Ian Hislop C/D

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we sort of did some of this on, i think, the rolling comedy thread but i feel it sort of has legs. so, ian hislop should be a good thing, he edits private eye which whilst kinda middle aged still has loads of good zings of the rich powerful. yet on Have I Got News For You he rarely comes across much more as simply spiteful rather than genuinely angry about Very Bad Things. he and private eye feel sort of stuck in some weird post-elvis pre-beatles era of british culture and it sort of bothers me, like the way he'll go after minor celebs with the same venom as big shot politicos. enrique, i think, called the whole mentality High Tory, which i get just dunno if i can sympathize with or see it as "healthy".

what say ilx?

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know much about the guy but I consider Private Eye a kind of miracle.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago)

classic as fuck with one caveat: his sneering disdain for the arts. i mean, "pseuds' corner" in private eye has just become a joke: anyone who dares to say anything remotely emotive or intelligent about contemporary art of any kind gets zinged.

but i'll forgive him that for many reasons, not least of which is the last-but-one eye cover (blair's legacy).

― grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:25 (eighteen years ago)

oh yeh: and the little fucker didn't print the (very good) letter i wrote them about two months ago. mind, it was taking the piss out of them, so ...

― grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

Dud.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

Hislop is really weird to think about, that there are people out there who still think the Beatles were this dangerous band of nogoodniks.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

if you look at his work sked your have to wonder how much editing hislop does at private eye. it's always been the work of many hands and the fact that only three or four of them are known to the public (hislop, dep ed francis wheen, craig brown, erm, victor lewis-smith) covers that up a bit.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:33 (eighteen years ago)

Classic.

― Matt DC, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

Private Eye is just basically completely clueless and shit re: all popular culture, no? Cf all the cartoons which are just the same shit joke transplanted to models/rock star/footballers/artists/hilarious guardian readers every single issue.

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago)

xp to dom
that's not hislop, that's paul johnson.
i bet hislop's got a black sabbath cd around the house.

― Frogman Henry, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago)

Private Eye and Hislop by extension classic overall, it's no Viz though.

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:37 (eighteen years ago)

It's no Zit or Smut, either.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:37 (eighteen years ago)

I suppose that's true.

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

hislop is actually a christian i learnt, as was previous eye editor richard ingrams.

but check out og PE guy christopher brooker's book 'the neophiliacs' (1970?), a comprehensive assault on the 60s. and then of course there's bron waugh. also wheen wrote a book, which i haven't seen, called 'the sixties'. craig brown is more complex.

but in the 70s the eye was a bastion against the 'loony left', which is okay and necessary in a satirical magazine, except we ended up with thatcher.

peter cook, even though he bankrolled the thing, and in a different way paul foot, were sort of outriders, but very important ones.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

i just bought wheen's biography of marx. he's for him.

― Frogman Henry, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:39 (eighteen years ago)

The Premiershits and Pseuds Corner - dud
Everything else, especially when Piers Moron tried to get people to dish the dirt on Hislop and came up with squat - classic

― Pete W, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:41 (eighteen years ago)

mis-read christopher brooker as charlie brooker. which made me go "wha..." cos people like charlie brooker, christopher morris and armando ianuaci feel to in terms of satire seem to be from another world entirely to hislop.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:42 (eighteen years ago)

Pros:
- Good at pointing out the corruption, hypocrisy, incompetence or just general buffoonery of certain British and Euro MPs
- Passable Jimmy Somerville impersonator
- Pwned Piers Morgan, Aitken, Archer and numerous other odious cvnts over the years

Cons:
- Anti-Pop arts curmudgeon (tho this may be incorporated into third con)
- Hates football and most other stuff 'below his class/culture' (tho this may be incorporated into third con)
- Tory to the hilt

― blueski, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:42 (eighteen years ago)

Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, their telly and book reviews are the only reviews they do, and they seem pretty clued up to me.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:43 (eighteen years ago)

"Tory to the hilt"? O RLY?

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:43 (eighteen years ago)

"- Anti-Pop arts curmudgeon (tho this may be incorporated into third con)
- Hates football and most other stuff 'below his class/culture' (tho this may be incorporated into third con)
- Tory to the hilt"

i don't think any of these are actually correct. can you give me quotes?

― Frogman Henry, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:44 (eighteen years ago)

I keep dreaming of commissioning a sitcom called "The Craig Browns", wherein Craig Brown and Craig Brown share a flat together somewhere in Bromley, and like Craig Brown walks down the stairs going all "You see? You see? That Berti Vogts thing just proved what an impossible job I had", and then Craig Brown guys "Hey, ever imagined what David Milliband would sound like if he was ordering bacon? I think it'd sound a little like this..."

Ratings.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

It is only because of Private Eye and Evening Standard billboards that I have the slightest clue about what is going on in the world.

― Pete W, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago)

So you know that Ken Livingstone is evil and that popular culture is something to be scared of?

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago)

it's always been the work of many hands and the fact that only three or four of them are known to the public (hislop, dep ed francis wheen, craig brown, erm, victor lewis-smith) covers that up a bit.

aye, but this is true of almost every newspaper. the only people with a public profile are certain editors (i mean: could most people name the editor of the independent? or even the mail? "paul ... er ...") and, obviously, high-profile columnists. but the people with the real power (the backbenchers, the myriad associates and deputies and assistants) are totally faceless.

where PE differs is that none of the copy is bylined, which i really like.

a girl from university went off to work there, which surprised me because she was a total dick. she didn't last very long, though.

― grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:48 (eighteen years ago)

sure Frogman:

"Modern, populart art is rubbish"
"I hate football"
"I am Tory to the hilt"

― blueski, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:49 (eighteen years ago)

I keep dreaming of commissioning a sitcom called "The Craig Browns"

i have an almost-clear credit card and can borrow a camera. when can we start making this?

― grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:49 (eighteen years ago)

Youtube is our oyster.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:49 (eighteen years ago)

Tracer, TV review is alright sometimes yeah, there's a certain ridiculously out-of-touch vibe encouraged by the funnies and the attitude towards football et al though.

Constant shoehorning of Ignominious Neill Picture into the letters page/pretending Piers Moron's middle name is "Morgan" never get old though.

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:51 (eighteen years ago)

But pales in comparison to Viz's hatred of Jimmy Carr, really

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:52 (eighteen years ago)

Bring back Punch.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:52 (eighteen years ago)

xpost

ach, viz is secretly quite fond of carr. you can tell.

and i think hislop is quite fond of morgan. morgan, however, hates hislop with a passion. which just makes the whole thing even funnier.

― grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:54 (eighteen years ago)

'So you know that Ken Livingstone is evil and that popular culture is something to be scared of?'

I know how much Paul Dacre earns, and that somebody famous has died, or been arrested, and that pictures of this are in existence.

xxpost - the new Cheeky Girls/Opik pic has legs.

― Pete W, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:54 (eighteen years ago)

I wonder if there's any other publication that has changed as little as Private Eye in the last 25 years or so, when I first saw it. I mean, change the names and it's exactly the same. I don't know if that's good or bad - obviously it makes it extremely culturally conservative at the least.

― underpants of the gods, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:56 (eighteen years ago)

Horse and Hound?

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:57 (eighteen years ago)

Horse & Hound has at least changed its fonts and layout and what have you (I'm assuming)

― underpants of the gods, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago)

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:00 (eighteen years ago)

hislop is not any kind of modern tory. but his worldview is the tory worldview of the waughs evelyn and bron, which is a kind of anglican, high tory, anti-modern outlook but... somehow not irredeemable. it's a very seductive and contradictory part of british culture. but the people it seduces are, like waugh and probably like hislop, not blue-bloods, and they're much more anti-establishment than the nobs. i remember they had a working-class person on HIGNFY and she aksed why some names in british are pronounced 'wrong', and he said, perfectly nicely, it's so people can get them wrong. so he isn't fully signed up, he realizes what a lot of bullshit it is -- like waugh -- but can't help himself. carmody has written about it a lot.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:02 (eighteen years ago)

was Hislop generally pro the Iraq war?
who did he vote for at the last general election?

