Cummings and goings

[Rhys Benjamin]

I just watched today's Have I Got News For You. Brutal. A must watch.

Have I Got News For You hasn't been "brutal" in years. And hasn't been impartial since the referendum.

Well it was brutal today. The panellists all come with their own opinions. How do you make it impartial?

By not having Ian Hislop act like a tree without roots perhaps? One of Britain's most ardent Eurosceptics became one of Britain's biggest Europhiles post-referendum. He stands for nothing politically and wants to disagree with the government, whoever it is and whatever it says. At a time when many comedians seem intent on shoving their politics down your throat, some balance would be ideal. A good comedian shouldn't be mixing politics with their comedy: with people like Hugh Dennis, you don't know which way he votes (he may have said so in op-eds, but the point is you can't tell from his material), and that's a good thing. Whereas Nish Kumar was roundly booed for turning his slot at a Lord's (the cricket ground) dinner into an anti-Brexit rant. During the 2016 US election, HIGNFY decided to launch into a big tirade against Gary Johnson, dragging up comments he had made in the past. It's not a coincidence that, rather than looking at him when he said these things, they did so when Hillary Clinton opted to drag his name through the mud. Indicating no more than being leaned on by the Clinton campaign.

I watched the 2003 Bruce Forsyth episode the other day: not only was it not immediately evident which way the panellists voted (apparently Marcus Brigstocke votes Green, which I would never have guessed from that episode), when was the last time that show was genuinely as funny as that, rather than being "brutal"? It's not the job of a "topical news quiz" which is also a comedy programme to be "brutal". It's the job of the news departments and media. And frankly, they can't be brutal since they're not asking the right questions, and are more interested in analysing than reporting.

[Ian Volante]

Maybe Hislop's just balancing the shift in the other direction by the Prime Minister? And are you seriously claiming that the Clinton campaign would have spared time and money to 'lean' on a slightly jaded British panel show?

[Rhys Benjamin]

Perhaps "leaned on" was a poor choice of words: the fact remains they regurgitated everything Hillary Clinton put out.

[Marc Meakin]

Maybe Hislop's just balancing the shift in the other direction by the Prime Minister? And are you seriously claiming that the Clinton campaign would have spared time and money to 'lean' on a slightly jaded British panel show?

It must be hard for satirists these days when both the UK and US government's are beyond parody

[Phil Reynolds]

“Stay alert, control the virus, save lives” is an anagram of “Easily survives travel north to Castle”.

[Rhys Benjamin]

“Stay alert, control the virus, save lives” is an anagram of “Easily survives travel north to Castle”.

classic dom

[Fred Mumford]

Have I Got News For You hasn't been "brutal" in years. And hasn't been impartial since the referendum.

Jon Richardson was a guest soon after the most recent election and was bloody awful - just so bitter and disappointed about the outcome that he completely forgot about trying to be funny.

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

It was outrageous!
That some intelligent British people (e.g. Callum on this thread, for instance) don't get why it was top of the news for days, goes to show how bad ye have it over there as regards the acceptance of buffoonery replacing governance.

[Mark James]

[A good comedian shouldn't be mixing politics with their comedy

How are you defining politics here? And comedian? And good?

[Gavin Chipper]

Some comedians are political comedians - it's pretty much their defining feature! Maybe we should cut these ones out and just have less variety then.

[Marc Meakin]

The early days of alternative comedy was littered with political comedians.
The best stand-up comedian currently imho is Stewart Lee.

Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce were masters of their craft

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

There was a significant increase in the number of people willing to disregard lockdown rules following the Cummings story breaking: https://theconversation.com/we-asked-pe ... -us-139994

In particular, the proportion of people who said they would be willing to disregard the rules "because they do not agree with them" more than doubled from 4.2% of respondents to 9% of respondents.

[Rhys Benjamin]

So Dominic Cummings said in January that he wanted to make himself "largely redundant" by the end of the year (https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/ ... d-weirdos/) but apparently this is a "news" story which has dominated the BBC for days.

[Jon O'Neill]

So Dominic Cummings said in January that he wanted to make himself "largely redundant" by the end of the year (https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/ ... d-weirdos/) but apparently this is a "news" story which has dominated the BBC for days.

So he's 6 weeks ahead of schedule? Why isn't this being reported as a great achievement by the Tories? I'm genuinely baffled!

Frankly that blog post is nightmarish...