The old "it's funny - because it's not funny" routine

I have to say that my long standing dislike of Jimmy Carr is feeling pretty vindicated by the strong pushback to him trying to make some kind of joke about the Holocaust and its victims.   But is it a case of unfair, out of context, criticism?

At this link is a Youtube video of the joke and his subsequent discussion of it.  It would seem that the entire special (called "His Dark Material") is some sort of meta show about dark or offensive humour.  Here is an extract of a mixed review:

The fundamental difference between a comedian such as Carr, compared to say, Dave Chappelle or Ricky Gervais, is that you never wonder about Carr’s sincerity. He’s not trying to troll you or confuse you about his intentions. He may enjoy writing jokes about offensive subjects. “But these are just jokes. They’re not the terrible things.” He even tells a story toward the end about a charitable gig he has performed at for multiple years through Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival, performing for patients dying from cancer, and how exploring the darkest subject matter can free them and us from the most tragic of emotions.

“I feel sorry for the people that get offended. I feel sorry for the people that can’t laugh at dark s–t. Because when their life is terrible, they’ve just got to f—ing white-knuckle it.”

Now, the bit about the cathartic nature of jokes about death is understandable - but that's a case of the willing participation of the audience facing their own mortality.   

And I allow that dark humour has a "proximity" issue (in both time and place) that is sometimes a fine line that can be accidentally crossed - in Australia, perhaps even England, you might get away with a joke about a cannibal murderer in Germany in the news last year; but I doubt you're going to find any Australians yet willing to sit through a set on the Port Arthur massacre, whether you're in North Queensland or Tasmania.   And there's the example of Mel Brooks and The Producers, of course.   

People will say, in justifying Carr, that he is telling the joke because the shock value is what makes it funny: same as "Springtime for Hitler", really.

But there's a key difference here, and why it's a weak excuse for this particular joke:   everyone knows that Roma people are still seen as "a problem" to be solved in England and other parts of Europe.   Why could Brooks make an entire movie finding humour in the shock value of a modern neo-Nazi still loving Hitler?    I think it was because it both didn't reference the Holocaust itself, and at the time it was made, Jewish discrimination was a pretty much over in America - they were seen an essential and talented part of the American landscape. 

But, honestly, I find it hard to believe that a portion of the audience reaction to Carr's "joke" was not tinged with dislike of Roma people and the way they live today.   And Carr, in his post joke explanation, doesn't even seem to me give a genuine attempt at explaining that it is only ironically funny - he does say it's a "good" joke because it has educational value, but this is pretty pathetic and weak.   A significant part of his audience would know that the Nazi extermination policies extended well beyond the Jews, and even if they didn't, how does the educational aspect excuse the invitation to laugh at the group as the victims?

And let's face it, there's long been a lot of dis-ingenuousness about the ironic use of "edgy" humour - it's a good and mature thing to recognise that it has can work as a convenient cover to allow a significant part of the audience to feel their actual racism (or sexism, or insensitivity to disability) is endorsed.   (And how else can you possibly read obnoxious Joe Rogan's recently revived old clip in which he was clapping his hands in delight at a creep explaining how he forced women to give him oral sex in order to get a stand up gig.  How can you possibly interpret that as not his endorsement of the view that such obnoxious sexual politics is nothing serious?)

Yes, the "woke police" can go too far - and readers know that I find the trans community tiresomely hypersensitive on this issue.  Of course it's not even as if I believe Carr (or Chappelle) are personally anti-Roma, or anti-trans, respectively.   But that doesn't mean that making jokes that are clearly capable of being read by the audience as endorsing their worst impulses are excuseable on the basis that it's knowingly offensive, and therefore an innocent case of "funny because it's not funny".      

I note, by the way, that all of the comments I can see after the Youtube clip I linked to above are actually supportive of Carr.   David Mitchell's wife also supported him.   I put this down to an over-reaction to the alleged tyranny of "cancel culture".   But seriously, people - put some thought into what you - and the person next to you - find funny, or acceptable, in humour or entertainment. 

 

David Mitchell on religion

Oh, this is the first time in quite a while that I've noticed David Mitchell writing in The Guardian.  Here I find out that he counts himself as agnostic, not atheist, in the context of talking about a recent comedy event he participated in at a cathedral:

So was it “offensive to everyone who thinks a cathedral is a holy space”? I’m not very religious, but neither am I an atheist. I’m a “don’t know”. I hope there’s a nice big God, and I hope I find myself believing in one when I expire, but I don’t reckon thinking about it a lot is going to give me the answer. I like churches, though – I find them both calming and moving, a combination rarely achieved by TV drama. During the event, I was extremely pleased to be in a cathedral.

