#American satire

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: What do you think about John Oliver? (The British American comedian and talk show host.)

I honestly have no strong opinions about John Oliver only because I haven’t avidly watched all he’s done. What I have seen of his HBO show ‘Last Week Tonight’ left me lukewarm if not indifferent.

In England Oliver followed a well trodden path of most British comedian-satirists. He went through the Cambridge Footlights comedy club as a student at Cambridge - the seed bed of talent that included half of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Richard Ayoade, and other notable writers and actors. But after that he reached what I say the second tier of British comedy fame by doing comedy gigs at Edinburgh every year, appearing on lots of BBC light hearted satirical news panel shows, and then briefly a podcast for the Times. So not a stand out success story.

But I don’t really blame John Oliver for that. It’s just how the comedy culture is in the UK. There just isn't that much room in Britain for non-standup comedians. It’s a very small ecosystem. If you're a stand-up (and I suspect, if you're represented by Avalon, the big UK comedy agents), you can get on the panel shows, do one man comedy tours, and probably get a sitcom gig - and thus make a decent living. If you're not quite that sort of comedian, or more of a writer/character comedian, you either scrape a living from Radio 4 for writing gigs, or you look elsewhere.

America came to Oliver’s rescue. He only really got visibility when his run of the mill stand up routines caught the attention of the producers at John Stewart’s Daily Show where he started as a writer. And the rest is history as they say with his own weekly satirical news show on HBO ‘Last Week Tonight’.

I don’t think it’s controversial to say he’s still not really known back in the UK. He’s an American citizen now from what I gather and so I’m sure he’s not too bothered given his own glittering achievement in the US.

But how may I explain why I feel underwhelmed towards the comedy of John Oliver?

I was comparing notes about the differences between American and Brit humour with an American work colleague who was at Harvard and almost did stand up comedy as alternative career in NYC but bombed. He really liked Oliver and really liked his humour. I couldn’t understand it until it dawned on me that Oliver’s brand of humour isn’t really British per se but very Americanised. I find a lot of his humour revolves around shouting things in a state of exasperated disbelief. In effect Oliver has that British sarcasm which, in the British accent, comes across as authoritative to the American ear and therefore more humorous. But he also has that classic American shouting and gawping aspect which typifies American comedy styles.

I think that type of humour isn’t really British and doesn’t go down too well as I think Brits prefer humour that is either more surreal or dry but delivered with more restraint, at least when it comes to political humour. I suspect a lot of Americans see him as the token ‘funny British guy’. That plays very well to American audiences. But I doubt being British in-and-of-itself isn't as easy to add to your comic persona if you're performing to a Brit audience.

Not to get meta but I think Oliver wants to have his cake and eat it. I get the suspicion that his performance is a performative in the sense that he plays what he thinks Americans like about British humour but it’s utterly watered down to the American market - in other words as dull as dish water and not very risqué or edgy that Brits are used to - or were until the cancer of woke infecting British comedy, case in point the canceling of foul mouthed but funny Scottish black comedian Jerry Sadowitz from the Edinburgh Fringe festival).

Worse, Oliver comes across as too polished for a Brit audience - “All tits and no teeth” as one comedian writer friend of mine at the BBC told me once.

I think if you see enough of his own show ‘Last Week Tonight’ you can lift the Wizard’s curtain and see the simple formula played on repeat each week.

Leaving aside the low hanging fruit easy gags (e.g. against Trump and Republicans in general). I have no issue going after politicians - I loathe them all - but it’s just not funny. Going after corporates is also fine. But I don’t think it’s particularly informative most of the time and especially where he is liable to misunderstand or twist facts. Not surprisingly his views on gender affirming care for children (ie mutilation and sterilisation of pre-pubescent children) is predictable hot mess of sheer ignorance and virtue signalling.

It’s not so much a criticism but as much older friends have pointed out that in many ways he’s mimicing an iconic satirical news show from the 1960s, David Frost’s ‘That Was The Week That Was’ that first broadcasting in 1962 and was a satire hit charting and subverting the changing nature of British society and cultural life in the 1960s. It didn’t last long but what it did was explode a satire bomb under British society for decades to come. In many ways it paved the way for Monty Python and Private Eye (a satirical magazine that still is the bane of the British political, media, and arts establishment).

Oliver’s show doesn’t have the comic wit and charisma to pull off great satire.

For me the irksome problem with Oliver is that he’s consciously manufactured being a British guy playing at being an American version of a British guy doing comedy. So the way he acts just doesn’t seem quite right to Brits looking in. Something smells off even as he looks and sounds so sanitised.

His brand of satirical comedy of speaking truth to power schtick doesn’t work in the UK if only because it’s already been done very well (Stewart Lee) or done really bad (Nish Kumar).

