Here’s a long episode of Jonathan Pie (the alter ego of comedian Tom Walker), playing, as he often does, a reporter. But this time the story is about him, a “documentary” of Pie covering pro- and anti-Brexit marchers. (For Americans: “UKIP” is the UK Independence Party, a prime mover of the Brexit initiative that has, says Matthew, “mutated into a far-right home for Nazis.”)
The conceit is although Pie is a liberal, he’s taken down by social media, who decides to take his words and actions out of context and portray him as both a “Leave-r” and an “alt-righter”. And this is after he extols social media for being a boon to journalism (“journalism for toddlers”), enabling reporters to find just the right quote they want instead of having to interview a bunch of wankers.
In the end, Pie comes a cropper, and the coppers come for him—for perpetrating “hate crimes.” It’s all, I think, a cynical but liberal take on how the news is done.
h/t: Michael
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Anyone who enjoys Pie parody should consider renting episodes of BBC: THE THICK OF IT [YouTube] or on NetFlix.
Fruity language, purposefully non-PC & it may take a while to adapt to the Glasgow accent of actor Peter Capaldi [the same native accent he used as Doctor Who – if that helps]. Worth a try!
The Thick of It is one of my favorites shows ever!!
Yes, it’s great stuff. Addictive with no redeeming characters worth caring about. Almost a Darwinian TV drama/comedy/parody without B.S. sentiment.
And ✔️
That was funny and slightly depressing. I think the real story uncovered is: We tend to think there are a lot of wankers when there are only a few, but there are an awful lot of ignorant people regardless of how nice their dogs are.
Unfortunately the small population of Wankerville is wot hits our TVs & there’s no gain to be had from more balanced reportage – no media outlet wants to be C-SPAN [including C-SPAN].
U.S. citizens using the word “wanker” always confuses me. I date it back to watching a Mork & Mindy episode set in a music shop/store owned by a Mr. Wanker, which as a British teenager was hilarious for reasons that were apparently unintentional. Though if I re-watched it now I’d probably discover that Robin Williams was in on the joke…
The German verb wanken means to wobble or waver. there’s a statue in the city square in Dresden of a saint who vowed that he would not do this until the heathens have been defeated (or some such). A man of conviction, obviously.
‘but there are an awful lot of ignorant people regardless of how nice their dogs are.’
You know, that’s exactly how you lost the referendum and why Britain is now plunged into Brexit. If you portray people whose opinions are different from yours as “ignorant”, then you should be too surprised if they put up two fingers at you, and at which point, you have lost the referendum. If you continue to call such people “ignorant”, then I regret to say that you have lost the argument. If all you can offer is insult, rather than rational argument, you have lost the argument.
UKIP is not a home to the far right, much less Nazis. It sounds like Cobb has had too much authoritarian far-left Kool-aid.