― blueski, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

i'd bet he was agin the war. but i can't imagine who he'd vote for.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

According to Wikipedia, Hislop wrote Harry Enfield's "Tim Nice But Dim" character.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:07 (eighteen years ago)

a kind of anglican, high tory, anti-modern outlook but... somehow not irredeemable. it's a very seductive and contradictory part of british culture.

Swift?

― Pete W, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:09 (eighteen years ago)

HIGNFY sort of slept on iraq if i remember. i wasn't looking at private eye at that time. it's odd i first came into contact with it through a torygraph reading teacher now the person i know who subscribes to it has it witht he new internationalist. both subscriptions maybe "gifts" though. i find it hard to believe anyone would actually buy if for the funnies, thats sort of like buying the guardian for the music criticism huh.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:10 (eighteen years ago)

BA-ZING

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:10 (eighteen years ago)

i can't imagine who he'd vote for.

reading private eye makes me not want to vote for anyone. i can't imagine what editing it would do to one's faith in the system.

― stevie, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:11 (eighteen years ago)

he himself makes the swift comparison in this interview i just found in a christian magazine:

http://www.thirdway.org.uk/past/index.htm [no direct link]

"Oh, there’s a definite fogeyism, yes – and a definite resistance to change. That’s inherent in satire, really. The new comes along and you have a go at it. It’s very odd, because the rest of the time you’re having a go at the old and saying how useless it is. I suppose one needs to be convinced, really. Nearly all satirists are conservative..."

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:11 (eighteen years ago)

Some of you here are talking about Private Eye as if it's some journal of the arts!

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

I think that's... if not fair, then at least true.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

Swift seems a lot more snobbish and a lot more conservative tho.

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:13 (eighteen years ago)

need an expert opinion on the architecture column.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:13 (eighteen years ago)

but... as i said upthread the likes of chris morris, charlie brooker and Armando Iannucci all seem way more progressive or simply at least a lot more ar ease with pop cult. the world hislop is from is half dead already.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:16 (eighteen years ago)

lets not have the nathan barley "wars" agains though

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:18 (eighteen years ago)

I've heard bad things about Lunchtime O'Boulez.

― Pete W, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:19 (eighteen years ago)

I feel that in the very unlikely event that PE got a Hip Young Gunslingers type makeover in the future, most people here (and everywhere) would be much more cynical about that than you could ever be about its 'fogeyism' or whatever. Outside of the investigative stuff it does, it's a sort of comfort blanket of satire isn't it?

― DJ Mencap, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:19 (eighteen years ago)

xpost to TOGTQ: i very vaguely know the guy who writes the architecture column. he's well respected within his field. personally, i find that 75% of the time i agree with him and the other 25% he's a reactionary tit. ditto muckspreader.

although, hmm, i've not actually heard his (real) name mentioned in a long time. i need to go and find out what he's doing in the real world ...

MD and dr B ching rock my world, as does the new(ish) politics dude who does "called to ordure".

― grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:20 (eighteen years ago)

I think for all his ostensible sneeriness and aloofness he's got a fair degree of integrity, and you've got to respect him for that.

― chap, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:20 (eighteen years ago)

he can be quite horrible though;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGBp5VjyrGQ

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:21 (eighteen years ago)

when hislop was at oxford in the late early 80s i think it was going through an uber-tory phase. this is when 'brideshead' was broadcast. you'd think bright young people would feel awkwardly self-conscious about trying to live up to a tv adaptation of all things, but this doesn't seem to be the case. dave cameron's crew were at the tail end of this, i suppose.

but i guess what i'm saying is hislop may affect to hate popular culture but it's ALL popular culture now. there's nothing highbrow about evelyn waugh, and i think the young waugh and his friends would have thought even the book terribly sham, let alone the tv version. so it's partly about the kind of popular culture you're talking about.

hislop could not abide dance music, which morris likes, or geek culture, which brooker likes. but that's partly a generational thing.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:24 (eighteen years ago)

Jonathan Miller on Private Eye: "naked, anti-semitic public schoolboys in a changing room, flicking wet towels at defenceless victims"

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:26 (eighteen years ago)

lol @ calling Gordon Brown and Paul Dacre "defenceless"!

This is sort of turning into Private Eye S & D but - they could jettison the entirety of the tabloid parody in the middle of each issue and I wouldn't even notice.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:28 (eighteen years ago)

I query 'anti-semitic' and 'defenceless victims'.

― Pete W, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:29 (eighteen years ago)

it's not like jonathan miller to try and piss on peter cook's chips.

tracer -- it was a different beast back in the day.

http://www.newstatesman.com/199903190005

the last pars of this relate a famous legend of media london.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:30 (eighteen years ago)

Who cares if Ian Hislop's a Tory or "basically clueless and shit re: popular culture"? The magazine's still good. Why is consensus on every point of view necessary to enjoy reading it?

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:30 (eighteen years ago)

Who gives a shit whether Ian Hislop likes dance music?

― Matt DC, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:31 (eighteen years ago)

Although he was very annoying on the Simian Mobile Disco thread.

― Matt DC, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:32 (eighteen years ago)

The mid-80s PE, when Auberon Waugh was ed, was (looking at it now) remarkably homophobic, without even managing to be funny with it

― DJ Mencap, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:32 (eighteen years ago)

you wouldn't find the dead parrot sketch that funny if it was your belief that the parrot was in fact alive

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:33 (eighteen years ago)

Plus 1970s PE referring to Japanese as "nips" and "bandy leggeds".

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:34 (eighteen years ago)

there's nothing highbrow about evelyn waugh

i wouldn't go this far

― blueski, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:34 (eighteen years ago)

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/0/08/250px-Hignfy21.jpg

me too. i hate the cheesiness and the "dressing-up" that comes with a lot of house. I'd much rather bosh the night away in a dingy basement where the beer is £1 a can than stand around self consciously drinking an £8 vod and coke while women (or maybe it's men?) with spiky pink tops mince around to wailing women and restrained beats.
That said, I'm really really really getting more time for electro/breaks/micro/discopunk house at the moment and those have spots that techno doesn't reach. That said, isn't microhouse etc more to do with Techno than House, despite the name?

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:36 (eighteen years ago)

it's more complex than i made out, but i think anyone can read his books, and since the 60s they've all been published by penguin and probably seldom out of print.

the young man waugh was not really a highbrow as well. i can't remember if they ever go to the cinema in 'brideshead revisited' but in real life young evelyn (and even old evelyn, when he'd styled himself as a country squire) was movie mad. at university he reviewed and made films, both of which were unusual activities for oxford undergrads in the early 20s. there's more to this.

er anyway hislop

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:40 (eighteen years ago)

why did you dudes chase carmody away?

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:43 (eighteen years ago)

Because he wasn't down with the kids. Or, he was trying too hard to be down with the kids. You know how it is.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:46 (eighteen years ago)

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/glamrockbear2/images/sparks%20this%20town.jpg

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:47 (eighteen years ago)

everyone studiously avoiding how awful HIGNFY has become despite his presence. also he's been at the Eye 20 years when he moves on i really wonder what will become of it.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:53 (eighteen years ago)

You have kind of a chip on your shoulder about this, don't you?

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:56 (eighteen years ago)

acrobat is right, it is pretty awful now, but that's not totally hislop's fault, it's not like he writes it.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:58 (eighteen years ago)

he writes his contributions, surely?

― stevie, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:02 (eighteen years ago)

i dunno ferg it's just i am writing some vaguely satirical stuff (for £££s woot!) atm and i am sort of obsessed with working out how to avoid being jon culshaw type "fake satire" and pin pointing where HIGNFY/Private Eye get it "wrong". jon culshaw "satire" is easy to write if you've got good performers i guess. i dunno where bremner fits in to this though. he's just not funny.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:02 (eighteen years ago)

he writes his contributions, surely?

