Nine pounds short of laughs

For about three months now, we’ve had the Daily Show on British television, almost daily. Today, Jon Stewart appeared in a West End theatre in London – the Prince Edward, which normally shows Mary Poppins.

The Texan booked tickets so we all went down to see the matinee performance. On the way up to town, the I told the Vol-in-Law that for £21.50 (including booking fee), I expected to laugh about 40 times. That’s just a little over 50 pence a laugh, which I thought was a generous measure.

Well… it was pretty good, but I’m not sure we got our money’s worth.

In public speaking, there are really two things you gotta know, your stuff and your audience. Jon Stewart, his producer and writer, knew their stuff, but they hadn’t quite worked out who their audience was. Now, I know that when you go to a city like London, which is in England, you might expect an English audience. But, I know London crowds a little better, and I’d estimate that at least half, if not more, of the audience were American (with the occasional sneaky Canadian thrown in.) After all, the Daily Show hasn’t been on that long here, so it’s mostly Americans who know who this guy is and are willing to cough up the West End ticket money. Jon Stewart and Co kept saying things like, “In your country…”. I wanted to say “Dude, your country is our country.” They also failed to recognise the curious accent that Americans long-time resident in this country get (kind of like Madonna’s faux English accent, but just not as strong) and assumed that at least one American was a Brit, until she corrected him.

Mostly they just read from America, the Book. There was a little stand up, and a little Q&A. And Woody Harrelson* came on and read a bit (he’s currently appearing in the West End Tennessee Williams’ Eye of the Iguana). In all, we estimated that it was worth £12.50 – nine pounds shy of our ticket price. I expect to pay little or no money to see somebody try to flog their book, which we did not buy as I expect we’d paid enough into the Daily Show coffers as it is. The Texan was so certain she hadn’t received value for money that she would be less of a fan now. I said I would still watch the show for free. She said she’d watch the show, but would only laugh grudgingly.

The Q&A was probably the best part, although the few British (& one sneaky Canadian) questioners kept going on about damn Kyoto protocol stuff, to which Jon Stewart replied “Well, this may surprise you, but we don’t actually make policy at the Daily Show.”

The final question was: “Condaleeza Rice vs Hilary Clinton, who would you rather see as president and who would you rather have as your wife?”

The response: I’d rather bang Condi.

Update: Others in the audience seem to feel the same: Let me axe you a question and The Golmal Press
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* Is Woody Harrelson the Hollywood star recently turned down for a dog from Battersea Dogs’ and Cats’ Home? Enquiring readers want to know.

Yuletide ornament stand

So what’s up with all this “Christmas stealing” malarky. I don’t know…

1. I am annoyed by people who twist themselves into a knot calling the Christmas holiday anything but and who seem to think that some people will be offended by other people celebrating a holiday that for some is religious and for some other is secular with only the vaguest religious connection.

2. I am annoyed by people who twist themselves into a knot over what other people call Christmas -who cares? There’s not a thing in the world wrong with saying Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings. Back when I used to do Christmas cards, I always got an assortment of ones with religious motifs, secular Christmas motifs, and winter “Season’s Greetings” type motifs. I tried to match the cards with the perceived world view of the recipient.

I’m not the least bit churchy, but to me this season is Christmas. My celebration of Christmas no longer has any religious significance. I don’t believe that Jesus Christ was born on 25 December, but I don’t know when he was born. Maybe it was around that time. I enjoy the Christian elements of Christmas (the religious carols, occasional Christmas services). I enjoy the pagan elements of Christmas, the Christmas tree, the holly and the ivy. I enjoy my own family traditions, oyster casserole, the big dinner, cornbread dressing, etc. I enjoy other people’s cultural traditions, the Christmas crackers (ewwww to the Christmas pudding though!). I enjoy the commercial aspects of Christmas – the gifts, the decorations, etc. I like the lights and the glitter and egg nog and the office Christmas party, etc.

The term Christmas is still in widespread use in the UK, and I’m glad of it. My council, Wandsworth Borough Council hands out posters to local merchants that say “Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year” and another one that says “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” (the latter sounds dangerously Americanised!). The funny thing is, many of the merchants on my road aren’t Christian, they’re mostly Tamils who follow a Tamil form of Islam. If they are offended by the poster they throw them out, otherwise they can put them up. Almost every Muslim owned business by me has the Christmas poster in their window! Only silly Lambeth Council decided to change the name of the Christmas lights to Winter lights, and then changed them back again. (Pragmatic Wandsworth uses the same lights for all things, switching them on and changing the name as the seasons progress, look now they’re Diwali lights, hey presto, now they’re Christmas lights.)

The UK is nominally a Christian nation. We have an established church here, despite the fact that I think England’s pretty godless. I believe in the separation of church and state, but I also believe in holiday fun. I don’t think it’s appropriate to have a creche or manger scene on the courthouse lawn (I grew up thinking it was both idolatrous and a violation of the establishment clause.) But I can’t see anything wrong with calling a decorated tree a Christmas tree if it’s seasonally appropriate.

Sadly, the Vol-in-Law has been watching too much FoxNews and is a little exercised by the “War on Christmas”. Perhaps he will explain his reasoning. If he goes on with this, I will be changing the name of our Christmas tree to Yuletide faux pine ornament prop, just to lather him up.

Sick in the head

I see that the blogosphere is all a-flutter about the Washington Post article on extreme bias as a psychiatric condition.

A number of bloggers seem to worry that this is going to let racists and folk who get all in a lather about gays off the hook. And others take it as proof that right wing people are crazy after all.

In Random Thoughts from Marybeth, Marybeth seems to hit the nail on the head.

The article begins with a few examples: a recovering alcoholic who won’t attend 12-step meetings for fear of encountering a gay person, a waiter who is hostile to black people, a Vietnam veteran who is afraid of Asians, and a woman who thought Jews were diseased and would infect her so she wouldn’t see a therapist for her OCD problem for fear that her therapist would be Jewish.

It’s hard to tell from the summaries but I would suggest that it’s likely that the prejudice is a symptom of a disorder rather than a separate disorder in and of itself. It also seems to be taking the focus away from the person suffering whatever delusions or paranoia that result in the prejudice and putting too much emphasis on the object of the bias. Dislike of a group of people may cause more problems in daily life than an extreme fear of spiders but should the treatment really be that different? If the problem is an unreasonable fear or irrational belief, that is what should be treated. The object of fear is irrelevant.

If you read the article, the people described are clearly sick in the head. Their mental disorder means that they are not able to function normally. This is beyond mere “extreme bias”. I know someone who has told me to my face “I don’t like Jews,” and I think a form of subtle and not-so-subtle anti-semitism is rife among the leftist chattering classes of England. But I don’t think that these people have a mental disorder. They are just plain wrong, sometimes dangerously wrong, but most of them are not crazy. They are able to have jobs and relationships.

This blogger links fundamentalism with mental illness. I’ve seen that, too. People clutching and thumping the Bible or Koran who express their mania through religion. But I also know fundamentalists who aren’t crazy, they’re just fundamentalist.

It seems to me that extreme phobias can manifest themselves on anything. There are people who are morbidly afraid of buttons. The definition of phobia is an irrational fear, not an irrational dislike, or even a rational fear. (I worry about the rise of islamofascism and the effects of Bushist imperialism, but I don’t think this is irrational.)

Racism is damaging because of the way it can affect the people who are the object of distaste. A phobia is damaging to the person who holds the belief. Sometimes these things coincide.