Moreover BBC shows like the long running ‘Have I Got News For You’ would be our equivalent of the Daily Show but as a panel show. Over its twenty odd years it been really good or just averaging, but it ticks that box of British self-deprecating style of humour while also dishing out cutting barbs. But whatever Oliver does still doesn’t come close to what British satire does (or used to do). 

Thanks for your question.

[brain-damage-culture]

Both of these posts read like poetry. (Which is, of course, American.

everyone in the world is either a democrat or a republican. everyone in the whole wide world is a democrat and a republican and america is the largest and most populous country in the world and america is easily the most culturally diverse country in the world because the middle class white people in my state (like a little country) are very different than the middle class white people over there (another little country, once more called a "state") and you could never understand how bad it is in america, the main country in the world. where are you from again? it's bad in america and america is bad but the way that america is run is the only way a country could possibly be run unfortunately. i don't like it but it's the only right way for a country to be run and you don't get it because the main victims of the main country are all here and you aren't. where are you from again? they never told me about that place. i don't think you get that real people live in america. probably because you're a republican. real people live in america and real people are hurt by america but what can you do? god said america has to be like this. god said this because god is real so god is american. you don't get it because you're over there and we're all here in america, the realest country in the world. where are you from again? how can you talk like this with what's happening in america? you're a democrat, right? where are you from again? my country is so large it stretches over yours and presses down hard. it's not my fault that they never told me about that place. my country covers the world. you don't understand how bad this will be for real people in the real world, the first world, the only world. they never told me—where in america are you from again?

[politijohn]

Source

Is this really satire?

[davidaugust]

Brilliantly done Scottish Sunday Herald TV guide.

via (at)phillyguy25.bsky.social

[themisinformer]

Tragic: Luigi Mangione Commits Suicide By Shooting Self in Back of the Neck While Tied Up to Chair

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK - In a tragic turn of events, Luigi Mangione was found dead in his jail cell Tuesday with a gunshot wound in the back of his head while tied up to a chair. The death was ruled a suicide by authorities. This came while Mangione was awaiting trial for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

“Cases like this are always tragic,” said Detective Roy Hansen, who was in Mangione’s jail cell seconds after his death to declare it a suicide. “He was just about to go to trial, and then boom, he’s just gone. It’s a real shame that we won’t be hearing from him anymore.”

Hansen also made note of the circumstances surrounding Mangione’s death. “He clearly went to great lengths to end his own life,” Hansen stated. “He was tied up to a chair with duct tape covering his mouth. There was a gunshot wound on the back of his head, maximizing the impact. It’s clear that this act of suicide was deliberate and not an accident. I just can’t believe it.”

With Mangione gone, he was posthumously found guilty and all evidence against Thompson and all evidence against UnitedHealthcare was summarily shredded.

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

[unbfacts]

[artemisia-black]

Most mornings, I’ll watch American news/political pundits as background noise for emails.

Today on a vox pop, a woman said that Jesus Christ would need to have a visa if he was alive today and wanted to get into the United States (otherwise she would protest against it).

GIRL WDYM.

Imagine telling your lord and saviour, “Unless you can turn that water into a green card, you’re not crossing this border.”

We’d have Jesus of Nazareth as a cast member of 90 day fiancé, marrying Karen from Ohio for that K-1 visa.

Deport our Lord 2025

[theamericanidiot]

Breaking Idiotic News: Recent polls are showing that Sam The Eagle, of The Muppets, will most likely be the presidential candidate for the US Democratic Party in 2028.

When we asked him what made him decide to throw his star spangled hat in the ring after so many years of denying interest in the position, Sam said, “It is beyond offensive that President Trump is appropriating the Muppet culture for a second term. If the American people would like a puppet as commander in chief they should be able to vote for a true Muppet! What Muppet is more patriotic than me?”

When we asked President Trump to comment on this recent development, his team declined. Later that day, however, President Trump posted the following on Twitter. “Tomorrow we change the bird of the USA! The corrupt left pricked the eagle for us and now it is time for a real manly bird to take its place. Our new bird is the beautiful cassowary! Such a big beautiful bird! The biggest in the sky! The best American bird.”

It is not yet clear if the president understands that the cassowary is a flightless bird.

[aria-greenhoodie]

Happy July 13th

[rottingvulture]

Hi guys!!! (i say having just watched a movie that is going to alter my personality for the next two weeks)

[everythingilearned]

American Psycho (2000)

[vertigoartgore]

1983's American Flagg! #1 cover by artist Howard Chaykin. Source

[davidaugust]

Fox Business says the average price of a dozen eggs could be nearly $5 by the end of the year, which would be the highest-ever recorded average price. Turns out surrendering our human rights does not lower the price of breakfast after all.

[rih4z]

gotta return some videotapes

[divinely-ruled]

Not now kitten. Daddy’s being a hater on tumblr dot com.