Nah. Check "additional material by" at the end of each episode of HIGNFY, those are the gag writers.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:02 (eighteen years ago)

gotta have someone sourcing them youtube clips

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:06 (eighteen years ago)

I think if we fired every runner and research in the country and made them get proper jobs, TV would improve overnight.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:07 (eighteen years ago)

i've not watched HIGNFY in years. i'm glad i'm not missing much.

an aside re: culshaw. it's not "fake satire", it's just good old-fashioned impressionism. without wishing to sound like the new suzy, i worked with culshaw many years ago at a blackpool radio station (yes!) and he was the consummate lovely DJ dude: friendly, funny, instantly likeable and way, WAY more talented than anyone else there. he was mad keen on doing stuff with his impressions, but in no way did he consider himself a satirist.

it's like mike yarwood or alistair macgowan (subs pls check spelling of both his names): they're not setting out to make political points. but if you're an impressionist it's kinda difficult to avoid taking the piss, to some degree, out of all those important people on the telly.

that said, i don't think i've ever knowingly seen an episode of "dead ringers", so maybe i'm way off the mark.

bremner is very much a satirist but yes, he suffers by dint of being funny only 0.0001% of the time.

― grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:12 (eighteen years ago)

"Although he was very annoying on the Simian Mobile Disco thread" ROFLZ

― Alan, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:14 (eighteen years ago)

back to ih's politics: i get the feeling that what matters most to him is orwellian-style 'commom human decency', and he doesn't care who exhibits it to his satisfaction, left or right; i think he would vote for a redistributive, fair government, but he hates sham/hypocrisy, and that's what he sees in all the parties.
as for tory to the hilt - no, i think he'd say there was much about old labour socialism, its ideals anyway, with which he'd agree.
all conjecture, of course.

― Frogman Henry, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:16 (eighteen years ago)

gf "fake satire": when someone laffs at a prescott = fat joke or a bush = stupid joke i mean on dead ringers thats ok but on HIGNFY it seems kind of offensive. the audience thinks they are sticking it to the man (or something) but it's just pandering to their own prejudices.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:23 (eighteen years ago)

yeah this week they had a clip of bush saying '1776' instead of '1976'.

LOL HE MADE MISTAKE

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:27 (eighteen years ago)

it's kinda like listening to the kaiser chiefs and saying "hey i'm up with the hip cutting edge young peoples bands." i find it funny when j ross says stuff like that cos he seems to be taking the piss out of himself better than anyone else could. though i guess reflexive irony is also a bit rubbish. hislop does that a fair bit as well "lol i am a fogey and i hate the beatles".

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:27 (eighteen years ago)

yeh, i appreciate what you're saying about the weak jokes, acrobat. and yes, it's the intent behind it that matters. "dead ringers" is pretty much lowest-common-denominator entertainment, i guess; HIGNFY probably is as well, these days, but it still obviously THINKS it's worth more than that.

mind you: this is the programme that brought us the roy hattersley/tub of lard joke, so ... plus ca change.

― grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:30 (eighteen years ago)

<i>yeah this week they had a clip of bush saying '1776' instead of '1976'. </i>

i'd have more respect if they just showed a photo of bush with a caption saying "CUNT". every week. for half an hour.

― grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:33 (eighteen years ago)

There's a place for weak jokes, though! I would love Private Eye far less if the cover photos were actually clever.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:41 (eighteen years ago)

but weak jokes as the bread and butter of british tv satirical comedy is a bit much. also this attacking left (in the sense of progressive) and right (in the sense of reactionary) thing surely will always faavour the right simply cos it's easier to play to prejudices.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:45 (eighteen years ago)

Hence Clarkson.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:46 (eighteen years ago)

OK, well insofar as Private Eye goes it seems to me - and maybe this is naive - that they attack shortsightedness, greed, incompetence, nepotism and corruption, and that in general that really doesn't favour the right at all. But maybe you are talking more about the television show now, I confess I've sort of lost track.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:49 (eighteen years ago)

What do you think of Jeremy Clarkson, TH?

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:52 (eighteen years ago)

wtf?

― Alan, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:54 (eighteen years ago)

yeh that was more about the TV stuff but i always feel with private eye they'll willingly shit on some stuff which really doesn't deserve it. i'd have thought private eye would be anthema to the average poptimist. they had a gag about Enter Shikari a few weeks ago thou.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

"'d have thought private eye would be anthema to the average poptimist" no not really.

they pointed out the Torygraph's shakira/shikari cockup too, unless that's what you mean.

― Alan, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:57 (eighteen years ago)

I don't think much about Jeremy Clarkson at all, TBH.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

i don't think you can identify PE with HIGNFY. clarkson is exactly the sort of person craig brown parodies -- in fact i'd bet he has more than once. hislop is part of the show but these days it's dominated by the gust hosts and their gags are cruder nastier than i remember them being, as well as more right-wing. but hislop (and merton) is sometimes visibly pissed off by the hosts.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

Jon Culshaw has performed at Conservative Party social functions.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:00 (eighteen years ago)

HIGNIFY nowadays merely makes me pine for They Think It's All Over.

― Just got offed, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

About Hislop and HIGNFY: Paula Yates springs immediately to mind - fair enough, she didn't have to go on the show (or maybe she did) but it didn't help, is all I'm saying.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

*HIGNFY

― Just got offed, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:02 (eighteen years ago)

The problem with this thread is people are putting people into little boxes and going "the old Etonian Tories think like this", "the 90s satirists think like this", "the Poptimists think like this" and trying to draw lines between all of them and Private Eye, as if Private Eye doesn't actually take a range of standpoints depending on who it's lampooning.

― Matt DC, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:04 (eighteen years ago)

it was followed by a joke about them not quite understanding modern pop crazes, which made me smile, who does "get" Enter Shikari? they're the new craziness.

i just sort of thought Private Eye represented that sort of pooh poohing of pop cult that poptimism was against. thou i guess the PE mentality transcends popism/rockism stuff, it's sort of from a world before rock/pop could be taken seriously. hislop's hatred of the beatles seems key here.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

ian hislop is scouting for boys tonight bbc4 9pm.

― Frogman Henry, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

ok is this a joke?? hislop/beatles??

― Frogman Henry, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

Matt DC, we are Carmodizing.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

It's a running gag on HIGNFY he even put them in Room 101.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

that was to piss off paul tho

― Frogman Henry, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

"Carmodising", surely? I can't imagine it would have an American spelling...

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

xp
but yes, i did forget about that.

― Frogman Henry, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

it's sort of from a world before rock/pop could be taken seriously.

he's not THAT old!

ah guys, the "oxford 'z'" there. nothing un-english about that.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

I don't recognize this Private Eye that "pooh poohs" pop culture?? (Poop culture more like!!! Geddit???!!!) They've got a regular comic full of insider Hoxton art jokes, a whole set of regular columns about bestselling authors, a regular long-form telly review.. I mean.. that's kind of enough for me.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

no but Carmody likes the hip hop so the Z makes sense.

it's the dynamic on HIGNFY innit or it was when it made sense, paul is a bit more street whilst hislop is the young fogey; deayton was the important balance.

marcello; paula yates was the youtube bit i put upthread. i don't see how he comes out of that as anything but petty and vindictive.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

there's no affection in any of those things and as someone said upthread there pretty broad. you'll never ever see something as good as TV Go Home's Daily Mail Island in Private Eye.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:18 (eighteen years ago)

there's SOME affection. there's a will for telly to be better than it is. for eg. and that put's it in the same pooh-poohing league as ILX

― Alan, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:20 (eighteen years ago)

(put's ?)

― Alan, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

So maybe Private Eye should put the whole investigative reporting thing on the backburner and have more album reviews

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

how about both? a place in print willing to piss on the chips of the music industry would be cool now the uk music press has turned up its toes.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:30 (eighteen years ago)

Christ almighty they do more investigative reporting in a fortnight than it seems most other papers do in an entire year! They can't cover every base! It's just ONE magazine, not the entire rack.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:31 (eighteen years ago)

i've often thought they should have music publishing news. not music reviews.

― Alan, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:31 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah that would be a good section!

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago)

that'd be really good.

xpost

PITCH IT, SOMEONE IN THE KNOW

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago)

They note a payola scandal or something every once in a blue moon... I even recall an item about Fierce Panda getting press in NME and them going "hmmm" even though they probably had no idea who all these people were

― DJ Mencap, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:40 (eighteen years ago)

popjustice does the pop investigative journalism so we don't have to

― Alan, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:41 (eighteen years ago)

why the fuck would i want to read music reviews in private eye?