I would have judged him as more likely to just be an out and out atheist, so I am pleasantly surprised.  

Bossy Bosi

Wannabe military junta cosplayer Riccardo Bosi has made a big splash on social media this weekend with his speech at the moron gathering in Canberra during which he called for 5 million Australians to join the protest (a target I expect will be undershot by about 4,998,000, give or take), failing which he warned the crowd that their fate would be in the "vaccination camps" which, he assured them, have "gas pipes" connected.   

He is an extraordinarily paranoid conspiracy nut, but is it appropriate that the mainstream media largely ignore him?   I mean, surely his followers have to cotton on sooner or later that he's a bullshit artist of the highest order who cannot whip up the public support that he claims is essential.  But wouldn't that be assisted by mainstream media showing his nuttiness for everyone but his deluded followers to laugh at?

 

A question to my tiny, tiny band of regular readers

Should I just delete every single comment of Graeme?   I mean, my policy for a long time has been to delete anything that makes reference to Jews, directly or covertly, as I won't allow anti-Semitic conspiracy rubbish here.  I have been leaving his other rubbish comments up, without engaging with them, including the ones where he happily calls me (and any other commenter) dumb for not agreeing with his esoteric views.   Apart from a conspiracy addled brain, he has no manners.

I was watching some of the documentaries on the Holocaust on SBS last week, and it reinforced my view that anyone who aligns with the centuries old conspiracy mongering against the Jews really doesn't deserve engaging with on any topic.   I feel that allowing Graeme's comments to remain here, on any topic, is a form of engagement.

So, what do you think I should do?  Automatic deletion when I see them?

  

Tweets liked

Boosted

There are a lot of spare seats in the Brisbane Convention Centre vaccination centre.

My daughter had her vaccination here a few months ago and it did involve lining up.  Today, I walked straight in and reckon I had Pfizer in my arm in about 8 minutes flat.   (I'm about a week over 3 months since I got my second Astra Zeneka.). 

Despite the mis-steps taken by various Australian governments with respect to COVID,I think there has been some underappreciation of the efficiency of the Australian free vaccination process.  As with the way Australia runs elections, it makes me feel good to live in a country that organises such things well and efficiently.   Gives me a nice communitarian feeling.  

What was he thinking??

It continues to look a near certainty that Ben Roberts Smith's defamation case will go down in history as the most ill considered action of its type since Oscar Wilde thought he would come across as straight. 

What also continues to be dumbfounding is how badly the government has handled the investigation that we're watching the matter be litigated in a civil court before any action in a criminal one.

The stupid Moon movie is falling

Could this possibly be the well deserved end to Roland Emmerich's directorial career?   I've never liked any of his movies:

 

Tim's on a PR bender

Those of us with a decade's long allergy to the vain self promotion robot that is Tim Wilson are having a hard time reading Twitter at the moment, given his relentless PR re-invention as Mr Clean Energy and Somewhat Wet Liberal:

It must be what internal polling (is there any politician more likely to pay for assessments of his popularity?) is telling him will work for him.

I would bet he will dump any leader in a flash if he can see it as a step closer to the Prime Ministership.  Mind you, Morrison thoroughly deserves the humiliation.

Update:  yeah, it's time for the party room to put Scotty from Marketing out of his misery:

 

Update 2:  yeah, cowardice killed his Prime Ministership, but it's hard to not to like him at a personal level:

Conservative Catholics yearning for the days of complete control (of women)

A couple of enlightening comments at dover-beach's Catholics for Fascism (and Complete State Control of Women) blog:

 

Baguette war

A French supermarket has upset (some) Parisians by selling 30c baguettes for a few months.

(Also, have a look at the range of baguette style bread for sale in the supermarket featured - there's a lot):

 

Bill Maher and the nuttiness on the Left (an old theme here, but bears repeating)

Allahpundit notes how Bill Maher has quickly fallen out of Left wing favour (and risen in Fox News esteem) due to his recent "I'm over COVID" complaints (which included, I believe, the nonsense position that he was not going to get a booster because - well, they used to say that two was enough, so how dare medical science change its mind during an evolving pandemic?)   Maher has apparently gone on to complain about the Left going nuts in a more general sense.  (I haven't watched the clip, but I see the screenshot features the "pregnant man" emoji which my daughter told me - with amusement - that Apple had just released.)

