Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Superb short essay in favour of boat-rocking. "Originality is dangerous. It challenges, questions, overturns assumptions, unsettles moral codes." This is where great art comes from. If we believe in liberty, we must celebrate it
Admit it. After a hard day you want a really cheesy read. You have our permission to enjoy this one. Skip the laborious intro, cut straight to the funny, bitchy, tell-all interview. Anthology-grade anecdote in every paragraph
Revisiting 18th century humour. Favourite topics for jokes included hunchbacks, club feet, cleft palates, hairlips, scurvy, jaundice, rickets, epilepsy, syphilis, blindness. But nothing caused mirth like a dwarf. Has much changed?
Smart, funny, belligerent, paranoid. And winningly rude, as at the Golden Globes. "He has become the entertainment industry’s favorite irreverent person, because he manages to be irreverent in such a deeply reverent way"
On host of fake news show The Colbert Report. Satire that blurs parody and the parodied. Tried to buy naming rights for presidential primary. And add referendum question on whether "corporations are people". Nearly succeeded
Poet. Acclaimed translator of Homer (though knowing no Greek). Editor of Pseud's Corner for Private Eye. Pornographer, under the pseudonym "Count Palmiro Vicario". Jazz musician. Actor and screenwriter for Ken Russell
Reflections on the art of stand-up comedy. Via account of open mic competition at 2011 Humor Studies Conference. "Live standup, since it’s a gratuitous hijacking of people’s attention, always thrives in the dark, like all tyranny"
Simple problem, long unanswered. But now three researchers, including philosopher Daniel Dennett, have a theory: "A sense of humour is the lure that keeps our brains alert for the gaps between our quick-fire assumptions and reality"
Rare print interview with comedy superstar. "My significance in film was that I'm the first black actor to take charge in a white world onscreen. That's why I became as popular as I became. People had never seen it before"
Americans "don’t hide hopes and fears. They applaud ambition and openly reward success. Brits are more comfortable with life’s losers. We embrace the underdog, until it’s no longer the underdog." Which explains how our jokes differ
Enjoyable review of book on half a century of British satirical magazine, Private Eye. "For its unrivalled contribution to keeping the nation's candidates for public admiration on their toes, we should remain very grateful"
Conversation with philosophy professor Jonathan Lear, discussing his new title A Case For Irony. "I’m trying to go back to what I think is an old conception of irony. You can find it in Kierkegaard if you look hard"
"When Elena Kagan was sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice, did her mother murmur, 'Maybe she’ll meet someone'?"
