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Veep continues the noble British tradition of drolly mocking politicians
Archive for the ‘Humor’ Category
June 1st, 2013
Category: Humor
The five stages of an actor’s career, according to Ricardo Montalbán 1. Who is Ricardo Montalbán? 2. Get me Ricardo Montalbán. 3. Get me a Ricardo Montalbán type. 4. Get me a young Ricardo Montalbán. 5. Who is Ricardo Montalbán?
May 26th, 2013
Category: Humor, Literature
To my mind, the greatest shortcoming of the electric pencil sharpener is not its limited utility, but the way it alienates its user from the pencil-sharpening process. In a culture that prizes openness and accountability, this device remains a defiantly closed system; the ultimate black box; a windowless abbatoir. The unreliable narrator can be an [...]
May 18th, 2013
Category: Humor, Woolgathering
I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. For those of you who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down’. –Bob Newhart
May 12th, 2013
From the character of the Bursar in Tom Sharpe’s Porterhouse Blue: It may be proper to be vilely rude to one’s equals, but I’ve always considered it the worst of tastes to be uncivil to servants.
April 30th, 2013
Category: Humor, Popular Culture
I was in my early teens the first time I stayed up late enough to watch a British television show that was being re-broadcast in the States on an obscure independent station. A roguish Irishman sat alone on a bar stool in an empty studio, smoking a cigarette, holding a drink and serving up hilarious [...]
February 27th, 2013
Commentator Werewolf at Washington Monthly related the following story in response to my post about humor and politics in the UK: During a debate in the Commons, an MP shouted: “The right honorable gentleman has the manners of a pig.” (From the opposite side): “Boo!” “Retract!” Original speaker: “I retract my last statement. The right [...]
February 25th, 2013
Musings about laughter and politics from the fireside on a London evening just parky enough to keep me indoors. A vivid political memory: I am listening to an erudite speech by a highly distinguished, venerated member of the U.K. House of Lords. His weighty topic, thoughtfully engaged from a Christian perspective, is the role of [...]
February 20th, 2013
The Londoner’s Diary of last night’s Evening Standard included this gem: The current Tory Chief Whip, Sir George Young, has so far made a good fist of his post, but his political future did not always look so bright. When he was a junior minister under Thatcher over 30 years ago, he met The Iron [...]