I've always been leery of Maher as a reliable political friend - too many libertarian instincts in him are probably at the heart of it.   

And Allahpundit (and Maher) note that the problem is similar on the Right - a part of it goes nuts, and the "mainstream" stands around and fails to call it out.   It's cowardice.

But it's somewhat galling that they don't (well, at least Allahpundit doesn't) explicitly say what is clear:   the nuttiness of the Right is on topics that make it far, far more dangerous than the identity politics nuttiness on the Left. 

The Leftist extreme, for example, thinks gender is completely a choice and former men who grew up with male bodies should face no discrimination when joining a women's competition.  They get people de-platformed from Twitter and elsewhere for being mean to transgender folk, and vow never to read Harry Potter again.   They virtually beg for social media confirmation that they now look "hot" in their new body.   Academics, and sometimes researchers, do get very unfairly targeted if they are perceived to not be completely supportive of the agenda.    And in Australia, the patently obvious campaign to upgrade old Aboriginal society to the status of "civilisation" and sophistication continues apace, with sceptical and realistic voices rarely raised.  

The nutty Right, on the other hand, makes death threats to election workers, scientists and doctors continually, both on social media and directly, based on bad faith conspiracy promoted for greed by both big and small media outlets.   In America, they have no commitment to democracy and enabling greater participation in it.  They wanted to overturn a fair election, and rallied chanting death to politicians who thwarted their plan.  They do not believe in climate change and would happily burn every last bit of coal because they don't believe scientists and the evidence before their eyes.    They are happy to demonise both immigrants and their political opponents as being inherently evil.

It's clear that the conspiracy belief of the Right is priming material for Right wing terrorist acts:  its seems more by luck than anything else that there hasn't been a major incident for a while.

So yes, I would like more on the Left to speak up about extreme and unrealistic views on identity politics and culture war issues - but let's not pretend there is an equivalence of the seriousness of the problem on both sides.

Update:   I've watched the Maher clip and it is pretty weak stuff. Yes, he's upset with identity politics, but also goes on at greater length with a general libertarian whine that Democrats want to regulate too much. 

 

Appalling social media story

A Gold Coast doctor has been subjected to death threats and abuse and is living in “utter fear” of anti-vaxxers thanks to false reports that two children died in his clinic after being administered the Pfizer vaccine.

The Pacific Pines GP, Dr Wilson Chin, said “widespread panic” swept through his community when false reports spread online that the two children had died in his clinic.

The girls suffered what Chin described as a “normal” fainting episode while under observation at the clinic a fortnight ago and have since recovered.

But a post to a Facebook page purporting to be a “personal eyewitness account” wrongly claimed the girls had suffered “violent convulsions” and later died in the waiting room.

Another Facebook user posted false information describing the girls as “unresponsive when ambos got there” and encouraging others to share the post.

The backlash ultimately forced the clinic to pull out of the vaccine rollout of five to 11-year-olds after Chin and his colleagues received death threats, which have been reported to police.

But Norman Swan, hey Jason?  

Here's a link.

 

Sounds like an internal move to dump Morrison may be afoot

 

The only problem is, I don't really want him replaced by the only candidate with some degree of personal likeability - Frydenberg - because I badly want to see Labor in power again, and don't want to see anything the might make that harder.   (Also - what's the bet that try-hard, newly hatched green energy believer Tim Wilson will be part of a plan too to up his position?   A slimier ego desperate to climb the slippery pole I have rarely seen.)  
 

Top marks for positive thinking

My kids find it odd that I subscribe too, and happily watch, nearly all videos by some (presumably) Japanese guy who has a not very old Youtube channel called "Solo Travel Japan".   His speciality has been catching overnight passenger ferries in Japan, but he also does capsule hotel and other experiences.  Each video is usually about 20 minutes long, often less, so it's not a huge time commitment.

I had no idea that you could do so much travel in that country by some pretty fancy and big ferries - usually they're overnight trips, and the accommodation ranges from some pretty nice private cabins with views, to dormitory style accommodation where the sound of snoring on a crowded trip must be a problem.  They all seem to just have cafeteria style food, and he show his meals on each trip too, despite the food being pretty standard Japanese fare.

