Category: politics

The return of Mock The Week? But…

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Well, yes. But actually, maybe. Or not?

Metro reported thus:

The scariest thing about this was that it was apparently four years ago. I thought that it was 2023 or something. And with a whole Google search, it turns out that neither of us were right.
The last episode was on the 4th November 2022.

That’s not even three years ago yet, let alone four.

But surely the rest of their reporting will be accurate and truthful, right?

And look, if it is correct, then this is clearly great news, but the issues here are twofold. Firstly, that so much of the original MTW was good because of the regulars and especially Hugh Dennis and Dara O’Briain. Without them, you might as well just make a different show. And although no cast announcements have been made yet, it’s not sounding good:

A statement from Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed that the show’s return, produced by Angst Productions, would give the ‘much-loved’ series a ‘new look’.

As we’ve said so many time regarding music on this blog, sometimes change isn’t good. Especially when it was the familiarity that drew you in in the first place.

And there’s more iffiness because it’s apparently allegedly making a comeback on TLC:

As soon as I heard the news that Mock the Week was returning, I felt a tingle of nostalgic excitement.
Then I continued reading an article about it and saw something that immediately made me think the reboot is doomed to fail – it’s being aired on a relaunched version of TLC, which is a digital and Freeview channel known for reality TV screaming matches with shows like 90 Day Fiancé and 1000-lb Sisters.

These shows are hardly top-tier political satire like Mock the Week is, so it feels completely out of place.

There’s no doubt that the show calmed down a lot in its later years. There were definitely improvements in panel diversity, which was great to see, but at the same time, a lot of the edginess dropped off. And actually, we really need that edginess now. We need to be able to look at clowning politicians and take them down with satire and humour. See Colin Jost and Michael Che on SNL – no holds barred.
Honestly though, I think that there will be a further dumbing down of the hard-hitting content that MTW became known for in its early years (Frankie Boyle was a huge proponent of this).

The viewing figures dropped away as well with that lack of edginess, and it did feel like the show was held together by the regulars and the long-time fans [waves], rather than people looking to laugh at something a bit dangerous or risky – because that wasn’t going to happen.

Of course – of course – I will give this a go when it comes back out. But sadly, I’m ready to be disappointed.

How Science works

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It’s not rocket science. Well, I suppose some of it is. The bits with rockets, most specifically.

But generally, science works by using the Scientific Method: a tried and tested method which has been around for millennia and which has stood us in (very) good stead during that time.

Ask a question, answer that question in your head by forming a hypothesis, test the hypothesis with experimentation, draw a conclusion, report, rinse, repeat.

It’s not difficult. It’s methodical, and it means that you can get meaningful results, whether or not your hypothesis was correct.

What you can’t do is mix up the pretty coloured boxes. That’s not how it works. You don’t make huge, influential, wide-ranging and dramatic statements and decisions based on your hypothesis and then “make the proof” through studies.

Celia has got it right: you don’t “make” the proof at all. Unless you’ve maybe already huge, influential, wide-ranging and dramatic statements and decisions based on your hypothesis, and now you’re scrambling to try and find some sort of escape route.

Surely not, though. Right?

I mean, whatever next?

Of course he does.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Thursday reasserted the unproven link between the pain reliever Tylenol and autism, and suggested people who opposed the theory were motivated by hatred for President Donald Trump. During a meeting with Trump and the Cabinet, Kennedy reiterated the connection, even while noting there was no medical proof to substantiate the claim. He also mistakenly described a pregnant woman’s anatomy and linked autism to circumcision. 

Thankfully, no-one will believe him, though.

Of course they do.

Meanwhile, in America…

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Spotted online today. I’ve been too busy rewiring an office to have too much to say about these, but:

Honestly, I think we went beyond his expertise many, many years ago. It’s actually his brainworm that’s in charge now.

Honestly, I thought that this was made up. How could anyone be so stupid?

But no, he said that. It’s true.

But if the anti-vaxxers and the grifters ever think that they’ve outwitted the scientists, we need to remember that we’re always (at least) one step ahead.

It’s a great idea. It’s just not very original. A guy called Edward Jenner did it in 1796.

240 years of technological advancement, scientific effort and improvements in education, and Jack comes up with a lightbulb moment that – ironically – was devised 85 years before the light bulb was invented.

When will this madness end?

On Trump and Tylenol

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In an opening paragraph dripping with sarcasm, as the Marmalade Moron and his brainworm-addled side gimp gave us the answers to autism yesterday (see below), I was reminded of the other times that grifting politicians had helped out humanity by miraculously discovering causes and cures for well-known ailments.

OK, it’s mainly HIV and Covid, but still…

How could we forget Manto Tshabalala-Msimang – our ex-Health Minister, and now also ex-alive – who claimed that HIV could be prevented by a diet of beetroot, garlic, lemons, olive oil and African potatoes?

President (not then and thankfully not now) Jacob Zuma who did have relations with that woman, but then took a shower to prevent infection with HIV.

Let’s not omit Yahya Jammeh, ex-despotic leader of Gambia and all-round bastard:

whose only positive contribution to society was curing people of AIDS using herbs and prayer.
On Thursdays. Seriously.