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:43 (eighteen years ago)

they review tv and books so it wouldn't be a huge step into the unknown.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:44 (eighteen years ago)

Also, aren't we missing the point that deliberate pop culture fogey-ism is... meant to be funny? You know -- a joke? God knows IH plays it to the camera enough.

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:45 (eighteen years ago)

He's a lovely bloke, Hislop.

― Mark C, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:48 (eighteen years ago)

I recall that last week's had an article about Rich Mix, Bethnal Green's new "cultural centre" .. it noted that local Bangladeshis, who the centre is ostensibly largely aimed at, seem not to give a sh*t about it... not sure what other publication would have noticed this, much less run an article about it

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:49 (eighteen years ago)

Yes but what do they think of the Klaxons?!!!

― Matt DC, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:53 (eighteen years ago)

i think that's why i went into snark-mode on the thread about it!

tracer i don't think anyone is denying that as a whole PE is a national treasure.

when it started up some people compared it with the village voice though; but obviously the big, big difference is in their coverage of pop culture. and ilx being a haven of poptimists, this is naturally a talking point.

xpost

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

xpost

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:56 (eighteen years ago)

oh right, did that

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:56 (eighteen years ago)

PLANK Hislop persists with boring GORDON BROWN and JERMAINE JENAS in Private Eye! Needs more MONSTER RAVING DARKWAVE focus. Has Ian even been to Koko this year?

― Matt DC, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

heheh laughing out loud here

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 17:05 (eighteen years ago)

more: RACIST EYE stop ignoring lovely Cassie. Ugh stop writing about Tony Boring the kids at the back of the bus don't care!

possibly

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 19:08 (eighteen years ago)

Ian Hislop's affectionate tribute to Robert Baden-Powell on BBC4 just now might well have been my favourite thing in the entire Edwardian season.

I have just promised myself I will go to Brownsea Island during the summer.

― aldo, Monday, 14 May 2007 21:05 (eighteen years ago)

i've been to brownsea island! i saw a red squriel! bought a copy of private eye yesterday. yes, it's good you do hear about crap thing that go unreported else where but it feels so hopeless to read; everything is fucked and all you can do is laugh. that might not actually be it, sure it's loads more complex and no not covering pop in detail is not really the problem. i got the new statesman with it, i know the two publications aren't really comprable, but despite the (post)blairite gunk it feels almost essential to have yr exposes and criticism tempered with something a little more hopeful.

― acrobat, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 08:38 (eighteen years ago)

1) Me too! 2) Yeah, it stuck it's head out of a bush, Dawn shrieked thinking it was a rat at first, the sq legged it away. 3) Yep, also.

― Mark G, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 08:41 (eighteen years ago)

waht?

― onimo, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 08:47 (eighteen years ago)

Oh right, the squirrel.

― onimo, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 08:48 (eighteen years ago)

THE ONLY REMOTELY OTM POST IN ENTIRE DREADFUL THREAD -

The problem with this thread is people are putting people into little boxes and going "the old Etonian Tories think like this", "the 90s satirists think like this", "the Poptimists think like this" and trying to draw lines between all of them and Private Eye, as if Private Eye doesn't actually take a range of standpoints depending on who it's lampooning.

all these little boxes are basically indicative of people who don't get out much, don't meet a range of people including gasp shock people who don't think like you do, and thus don't get to realise that people can actually be ok, really! even high tories! even people who don't like pop music!

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 08:57 (eighteen years ago)

Why discuss anything guys? Let's just agree to disagree.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:05 (eighteen years ago)

I like the bit where Del Boy falls through the bar, that's the best bit.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:05 (eighteen years ago)

Hislop is not Private Eye, even less than Ingrams was

― Tom D., Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:17 (eighteen years ago)

xpost

But a lot of PE does take a particular standpoint which is that basically anyone who stands for office or works in the public sector (except of course nurses) must be corrupt or useless in some way, especially if they're being paid for it. A lot of the stuff they print is just plain wrong, esp. in the rotten boroughs bit and nooks and crannies (which irritates the hell out of me).

However I once had a dinner with Ian Hislop and he was really very nice, and got annoyed with Boris Johnson who (totally predictably) turned up very late, and blithered about for 10 minutes being the centre of attention until he realised he wasn't then fucked off again. Also at this type of a do when you find yourself sat next to various folk I find it very difficult to know what to call them, Hislop seemed to sense this and immediately introduced himself as Ian. It's a small thing I know, but telling.

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:32 (eighteen years ago)

So anyway, yeah tomd otm

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:33 (eighteen years ago)

i'm sure these people are "ok" but i don't meet them i read their magazines. there's a difference. i met monty don once, he was nice, doesn't mean i want to watch gardeners world.

xp

but then yes this thread is called Ian Hislop C/D so yeh.

― acrobat, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:36 (eighteen years ago)

With the lack of any good gossip on IH, it's all we've got.

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:45 (eighteen years ago)

all these little boxes are basically indicative of people who don't get out much, don't meet a range of people including gasp shock people who don't think like you do, and thus don't get to realise that people can actually be ok, really! even high tories! even people who don't like pop music!

i don't think you should put people into boxes like that.

oh you were being ironical.

― ken c, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:49 (eighteen years ago)

guys it's obvious. acrobat = piers morgan.

― Frogman Henry, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:56 (eighteen years ago)

nigel dempster actually.

― acrobat, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:57 (eighteen years ago)

Let's be straight: although I'm anti-Hislop, Piers Morgan really is the fucking worst.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:57 (eighteen years ago)

I mean, at least Dacre and Wade are actually succesful editors.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:57 (eighteen years ago)

And Rusbridger is getting that Michael Ballack money as an editor now, so fair play there.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:58 (eighteen years ago)

eight months pass...

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/1201_big.jpg

lol black people amirite?

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 09:28 (eighteen years ago)

that is some weak shit right there.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 09:30 (eighteen years ago)

Barack Obama bottle opener

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 09:36 (eighteen years ago)

last amusing Private Eye front cover was what?

― Upt0eleven, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 09:39 (eighteen years ago)

probably the one i mentioned upthread about blair's legacy.

yeh, that's a fucking rotten cover on a variety of levels. if i could be arsed, i'd cancel my subscription ;)

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:18 (eighteen years ago)

it's funny because he's black

― stevie, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:49 (eighteen years ago)

i'm trying to read it as satirical dumbness, but no, it's just dumb.

― darraghmac, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:52 (eighteen years ago)

Not as good as this 'un:

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/256_big.jpg

― King Boy Pato, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:52 (eighteen years ago)

i almost bought this issue over the weekend for something to read on the tube, and am glad i didn't. was it above that someone said Private Eye is generally a better/sharper mag when the tories are in power?

― stevie, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:54 (eighteen years ago)

xp was trying to find that. Wasn't there also some racial lols when they had Idi Amin on the cover?

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:56 (eighteen years ago)

Wasn't there also some racial lols when they had Idi Amin on the cover?

People seem to forget that John Bird made a career of out this - racist bastard

― Tom D., Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:59 (eighteen years ago)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419AFA29XML._AA240_.jpg

― Tom D., Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:00 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/380_big.jpg

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:02 (eighteen years ago)

Wow.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:03 (eighteen years ago)

All those old "hilariously public school" covers on their website now: http://www.private-eye.co.uk/covers.php?

― King Boy Pato, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:04 (eighteen years ago)

that new Private Eye cover looks fake

― blueski, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:07 (eighteen years ago)

They wouldn't get away with this one anymore - no nipple on british newstands!

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/179_big.jpg

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:10 (eighteen years ago)

That's women's nipples of course.

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:10 (eighteen years ago)

I think the last cover I laughed at was Bush driving Gordon Brown around in a golf cart. Brown says "Tony sends his regards" and Bush says "Who?"

This most recent cover really is probably the worst I have ever seen. They should stick to the UK.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:16 (eighteen years ago)

The four panels kind of gives it away that they hadn't really hit on a winner. I think they imagine they're "saying what others won't" or "releasing the id" or some crap with these when in fact they're just being stupid.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:19 (eighteen years ago)

Yes, having 4 (feeble) gags on the cover is giveaway

― Tom D., Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:20 (eighteen years ago)

early maxwell zing there.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:33 (eighteen years ago)

The covers are of a piece with the red-top satire in the middle pages though which I believe I've already said are mainly suitable for ignoring.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:57 (eighteen years ago)

when i was a teenager, the cartoons were my favourite bit of Private Eye. now i pretty much don't read em, and stick with the Street Of Shame and politcal bits.

