comedy


Frankie Boyle on empty words and bad ideas after the Paris attacks

Frankie Boyle the political commentator uses a lot of the skills that made him a hilarious and shocking comedian to good effect. There are a lot of stabs at hypocrisy, inversions of received wisdom and bad taste, but pointed, punchlines. He also comes across as better informed than the people he’s attacking- which isn’t hard in some case, obviously- and presents a more humane assessment of the situation as a result.

There are too many perfectly quotable lines in his piece on reactions to the Paris attacks. I’m so spoilt for choice that I’m not going to pull a quote, you really need to go and read the whole thing.


Daesh

There’s an alternative name for ISIS/ISIL that is just as valid as the one they’d prefer, but they don’t like it being used- Daesh.

I’ve known for a while that they hate this name, but I hadn’t seen a decent explanation of why until I read this- Decoding Daesh: Why Is the New Name for ISIS so Hard to Understand?

As a writer, it’s always nice to discover the power that words can have, particularly when it comes to bursting the egos of groups like Daesh.

(Comedian Adam Hills, who presents The Last Leg on Channel 4- a programme I should watch more often- is using language in a different way to cut Daesh down to size.)


Wanna buy a Banksy?

£59,995.00, or a serious offer will get you this piece of authenticated Banksy artwork. You’ll have to collect it yourself, because the postage for a safe is extortionate.

Update

The Banksy is a bargain compared to this nude

The asking price is $21,000,000.00 (approximately £12,835,401.26 by eBay’s calculations), which is a bit much when you can find it listed at Saatchi Online for $5,900. There are a few paintings listed on eBay at stupid prices, is it some attempt to garner attention or play the search engines?

Finally, something for the less wealthy art fan. You can get this image of Frank Sidebottom stencilled on your property and the artist will donate the proceeds towards erecting a statue of the man himself.-

Frank!


Sarah Palin talks to Nicolas Sarkozy

I doubt these two are going to lose their jobs over this prank call. Canadian comedians Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel managed to get through the campaign call screening and convince Sarah Palin she’s talking to Nicolas Sarkozy. Not hilarious, but definitely amusing as the would be Vice President misses load of hints that she’s being wound up. I bet the right wing blogosphere are up in arms about it.