When Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, the distinguished musical satirist Tom Lehrer decided that he could no longer perform. "It was at that moment that satire died," says Lehrer, "There was nothing more to say after that."
I feel somewhat the same as I hear that John Prescott features in Gordon Brown's resignation honours list. John Prescott in the House of Lords! John Prescott the man who said that "I'm against too much flunkery and titles." John Prescott who had has less class than almost any MP I have ever seen.
Gordon Brown's last laugh on the Country that he comprehensively ruined? I doubt it, I am sure that there are more skeletons in the Number 10 cupboard.
Lord Punchdrunk of Cocktail Sausage.
ReplyDeletehttp://fxbites.blogspot.com/2010/05/elevation-of-cocktail-sausage.html
Lord Prezza of Melton Mowbray (Pork Pies) perhaps...
ReplyDeleteAh, but didn't he say his wife quite liked the idea of being married to a Lord?
ReplyDeleteAnd there's Ian Paisley too, and Ian Blair, the Met Commissioner who got the sack.
Actually, Lehrer stopped touring and writing new material several years before Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. He has since admitted that it had nothing to do with his decision to stop being a public satirist, but was just a great line that he couldn't resist. (And, it certainly was that.)
ReplyDeleteI find that the people who claim that satire is dead are not usually those who, you know, actually write the stuff. As a person who does write satire, I can tell you that there is always something in the world worthy of satirizing. As I have written on my Web site: "I didn't invent human greed and stupidity. Can I help it if they give me job security?"
Yes, much of the world seems to self-satirize these days. My attitude is that satirists just have to dig deeper. It might be worth keeping in mind that satire can employ any comic device; if the world is already an absurd exaggeration, perhaps understatement is called for.
Thanks Ira I am aware of Tom Lehrer's stopping some years previous to Henry Kissinger's award, but felt that the story was worth retelling to illustrate a point.
ReplyDeleteOf course satire was not killed by that award and of course it won't be ended by John Prescott getting a peerage; I was exaggerating for effect.