― stevie, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:00 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, most people I know who read it are the same, the humour bits are either crap cartoons or the tabloidy bits with their strained old man humour

― That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:03 (eighteen years ago)

The cartoons are generally crap - Heath's are vile

― Tom D., Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:04 (eighteen years ago)

some of the tabloid stuff is lols.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:06 (eighteen years ago)

Yobs = shite. Celeb = shite. Truly poor stuff.

I've been saying it for years, but my favourite thing by far in Private Eye is the fake Latin doctorates they do occasionally.

― Tom D., Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:07 (eighteen years ago)

All the regular cartoons are shit.

Some things are happening, it's all ostensibly unremarkable, AHAHA BUT WAIT I'M ACTUALLY A MIDDLE CLASS/A SCUMBAG/AN OVERPAID FOOTBALLER/A ROCK STAR/A ANOREXIC

― That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:08 (eighteen years ago)

The poems by E.J. Thribb.
Glenda Slagg.
And er... that's it.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:09 (eighteen years ago)

polly filler and the useless simon. i'm easily amused.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:10 (eighteen years ago)

The newspaper parodies are usu. fun, if predictable

― Tom D., Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:12 (eighteen years ago)

People should be banned from writing their own "humorous" EJ Thribb poems when some dude dies.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:12 (eighteen years ago)

Yobs = shite

almost always, yes. but "how do you spell NF?" was fucking genius. at least 20 years ago, right enough, but still genius.

I've been saying it for years, but my favourite thing by far in Private Eye is the fake Latin doctorates they do occasionally

really? i think those are the most appalling, unfunny, laboured, smug, tedious things they print.

me ... like: street of shame, hp sauce (esp the committee stuff), rotten boroughs, funny old world, in the back, apparently. loathe: pseuds corner, any lol-public-school stuff (eg the doctorates). tolerate: the rest.

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:15 (eighteen years ago)

Yobs, Celeb etc. have just been going on far far too long. I don't think any cartooning young guns are going to be banging on Private Eye's door to replace them, though.

― Ed, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:17 (eighteen years ago)

What's "Apparently"?

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:18 (eighteen years ago)

People should be banned from writing their own "humorous" EJ Thribb poems when some dude dies.

so. farewell
then louis "jigger"
jagger.

"there was no consummation."
that was your catchphrase.

now the rest of us are
oddly unfulfilled.

EJ fiendish (half-arsed)

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:18 (eighteen years ago)

To be fair i haven't read it in a while, the economist became my default plane/train journey buy a while back.

― Ed, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:19 (eighteen years ago)

xpost

― Ed, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:19 (eighteen years ago)

"apparently" = mike barfield cartoon under funny old world.

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:19 (eighteen years ago)

Actually not bad, GF

― That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:22 (eighteen years ago)

The poem, I mean.

Also rubbish: "Scenes You Seldom See".

― That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:23 (eighteen years ago)

does VLS make up most of those Funny Old World bits?

― stevie, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:23 (eighteen years ago)

Ooh, somebody wants a free newspaper/is not stabbing a teenager in South London despite being black/enjoys junk mail! There's something you don't see every day!!

xpost.

― That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:24 (eighteen years ago)

i had a cutting from Private Eye tacked on my wall for years, with a photo of that dreadful Lynda Lee Potter and "I'm Full Of Hate And Spite And Shit" written underneath in the Daily Mail font

― stevie, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:24 (eighteen years ago)

Yobs, Celeb etc. have just been going on far far too long. I don't think any cartooning young guns are going to be banging on Private Eye's door to replace them, though.

Why not though? You could argue that it *should* be the sort of place where good satirical type cartoonists get runouts, even if that is nowhere near the reality.

Yobs is shit except every so often I think of this one from years ago - yob waits patiently in progressively smaller queue for phonebox, then gets in and kicks the shit out of it - and giggle moronically to myself

― DJ Mencap, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:35 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/575_big.jpg

― William Bloody Swygart, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:37 (eighteen years ago)

Why not though?

i've never had the impression that the Eye pays particularly well, though I could be wrong.

― stevie, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

i've never had the impression that the Eye pays particularly well

Their finances must be interesting, cos their cover price very rarely rises - it was about a quid ten years ago, and it's only gone up to £1.50 nowadays, which is a fairly small increase in British publication terms.

― William Bloody Swygart, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

It was 90p when I started reading it, which was in about 94-95.

― Forest Pines Mk2, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 17:43 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/17/racist-obama-jokes-leaves_n_81938.html

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Sunday, 20 January 2008 11:15 (eighteen years ago)

five months pass...

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/1214_big.jpg

Ray Lewis bottle opener

― The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics, Saturday, 12 July 2008 21:34 (seventeen years ago)

bj is thinking in that picture, "well i capitulated to the pc multiculturalists and had a coloured chap in my team, and look where it got me"

it's kind of funny to see hislop crap hmself in fear every time reginald d hunter is on hignfy.

― Frogman Henry, Saturday, 12 July 2008 23:32 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

RIP Little man

Heaven needed someone to stan for the Raj

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 20:43 (fifteen years ago)

what!?

― jed_, Thursday, 13 May 2010 20:49 (fifteen years ago)

yeah, totally out of the blue. Light entertainment has lost a heavy hitter.

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 20:50 (fifteen years ago)

what!?

― nevermind312, Thursday, 13 May 2010 20:56 (fifteen years ago)

Not true?

― not_goodwin, Thursday, 13 May 2010 20:57 (fifteen years ago)

Deayton's just been on Sky News crying his knackers off

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 20:57 (fifteen years ago)

Proof?

― not_goodwin, Thursday, 13 May 2010 20:58 (fifteen years ago)

tell them to update their website then xp

― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 13 May 2010 20:59 (fifteen years ago)

Chocolate cake, it's a helluva drug

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 20:59 (fifteen years ago)

Hey I'm as upset as you guys, will always remember him crusading for justice and sticking it to the pompous and dishonest in power

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:00 (fifteen years ago)

Or that one time he called that woman a harlot

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:01 (fifteen years ago)

Has something happened, nothing on the news feeds that I can see?

― State Attorney Foxhart Cubycheck (Billy Dods), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:01 (fifteen years ago)

where did you get this from noodle very vague?

― not_goodwin, Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:01 (fifteen years ago)

run over outside NV's house

― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:02 (fifteen years ago)

Just keeled over and died, national TV. Pretty tragic really. Put in a good word for George Osborne as they tried to resuscitate him

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:03 (fifteen years ago)

No, he's just been an arsehole on HIGNFY, but joeks fell flat. I believe the comic term is 'corpsed'.

― tweedledee and tweedledem (suzy), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:03 (fifteen years ago)

Gonna do a funny tribute cover next issue of the Eye, Toby Young's lined up to model

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:04 (fifteen years ago)

First Ed Balls, now this. Hell of a week.

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:05 (fifteen years ago)

poor noodle, is this what happens when you drink alone?

― not_goodwin, Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:07 (fifteen years ago)

Sadly, as he was CoE, he was worshipping a false God and will resultantly be burning in hell for eternity ;_;

― Meowsy McDermott, Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:07 (fifteen years ago)

he's mis-timing zings in Gehenna now :(

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:10 (fifteen years ago)

That bit where he tried to get the audience to agree with him was just painful.

― ailsa, Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:13 (fifteen years ago)

Is HIGNFY live?

― Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:13 (fifteen years ago)

NOT ANY MORE

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:14 (fifteen years ago)

HIGNFY needs to get some new presenters. Hislop's been coasting for years.
Or just get rid of it altogether.

― Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:16 (fifteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIvBwGsxgBE

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 May 2010 21:16 (fifteen years ago)

didn't see this. doesn't sound like i want to.

― all i wanna do is poll poll poll poll and zing and discuss mia (history mayne), Thursday, 13 May 2010 22:53 (fifteen years ago)

HIGNFY needs to get some new presenters. Hislop's been coasting for years.

