Political Humour

[davywavy]

Readers of my comments page might have noticed Comrade Desbrovitch denouncing yesterdays post as unfunny because it didn't match his political views.
Political humour is a strange beast, and how funny we find it often depends on our perspective - so one sector of the audience will remain stony faced at comical observations of Gordon Brown's manifest shortcomings, whilst others will fail to see the funny side of cartoons depicting Margaret Thatcher tumbling down a lengthy flight of stairs. It's horses for courses, really.
One of my less-than-nonymous commenters observed that humour tends to come from those whose views are out of power at the time; certainly it's been a long time since Ben Elton has been able to raise a sycophantic guffaw by swaggering onto stage in a sparkly suit and mumbling "Fatcher, eh" into the microphone - these days he has to rely upon his innate wit and talent to get work, which I suppose is why we haven't seen much of him on TV in the last decade.
However, I'm always open to new experiences and so decided to look into humour from the pinker end of the political spectrum. Certainly, Socialist regimes have never been known for rib-ticklers but that might have been due to the iron curtain. According to Pravda, by the late 1980's the Red Star People's Comedy Writing Collective of Smolensk was producing more and funnier jokes than the entire Groucho Club on a daily basis, and when did Pravda ever lie? Looking up the former Soviet Union's foremost comedy duo, The Two Roninovs, here are some of their most famous corkers:

"My wife has gone to the West indies!"
"Jamaica?"
"Niet! Cuba, where she will continue the people's struggle against the oppressive running-dog imperialist regime of the United States!"

(Applause)

"My dog has no nose."
"How does he smell?"
"That does not matter, he is valued for his differences."

(More applause)

"Comrade! What is that?"
"It is a Greek urn."
"What's a Greek urn?"
"Nothing! He labours freely for the greater glory of the people!"

(Slavic hilarity)

"How many workers does it take to change a lightbulb?"
"I do not know, Comrade. How many workers does it take to change a lightbulb?"
"All of them! Backsliding counter-revolutionaries who do not contribute should be shot!"

(45-minute standing ovation, at the end of which the first person to stop clapping and sit down is sent to the Botslavian pepper mines)

And then we have these gems from Roy 'Chubski' Brown, Hero of the Soviet Peoples, holder of the order of Lenin (second class).

"I'm not saying my wife's fat, but she's fortunate enough to live on a glorious collective farm where she has all the potatoes and cabbage she can eat!
Eeeh, but it's a funny old world, Comrades, when we can put a woman on the moon, but we can't put one on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky."

Ah, the finest witticisms ever produced by a command economy. Makes you proud, doesn't it, comrades?

Comments

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

How many trade unionists does it take to change a lightbulb?

None, if the lightbulb doesn't want to work, it shouldn't have to!

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

It's funny because it's true.

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

Although the lightbulb should still receive above inflation wage rises during the period it is not working.

[(Anonymous)]

Da! All of this makes perfekt senski!

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Hell yeah! *grin*

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

If you can't laugh at your own politics sometimes, what's the point of being involved?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that if you're incapable of laughing at yourself, then someone else will do it for you.
Hence my Grim-mockery.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

You're a true gent. *wry grin*

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

From each according to his abilities, and all that.

[(Anonymous)]

He's an odd fellow though, most people try wit & charm to sell their ideas in the first instance, & keep witless profanity in reserve in case that fails. He starts off sounding like Bernard Manning on national swearing day, but becomes quite civil when mocked.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I suspect that most of his life he's learned that the sqeaky wheel gets the grease, and so his default reaction to anything he doesn't like is to squeak as loudly as possible in the hopes of getting a free dollop. When that doesn't work he has to change tack, I guess.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grimtales_/]

No, it just wasn't funny.
But this reaction is entirely predictable, and actually funny. Reminds me of some Alexei Sayle skits.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty absolute statement, how do you reconcile that with people who thought it was funny?

Ah Alexei Sayle, ah, happy memories of my brain leaking from my ears.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Only the Sith deal in absolutes.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

An excellent line indeed!

Is your ban starting "tomorrow" then?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

The ban is on posting and is now in effect, but I expect commenting to die off as I shall have less need to be here when the posting comments die.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

So if I keep replying you'll still have a thread to sneak back on?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grimtales_/]

There's no accounting for taste. (Or lack thereof). I found it over reliant on Scottish stereotype when there's plenty of other fodder for taking the piss out of Brown.

Frankly all labour has going for them these days is that...

1. They're electable under our system.
2. They're not the Tories.

The comedians that took the piss in the true blue days seem to do a better job of taking the piss these days too.

[(Anonymous)]

They're not Labour either. Only the name remains.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grimtales_/]

Indeed, but the system needs to change.
That's the main thing they did that pissed me off, stopped discussing PR with the system started working for them.

Hoping for a hung parliament.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm hoping for a hanged parliament, but that's a different matter entirely.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grimtales_/]

What? You want the Lords to run things? :P

[(Anonymous)]

They have opposed Bliars murderous crew at every step, and been a better opposition than the Opposition. If they were Bliars patsies he wouldn't need to keep rolling out the parliament act...

I think Ian Hislop should be forced, at gunpoint if need be, to run the country.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grimtales_/]

They're also a bunch of geriatric old toffs and stick in the muds and beyond democratic (ha ha) bitchslap reach.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grimtales_/]

I appreciate the efficacy of long term thinking which is sadly lacking in democracies. Its why China will probably end up ruling the world and travelling to the stars. But I wouldn't trust our aristos as far as I could comfortably spit Sir Cyril Smith, let alone the halo-jockeys.

[(Anonymous)]

Well of course you would Herman. Sorry, Edward.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

In reality, they are Labour; all they've done is realised the truth of Bismarks observation that controlling the economy means that you don't ahve to worry abou the laws. Hence we see the same tired and discredited Labour ideas of centralised control of economic forms - all that's happened is that they've realised they don't have to worry about the people once that has been acheived.
Nu labour is just Labour without the posturing, really.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

As the PMs recent replies to the petitions has shown; you can raise as many signatures as you like it still won't do anything except raise an (expensive) meeting to discuss why they should carry on with what they wanted to do anyway.

I'm very tempted to write a letter to Blair to express this.

[(Anonymous)]

I think he knows already. Forward him your junk mail instead.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

I would, but I don't really want to find out what Blair on viagra is like.
Although Blair with breast implants could be amusing.

[(Anonymous)]

Keep your sick fantasies to yourself, deviant!

[(Anonymous)]

Crikey yes, Alexei Sayle! It's worth voting for Cameron, just to give him some new material (getting rid of warminger Bliar & inbecile Brown will be a bonus, obviously)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grimtales_/]

Heh, like the Tories would have done any different, if not worse.

ID cards, there you might have some leverage, but not enough to turn me Tory.

[(Anonymous)]

Probably not. Fatcher mooted them too. I reckon we'll get 'em like it or not, now we have no sort of border control we'll be trying to do it internally, and, generally, after someone has committed a crime.

Great. That'll be more prisons then. Best brush up my bricklaying.