Amazingly, despite all of these interventions almost 20 years ago, the spread and impact of HIV seems to have been best controlled by the rollout of ARVs and PrEP.

Weird that.

Bringing things a little bit back to the present, Covid brought all the weirdos back out of the woodwork.

Let’s stay in Africa with Tanzania’s ex-President John Magufuli and his plan to get rid of Covid by inhaling steam, and using herbs and prayer.

“You inhale while you pray to God, you pray while farming maize, potatoes, so that you can eat well and corona fails to enter your body. They will scare you a lot, my fellow Tanzanians, but you should stand firm.”

Didn’t really work for him, as he allegedly contracted Covid-19 and died from heart complications a couple of weeks later, but that’s not to say he was wrong.

Well, it is.

Trump told us to use Hydroxychloroquine to combat Covid, but then again, he also said that we should inject bleach to rid ourselves of the virus. Is there really anyone so stupid as to actually do that, though?

Yes, of course there is.

And then there’s his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. What a goon.

He despises “Big Pharma” while still punting Ivermectin (made by… er… “Big Pharma”) as the cure for everything (it’s not). And he studiously ignores the ills of “Big Supplement” and “Big Snake Oil” while repeatedly and completely dismissing “Real Science” – including denying that HIV is the causal agent of AIDS and suggesting that 5G masts are being used to control our behaviour.

In which case, could someone please switch him off?

But back to that theatre show last night, hinted at by the Tangerine Twat over the weekend:

“Tomorrow we’re going to have one of the biggest announcement[s] … medically, I think, in the history of our country,” he said. “I think you’re going to find it to be amazing. I think we found an answer to autism.”

A whole 5 months of no research have got them further than every other scientist ever. These guys are superhuman. So it turns out that it was Tylenol all along, then? That’s slightly differnt to RFK Jr.’s previous assertions that it was vaccines and/or environmental toxins, but hey, the facts really don’t matter here.

They never have.

As Trump said yesterday:

“It’s not that everything’s 100% understood or known, but I think we’ve made a lot of strides.”

Oh, I think that there are a few things that we can 100% understand and know. And one of those is that literally whatever these two clowns state as the truth is completely the opposite. Once again, it’s the experts versus the grifters.

I’m really not sure what the Salmon Shithead and his sidekick stand to gain from this ridiculous “discovery”. I’m sure that there will be money in it somewhere for them. Because it surely can’t be the fame in being the guys who rid the world of autism, given that nothing they have said is going to make the slightest bit of difference to those diagnoses.

And as we noted above, time will tell and history will judge – and ridicule – their ongoing nonsensical, alleged “scientific” triumphs.

Sadly, in the meantime, there will be more complications in pregnancy as mothers-to-be avoid a completely harmless medication and instead choose to “fight like hell” (his words) to only take it in cases of extreme fever.

“There’s no downside”

said Trump, being wrong yet again. Because:

“While you’re pregnant, experiencing uncontrolled fevers or some of the side effects from pain, such as high blood pressure, will be a lot more detrimental to a developing baby and a mother than paracetamol will be,” said Dr Monique Botha, who studies bias in autism research at the University of Durham.

My advice?

Listen to the experts, none of whom were the ones talking bullshit at the White House last night.

I’m going to have to get my hat out

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It was back in March that I told you that I wanted a MAGA hat. And I immediately also told you that it wasn’t that sort of MAGA hat that I wanted. Because no-one in their right mind wants to be associated with the Orange Shitler and his cult members.

I wanted to get this MAGA hat, designed by Greenland activist Aannguaq Reimer-Johansen:

I’m not a hugely political person, but long story short, I went and got that MAGA hat made, complete with Greenland flag and MAGA-style font.

Yes, seriously. Here it is on the bar.

But it seemed like rubbish timing, because rather soon after that, all the furore around Greenland thankfully died down and then disappeared completely.

Until now.

Yes. That wholly unwanted, wholly unwarranted US attention is back:

Denmark’s foreign minister has summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen, following a report that American citizens have been conducting covert operations in Greenland.
Denmark’s public broadcaster DR quoted sources as saying the aim was to infiltrate Greenland’s society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US, although it was unable to clarify who the men were working for.
Danish intelligence warned Greenland was being targeted by “various kinds of influence campaigns”.

That sounds like an approach that Donald might have learned from Vladimir.

Colour me shocked.

Danish Radio’s report on Wednesday gave details of a visit by one American to Greenland’s capital Nuuk, saying he was seeking to compile a list of Greenlanders who backed US attempts to take over the island. The aim would be to try to recruit them for a secession movement.

Given the strength of feeling during JD Vance’s curtailed visit back in March, it’s unlikely that the list would be very long. But that also means that it might not take much time to draw up.

No wonder the Danish Foreign Minister wants to nip this in the bud.

The only good things that can come out of this are a) further international disgust at the US and the Mango Mussolini’s accelerating imperialist policies, and b) the revived relevance of my MAGA hat.

Looks like I’m going to be sporting my red headgear once more, raising awareness of the issues faced by our neighbours in the top left corner of the Atlantic Ocean.

MAGAA: Make America Go Away. Again.