Speaking as someone who hasn't watched a new episode for longer than I can remember I welcome yr new Frankie Boyle overlords

― she is mottled and she's looking good (DJ Mencap), Friday, 14 May 2010 09:12 (fifteen years ago)

just watched this - wow you're a sensitive bunch NV

― mdskltr (blueski), Friday, 14 May 2010 14:45 (fifteen years ago)

NV is a bunch?

― Mark G, Friday, 14 May 2010 14:49 (fifteen years ago)

Se him as more of a hunk of burning love, personally

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 14:51 (fifteen years ago)

Hislop said "Vote Boris" quite openly on this show before the 08 London mayoral election.

Let's see...public school educated, died-in-the-wool CoE, Europhobe, sneering about all forms of popular culture...quelle surprise that he might be a bit of a One Nation Tory.

― Venga, Friday, 14 May 2010 14:53 (fifteen years ago)

I don't think it really matters.

― Matt DC, Friday, 14 May 2010 14:54 (fifteen years ago)

^ tagline for all uk politics post from now -2015

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 14:55 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, but Hislop has always been 'at' the politicos without necessarily favouring one or the other...

― Mark G, Friday, 14 May 2010 14:58 (fifteen years ago)

Maybe, but have you ever thought he has anything other than a Tory?

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:00 (fifteen years ago)

thought he was new labour from 01 onwards tbh

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:02 (fifteen years ago)

Kind of assumed Merton was dyed-in-the-wool Labour so it balances out.

― Matt DC, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:03 (fifteen years ago)

the last couple of years, since around when gordo got into power, hislop's most evaded making jokes in favour of limp "nu lie bore" "tony b.liar" level 'zings' and grumpy 'i read the telegraph' grumbles abt stuff and tings, and then just sitting there looking pompous and smug while HIGNFY's zombie audience applauds wildly. typical behaviour, as noted above, for a man of his background, breeding and age, but he used to be funny (i think?) and sitting through his bits is like spending time with my grumpy tory step-dad: not something one does for pleasure, and certainly not worth screening on prime time television.

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:04 (fifteen years ago)

also merton is still often on occasion sometimes funny.

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:05 (fifteen years ago)

thought he was new labour from 01 onwards tbh

Absolutely no way!

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:05 (fifteen years ago)

well, that's maybe because i have real difficulties telling new labour/tory apart from 01 onwards tbf. OH ZING

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:08 (fifteen years ago)

^ should be on HIGFY tbh

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:08 (fifteen years ago)

im not that bothered. when the tories were in, he made jokes at their expense.

tbrr i think it went downhill after angus deayton left.

― all i wanna do is poll poll poll poll and zing and discuss mia (history mayne), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:11 (fifteen years ago)

it went downhill when the writing team decided the show was about running youtube clips

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:13 (fifteen years ago)

Have not seen HIGNFY in ages - last time I watched regularly was probably post-Iraq but pre-Brown

noticed plenty of cracks at pretty much every little thing New Labour did (kind of understandable at that point but rather overdone and not v funny, I give you), but I thought he was pretty bilious re Major govt too, and I don't remember any +ve comments (fewer -ve ones maybe) about the Tories in opposition

no idea what I thought he voted tbh, but I didn't have him down as "Tory to the hilt" at any rate. can't really assign any other party to him that happily either, though. ah well

― xylyl syzygy (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:18 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah come on they hammered the Tories when they were last in power. The government is where much of the substance and most of the humour is (FSVO 'humour').

― Matt DC, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:21 (fifteen years ago)

I'm sure he's Tory really but I'm not sure how editing Private Eye could turn you into anything other than a raging cynic.

― Matt DC, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:22 (fifteen years ago)

"John Prescott is fat" is about the level of most of the gags these days. And the writers got Jo Brand to make a poor crack about Hackney the other day that she apologized for the moment she'd said it. She got her break doing new variety at the Hackney Empire FFS.

I still watch it sometimes but mainly for Paul Merton who is like some kind of freak of comedy.

― The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:27 (fifteen years ago)

got nothing against jokes against anyone who deserves it (and possibly those who don't, if the jokes are funny enough), but i think his recent turn for just getting harrumphy and staring at the camera while the audience wildly applauds his stuffy moralising doesn't really make for anything other than tedious and embarrassing television. it's all a bit "right, kids?"

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:28 (fifteen years ago)

merton still hella funny

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:28 (fifteen years ago)

he went to my old school

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:29 (fifteen years ago)

yeah whenever i see it nowadays merton still brings the lols

― all i wanna do is poll poll poll poll and zing and discuss mia (history mayne), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:29 (fifteen years ago)

(and usually *wins* every week)

― Mark G, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:30 (fifteen years ago)

fightin with everyone this week, but hislop > merton imo

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:31 (fifteen years ago)

LOL

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:32 (fifteen years ago)

rolling my damn eyes

― all i wanna do is poll poll poll poll and zing and discuss mia (history mayne), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:32 (fifteen years ago)

i know, gotta be honest i'll be glad when 5pm comes round and i can just take my hislop grumpy ass home

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:32 (fifteen years ago)

merson's bemused savant tramp act just gets on my tits, what can i say.

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:33 (fifteen years ago)

fightin with everyone this week, but hislop > merton imo

[camera trains on darraghmac, staring into the camera with smug look on face]

[audience applauds wildly]

[hold for a couple of minutes longer than is comfortable]

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:34 (fifteen years ago)

Would reboot with Frank Skinner and Frankie Boyle or David Mitchell, tbh. But then it would just be like The Bubble or Opinionated or Mock The Week or any other of the alterna-HIGNFY which quit with the moralising and get with the lolz instead.

― ailsa, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:35 (fifteen years ago)

But then it would just be like The Bubble or Opinionated or Mock The Week or any other of the alterna-HIGNFY which quit with the moralising and get with the lolz instead.

have experienced few-to-none lolz from the shows you mentioned, the risible Bubble especially so

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:36 (fifteen years ago)

crusty cynical half-zings > jonathan ross with an arts degree tbh

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:36 (fifteen years ago)

No not Frank Skinner. Or Boyle, still don't see that the fuss is about there.

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:37 (fifteen years ago)

really tho, whoever said it's dropped several levels without Deayton is OTM.

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:37 (fifteen years ago)

Deayton is unwatchable now tho

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:38 (fifteen years ago)

Like John Sessions on old Who's Line Is It Anwyays

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:39 (fifteen years ago)

who else is there?

suggestion of frankie boyle, or anyone that has ever been on a problem with frankie boyle garners an sb tbh

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:39 (fifteen years ago)

Dara O is the only reason why Mock the week isn't total shite. as opposed to just shite.

― Mark G, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:41 (fifteen years ago)

Never watched that show, I refuse to watch a show called Mock anything

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:42 (fifteen years ago)

Frankie Boyle is all about excellent comic timing. Frank Skinner is fairly sharp and intelligent. The material that they hang the likes of The Bubble around is presumably just to make it a DIFFERENT topical news show, and, like HIGNFY, they are only as good as their guests. But the hosts tend to hold the thing together better than, say, Jane Leeves or Brian Blessed, because they have some semblence of a clue what is going on in the world.

But, like darragh's weird pro-Hislop stance, I feel like i'm alone in this.

Oh, I know who they should get. Rich Hall. And yes, Dara is excellent.

― ailsa, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:42 (fifteen years ago)

Last weeks HIGNFY was the first one I've seen in ages and I lolled pretty much all the way through it. Might be something to do with Lembit Opik having a meltdown in public rather than Hislop or Merton.

― State Attorney Foxhart Cubycheck (Billy Dods), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:43 (fifteen years ago)

julia hartley-brewer was pretty good on this too. if i didn't know better she could be a crush of shame. i draw the line at kirsty at least, unlike chris addison.

― mdskltr (blueski), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:44 (fifteen years ago)

hmm I've never sdeen DOB host something that wasn't a race to the bottom in terms of actual lols, even though he's p great himself.

i mean the UK heads won't have seen 'Don't Feed the Gondolas', which was like an effort to concentrate cuntishness and broadcast it iirc.

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:44 (fifteen years ago)

Which Kirsty? (xp)

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:44 (fifteen years ago)

what about that little dwarf dude that's on Qi? he'd be good imo.

