these days. Breeding the next generation of Ford Mondeo men.

Captain Crunch

Quote from: Mister Six on July 06, 2020, 08:00:56 PM
Oh right, I dunno, I'd never heard of her because I don't live in the UK. She's got a bloke's name, it's a fair enough assumption.

No sorry I wasn't sure if you didn't know or if you were being swipey by misgendering.

ANYWAY it's disappointing, she's done a lot of really good awareness work around modern poverty and food poverty, it feels a bit low to get into a sandpit fight over this. 

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Barry Admin on July 06, 2020, 09:10:52 PM
God, she's really fucking annoying.

I don't really mind her but I have noticed when people disagree with her she tries to frame it as an abusive pile-on.

I assume that's happening as well really because people seem to hate her.

pigamus

It's not disappointing and she's not annoying.

JaDanketies

I picked up one of Walliams' books for my little munchkin but he's too young to appreciate it yet. I wouldn't have ever looked at a children's book critically but I guess if there are the Ting Twins or whatever, with slanty eyes, who are very smart, or Mrs impronouncable surname black woman with incredible frizzy hair you just want to touch, it perhaps isn't the message I want to be imparting in his little head.

Gf got pissed off with the Moomins the other day because there was some tragedy befelling the moon and mother Moomin needed to get the washing off the line first, and almost-BIL doesn't like his kids watching Peppa Pig because Daddy Pig is a moron. Personally, I'm looking forward to watching Gumball with him and that has the comic trope of a stupid dad and a workaholic highly-strung mother, although I think it's targeted at older kids who might be able to appreciate that it's a stereotype.

I like Jack. She bankrupted Katie Hopkins.

holyzombiejesus

Looks like the criticism of his books has led to some people making more serious accusations against him. Some of the tweets have been deleted but you can kind of get the gist from these.

https://twitter.com/beckiiwhiting/status/1280122706978050049

https://twitter.com/beckiiwhiting/status/1280148644025507846

https://twitter.com/twcuddleston/status/1280240609278808066

Quote from: JaDanketies on July 06, 2020, 09:37:44 PM
I like Jack. She bankrupted Katie Hopkins.

I do too. I think she genuinely gives a fuck about vulnerable people and whilst the criticism of vomiting in the children's books seems a bit daft, some of the other stuff she points out is pretty shitty, especially for one of the best selling authors around today.

JaDanketies

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on July 06, 2020, 09:55:35 PM

https://twitter.com/beckiiwhiting/status/1280122706978050049

https://twitter.com/beckiiwhiting/status/1280148644025507846

https://twitter.com/twcuddleston/status/1280240609278808066

Looks well-sourced, backed up with facts and evidence, posted under a professional's real name, and entirely believable.

I liked a lot of the stuff he did with Matt Lucas, but really anyone who can appear as a judge on BGT is an absolute snake psychopath.

Mango Chimes

Well. I thought of posting my idle supposition that a sex-based cancelling must be on the horizon for him at some point, but thought better of it. Things move quick in 2020.

Jake Thingray


bgmnts

Quote from: BlodwynPig on July 06, 2020, 05:57:46 PM
Get him to read something else. "Harry Potter got a generation reading"..look how that turned out.

You're just creating a new generation of self-loathing tory voters.

How do you get a little'un to read Das Kapital?

ProvanFan