He does not appear in his videos, apart from his hand or sometimes legs, and he doesn't talk; nor does he show other people up close.   (Given the pandemic, so many of his overnight ferry trips look like he is virtually the only person on board!).  It's just a Point of View videos of a silent person making a solo short trip in Japan.  (Maybe I like it because I travelled solo, often being silent for quite a long time too, when I was in my 20's?) 

I find there is an almost meditative peacefulness and comfort in watching him following the same routine -  here he is catching the bus to the port;  now boarding and going to his cabin, checking out the amenities; let's see what he is having on his cafeteria meal tonight.  (He sometimes seems to eat huge amounts, too.)   And there is the matter of his relentlessly cheery commentary in English subtitles, the latest example of which is the reason I decided to write this post.

This last trip was on an actually quite old passenger/vehicular ferry; it had some clear rust on decks and was way below the quality of the usual inter-island ferries he has been on.   He stayed this time in a very cheap dormitory style room:

His bunk featured a blanket that was clearly old and daggy.   Yet this was his commentary, which I found such an extreme case of "looking on the bright side" that it made me laugh out loud:

 

 

OK, maybe it wasn't worth a whole post, but that commentary is funny, and a bit delightful too.  

I don't know, but it's also kind of delightful that a person can make money for a time out of really simple, but cheerful and positive, content on Youtube.   I get bored with Youtubers who are too serious and introspective (or who do podcasts that ramble on for hours) - but people who are cheerful in whatever they do, it's pleasing they can make money from being nice.

Big in Portugual

So socialists do well in Portugal...I didn't know that:

Portugal’s ruling Socialists unexpectedly won an outright majority to govern solo after snap elections on Sunday that also saw the far right make huge gains.  

The results pave the way for a stronger government under Prime Minister Antonio Costa as the country tries to boost its tourism-dependent economy, which has been badly hit by the pandemic.

Oddly:

The results bucked the trend of declining fortunes for Socialist parties in other European nations, including in Greece and France where they have been virtually wiped off the map in recent years.

 

Some Roberts tweets to agree with

 

Maybe I should read up on how ballet became ballet...

Seeing this article on Twitter, my first reaction was "yeah, it's an art form I just can't imagine being interested in.  I can understand girls being attracted to the prettiness, or I guess girliness, of the classic ballerina get-up; but how does any man or boy, straight or gay, get attracted to it?"  

And then I realised, I don't have any idea about the history of this artform and how the look of "classic" ballet became solidified into its current state.   I mean, it couldn't have sprung fully formed into that look and style.   

One day, when I've done that long promised household sock audit, I might look into it.

 

Stop panicking everyone....

...my phone with Smart Launcher is operating again.

I tried one other launcher (Niagra) and didn't like it....

First world problem (but a potentially serious one if you're unlucky)

I've used the Smart Launcher app on my phones for perhaps 5 (or more?) years now, and I've been very happy with it.   I've paid for the pro version too, and although it's had the occasional hiccup,  it's been pretty smooth sailing, and I like its features.

This morning, it had a very big problem.  It insisted that the version I was using had to be updated, and this was the first screen on my phone - the Google Play update page for the app - but it wouldn't update.  Nor would it let me return to the home page, meaning the phone couldn't be used for anything.

I could get to the phone settings and did work out soon enough how to revert to the phone's inbuilt launcher, and of course did that.  But as many people on Reddit (which the fastest source of confirmation that there was a problem) pointed out, there would be many people out there (typically, parents or older folk whose kids had set up their phone with the app for them) who would not know how to go back to the phone's default launcher so as to be able to get to the home page again.   Hence, they would have an inoperative phone due to massive error in a Smart Launcher update. 

The company has acknowledged the error and said it should be fixed within hours.  As many on Reddit have noted, this could be a serious legal problem for the company if a user wanted to make an emergency or critical call on their phone, but was prevented by not being able to get to the home page.  (It's been a few hours now - I should go check if it has been fixed.  Wait - no it hasn't.  It's now been 3 hours since I discovered the problem; I don't know at what time it started overnight.)

Like many others (again, Reddit comments are the source of information), I also tried uninstalling the launcher and re-installing, but it didn't work.   This also likely means I have to set up the launcher to my preferred setting again once it again becomes useable.

I'm sure lots of users will consider dumping the app because of this.  Whoever caused the problem will likely be out of a job, I suspect.