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:45 (fifteen years ago)

Hasn't Lembit been somewhere on TV pretty much every second of every day since he lost his seat? Willing to bet that losing his seat won't harm him in the slightest.

― Matt DC, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:45 (fifteen years ago)

No doubt some Stunna will be consoling him

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:46 (fifteen years ago)

kirsty young is hot as all hell

just putting that out there

― all i wanna do is poll poll poll poll and zing and discuss mia (history mayne), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:47 (fifteen years ago)

She has a nice voice

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:47 (fifteen years ago)

Oh absolutely, he was clearly acting up, but there was also some real bitterness and shock too. xxp

― State Attorney Foxhart Cubycheck (Billy Dods), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:47 (fifteen years ago)

xxp GIS disagrees with you and in fact is threatening to beat you up next time you meet.

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:48 (fifteen years ago)

it is partly the voice yes

― all i wanna do is poll poll poll poll and zing and discuss mia (history mayne), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:48 (fifteen years ago)

Even *I* think Kirsty Young's voice is hott, and I am a girl.

― ailsa, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:49 (fifteen years ago)

No Fraser Nelson accent confusion there too

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:49 (fifteen years ago)

I used to know Fraser Nelson IRL. Lucky me.

― ailsa, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:50 (fifteen years ago)

uh i was talking about Kirst(y)ie Allsop btw

― mdskltr (blueski), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:50 (fifteen years ago)

Did he have his Loyd McGrossman accent then? (xp)

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:51 (fifteen years ago)

darraghmac otm we should form a coalition obv he is the dave

― mdskltr (blueski), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:53 (fifteen years ago)

I can't remember, tbh, I didn't really engage with him much. Friend of a friend, and fellow student hack. I don't remember him being much like he is now.

xpost

― ailsa, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:53 (fifteen years ago)

Have never crushed on K Young. Assume the bit about Julia Hartley Brewer being good was Friday afternoon troll-food.

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 May 2010 15:56 (fifteen years ago)

Mock The Week is basically a bunch of comedians practicing.

HIGNFY is people mostly expressing an opinion by means of humour.

― Mark G, Friday, 14 May 2010 15:58 (fifteen years ago)

xp well i had absolute zero expectations of course

― mdskltr (blueski), Friday, 14 May 2010 16:01 (fifteen years ago)

Or in Hislop's case, moaning and forgetting to include a punchline.

xpost

― The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Friday, 14 May 2010 16:02 (fifteen years ago)

I want you all to remember that, in amongst trying to gee the audience up for a chant of "5 more years!" that went horrendously wrong, the late Mr Hislop suggested that this coalition represented a curbing of "the loony wings" of both participants.

a) who the fuck is "the loony wing" of the LDs?
b) hahahahaha get tae fuck you self-deluding twat

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 May 2010 16:07 (fifteen years ago)

Merton - punchlines
Hislop - embittered satire-lite

and they have an agreement to never cross the streams

― mdskltr (blueski), Friday, 14 May 2010 16:08 (fifteen years ago)

hit by another's stream

xxp i can't imagine hislop trying to get an audience to chant 5 more years in anything but the most bitter and sarcastic manner tbh. haven't seen this tho.

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 14 May 2010 16:08 (fifteen years ago)

About seven or eight years ago, as the low-rung hack intern of a low-rung hack political weekly magazine, I spent the day shadowing Lembit Opik and found him totally engaging and inspiring.

IMHO he's his own worst enemy. All the harmonica-playing, cheeky chappy stuff is a bit weird -- he's a lot more interesting when he's being boring.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 14 May 2010 16:11 (fifteen years ago)

Chuck are you a Stunna y/n?

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 May 2010 16:12 (fifteen years ago)

a) who the fuck is "the loony wing" of the LDs?

biiig question now Opik's gone

― mdskltr (blueski), Friday, 14 May 2010 16:13 (fifteen years ago)

okay just watching last night's episode now, hislop is just odious

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 17:26 (fifteen years ago)

Julia Hartley-Brewer was amazing on this, for an Express bod. I think Chris Addison has a thing for Tory MILFs though.

― tweedledee and tweedledem (suzy), Friday, 14 May 2010 17:51 (fifteen years ago)

i really didn't like her either.

― #klohasmadecrazierpoliticalpredictions (stevie), Friday, 14 May 2010 17:53 (fifteen years ago)

His cultural fogeyishness notwithstanding, I've always got the impression, judging from most times he's expressed his opinion on HIGNFY, that Hislop was pretty much a standard leftie. I find the fervent statements to the contrary on this thread a bit curious.

― Freedom, Friday, 14 May 2010 18:03 (fifteen years ago)

he definitely has never been a standard leftie

― all i wanna do is poll poll poll poll and zing and discuss mia (history mayne), Friday, 14 May 2010 18:04 (fifteen years ago)

Evening Standard Leftie.

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 May 2010 18:04 (fifteen years ago)

Srsly tho HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 May 2010 18:05 (fifteen years ago)

Well, it's just that I can't even remember a time when I've heard him espouse an unambiguously right-wing opinion, whereas there have been many times when he's made remarks that would at least suggest leftieness.

― Freedom, Friday, 14 May 2010 18:08 (fifteen years ago)

even = ever

― Freedom, Friday, 14 May 2010 18:08 (fifteen years ago)

No. His opinions include "hypocrisy is bad", "corruption is bad", and "popular celebrities really are ghastly little oiks". Not sure tho any of those made The Communist Manifesto.

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 May 2010 18:15 (fifteen years ago)

Did they make it into The Road to Serfdom?

― Freedom, Friday, 14 May 2010 18:31 (fifteen years ago)

Think the last one did.

― Consensus Working Overtime (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 May 2010 18:32 (fifteen years ago)

Tories recruit Ian Hislop

― Ned Trifle II, Friday, 14 May 2010 19:41 (fifteen years ago)

always figured hislop was vaguely lefty too, does that link ^ disprove this?

― NI, Thursday, 27 May 2010 12:49 (fifteen years ago)

I'm genuinely stunned that anyone could ever have mistaken Hislop for a lefty! This >

judging from most times he's expressed his opinion on HIGNFY, that Hislop was pretty much a standard leftie. I find the fervent statements to the contrary on this thread a bit curious.

I mean, what?!?!??!

― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 May 2010 12:55 (fifteen years ago)

the only times i've seen him express any views on the show they've just been his euroskeptism.

― No disre but maryanne hobbs is peng trust me (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 27 May 2010 12:57 (fifteen years ago)

I always saw him as a bit of an orange book type.

― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Thursday, 27 May 2010 12:57 (fifteen years ago)

private eye still has some stuff that is "lefty" and hislop always published paul foot

but nah, no lefty he

he's CoE conservative, just not really a thatcherite

― English: The Money Woman (history mayne), Thursday, 27 May 2010 12:58 (fifteen years ago)

He's not quite a High Tory, but not far off it

― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 May 2010 13:00 (fifteen years ago)

I always had Hislop down as a PG Wodehouse or Tom Stoppard type of right-wing British humourist, conservative small-c without being paid-up Tory. I suspect Hislop fancies himself in that image as well.

― The Men Who Stare At Goatse (Matt DC), Thursday, 27 May 2010 13:02 (fifteen years ago)

Richard Ingrams, basically

― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 May 2010 13:04 (fifteen years ago)

I'm genuinely stunned that anyone could ever have mistaken Hislop for a lefty!

Insofar as the UK hasn't had a left-wing govt in the whole time he's been doing the Eye and HIGNFY, which are both largely dedicated to clowning the govt of the time... I could see how you might casually conclude that tbh

― taqsim for Gaffney (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 27 May 2010 13:18 (fifteen years ago)

Richard Ingrams, basically

With or without the homophobia?

― i'm gonna go and talk to some food about this (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, 27 May 2010 13:28 (fifteen years ago)

Ian H is a delightful and generous chap. I doubt he'd consider himself politically affiliated in either direction.

― Mark C, Thursday, 27 May 2010 13:47 (fifteen years ago)

you don't need to be affiliated to be quite obviously conservative.

― No disre but maryanne hobbs is peng trust me (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:37 (fifteen years ago)

Like I said upthread, I really don't think it matters. It's not HIGNFW's remit to be lefty and probably helps for balance to have one captain that leans in each direction.

― The Men Who Stare At Goatse (Matt DC), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:42 (fifteen years ago)

Right wing satirists are a good old-fashioned British tradition

― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:44 (fifteen years ago)

I'd go with the 'clowning the govt' angle, as well as having a slice of 'conservative with a small c'.

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:46 (fifteen years ago)

yeah i'll get in on that

― English: The Money Woman (history mayne), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:48 (fifteen years ago)

Like I said upthread, I really don't think it matters. It's not HIGNFW's remit to be lefty and probably helps for balance to have one captain that leans in each direction.

i agree with the first part but merton leans in any particular direction politically? I've never noticed it.

― No disre but maryanne hobbs is peng trust me (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:49 (fifteen years ago)

wears ironic clothes_ lefty, possibly homosexual

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:56 (fifteen years ago)

merton's pretty much yr standard lefty lib, isn't he? i've seen him reading the guardian in real life, anyway

xpost

― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:56 (fifteen years ago)

clearly intelligent, but long haired- keep an eye on this one, chaps

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:56 (fifteen years ago)

on the other hand- speech impediment, wealthy. hmmmmm

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:57 (fifteen years ago)

Speech impediment? You mean Cockney accent?

― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:59 (fifteen years ago)

he's got a touch of the wossies dunnee

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 May 2010 15:03 (fifteen years ago)

starched tongue kinda thing

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 May 2010 15:03 (fifteen years ago)

I think that's just the weak "r" of yer avg. Cockernee guttersnipe

― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 May 2010 15:04 (fifteen years ago)

... which us Rhotic fellows feel at liberty to mock

― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 May 2010 15:05 (fifteen years ago)

merton barely says anything other than the odd stock 'im mad me' lazy surrealism, certainly not anything remotely political

― NI, Thursday, 27 May 2010 17:02 (fifteen years ago)

sometimes that's the most political thing of all maaaan

― English: The Money Woman (history mayne), Thursday, 27 May 2010 17:04 (fifteen years ago)

it's pronounced mayne

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 May 2010 18:50 (fifteen years ago)

Hislop seems to have a real distaste for Bruce Forsyth. Whatever did The Boss do wrong?

― Hippocrates or wat!! (Merdeyeux), Thursday, 27 May 2010 20:27 (fifteen years ago)

friend who worked with him years ago as a runner says bruce is horrendous - she wasn't allowed to address him directly!

― Worth waiting for the fannypunch at 4.02 (stevie), Friday, 28 May 2010 00:36 (fifteen years ago)

Hislop laffs at DCameron, the tories go "grrr leftie!"

That's it.

― Mark G, Friday, 28 May 2010 10:31 (fifteen years ago)

Do you know him personally or something? You're getting a bit defensive.

― The Men Who Stare At Goatse (Matt DC), Friday, 28 May 2010 10:32 (fifteen years ago)

I don't, but one of my friends does a day a week in the PI office and says he's a delightful boss.

― when the fertilizer hits the ventilator (suzy), Friday, 28 May 2010 10:35 (fifteen years ago)

It was Markelby who called him a delightful and generous chap up there! Or someone else called Mark C.

― taqsim for Gaffney (DJ Mencap), Friday, 28 May 2010 10:36 (fifteen years ago)

I sat opposite him on the train out of Charing X once. He had all the newspapers with him.

― Michael Jones, Friday, 28 May 2010 10:39 (fifteen years ago)

^ this is it, I guess? I hadn't really thought he was "a lefty" but hadn't thought he was Tory either, seeing as he clowned the Major govt for everything and the clowning of nu-Labour didn't seem to be from a particularly righty position, being "lol unjustified war and attendant coverups" "lol sucking up to Bush" "lol incoherent attempts to appear Tough On ___" on HIGNFY (as far as I remember - not watched reg for several years) + "lol giant money-hole of PFI" "lol corporate interests" in P. Eye (also not read regularly since like '01 and admit that I probably only remember the stories which hit my personal outrage buttons)

I mean this thread is not a major surprise but it is more "oh damn, I had thought he was a basically good guy but I can see why this thread makes sense"

― atoms breaking heart (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 28 May 2010 11:16 (fifteen years ago)

Well, I still think he's basically a good guy, etc.

― Mark G, Friday, 28 May 2010 11:21 (fifteen years ago)

not sure that there's too many people on the planet that qualify as 'basically good', so don't see why political quipmasters should be held up to a higher standard

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 28 May 2010 11:22 (fifteen years ago)

xp OK, I thought he was a basically good guy who I agreed with, but it turns out he's a basically good guy I agree with on some stuff but for different reasons! Wait, that doesn't sound too bad either.

Some people upthread wanted to turn this into Hislop v Merton, so I'll say that I'm pretty fond of both of them, and the format is a bit tired now but the interplay/contrast between them was great in the early years - I like Merton's trick of a flurry of mock-bemused looks or "don't really care about politics" surrealist question-avoiding quips but then revealing he always knows exactly where the question is going

vaguely remember an RT interview where Merton said that he always won because he'd read all the papers and Hislop wouldn't get his hands dirty with the tabloids, and obv that's not exactly true cz Hislop has to read the tabs for Private Eye, but it was a little "aha" line for me, anyway
(course it could well have been a joke because it seems like it has to be true but maybe isn't)

― atoms breaking heart (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 28 May 2010 11:32 (fifteen years ago)

Ingrams used to describe himself as a "conservative Christian anarchist"

― bham, Friday, 28 May 2010 11:45 (fifteen years ago)

missed out "homophobic wanker"

― every time i pull a j/k off the shelf (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 May 2010 11:46 (fifteen years ago)

Google not turning up any choice examples of Ingrams-era Eye strip 'The Gays', disappointingly

― taqsim for Gaffney (DJ Mencap), Friday, 28 May 2010 12:01 (fifteen years ago)

missed out "homophobic wanker"

And anti-Semitic twat?

― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Friday, 28 May 2010 12:03 (fifteen years ago)

small- c conservative Christian kind of a catch-all for those IMO.

― when the fertilizer hits the ventilator (suzy), Friday, 28 May 2010 12:04 (fifteen years ago)

xp to self oh here we go

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lSk4AbYU4tY/SYnorrt-z1I/AAAAAAAAAwU/HzMFgiO3TCc/s320/pe27jul84.jpg

not sure I get it :(

― taqsim for Gaffney (DJ Mencap), Friday, 28 May 2010 12:06 (fifteen years ago)

Bloody large "C" Christians. (xp) Heath is repulsive.

― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Friday, 28 May 2010 12:08 (fifteen years ago)

he clowned the Major govt for everything and the clowning of nu-Labour didn't seem to be from a particularly righty position, being "lol unjustified war and attendant coverups" "lol sucking up to Bush" "lol incoherent attempts to appear Tough On ___" on HIGNFY

This was my main rationale for seeing him as a leftie. Also, I remember when Peter Stringfellow, who's a Conservative, was on HIGNFY, and at some point PS made some condescending remark about Ken Livingstone and Hislop really sneeringly replied, "Is that because he isn't a Conservative?" Similarly, he once took the piss out of Clarkson for the lazy naffness of his "politically incorrect" brand of humour. I recall many other little instances like this that seem to suggest leftieness, but I can't recall any time when's he made any pronounced right-wing impression. The link upthread notwithstanding, most people on this thread seem to be simply asserting his Toryness, and providing only abstract explanations for why they see this. I'd like some concrete examples of actual right-wing remarks he's made.

― Freedom, Friday, 28 May 2010 15:58 (fifteen years ago)

he said "vote for boris"

i think you can be a small-c conservative w/o being a tory, exactly

not that it matters much

i don't think he's a lefty -- he isn't -- but it doesn't matter much

― English: The Money Woman (history mayne), Friday, 28 May 2010 16:00 (fifteen years ago)

I don't think anyone's claiming he's a paid up member of the Conservative Party, you probably can't be editor of Private Eye without having an all-consuming cynicism about all areas of the political establishment.

― The Men Who Stare At Goatse (Matt DC), Friday, 28 May 2010 16:01 (fifteen years ago)

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