Rob has updated his Twitter likes and follows

[Asclepius]

Jeez.

Led to the Doug and Rob twitters after reading on Cookd and Bombd of Doug’s ‘There’ll be no more tweeting from the official account’ etc. tweet it led me to dig into Rob’s twitter.

Heck. I think we see what Chris might be like if he had social media rather than just an HTML editor.

The first ‘liked’ tweets I saw were from Martina Navratilova on, of course, trans issues. And then came the Nigel Farage bank account thing.

Cripes, who does he follow to be liking this sort of stuff, I thought…?

His follows list is an odd one. As any fool doth know, Twitter sticks your lists of who you’re following into chronological order of when you started to follow them.

From that we can see Rob’s journey of following RD related accounts and those of other comedians to an account whose profile includes the lovely ‘women don’t have cocks’, then Andrew Doyle, that awful Birbalsingh headteacher, Kemi Badenoch, Spiked, then straight to – one after another – Laurence Fox, the current SDP leader (!), James Dreyfuss, Navratilova, and Farage.

A little while later he starts to follow our own Ian Symes and Jonathan Capps! Possibly after their excellent interview with him a few months back?

Anyway, they say ‘never meet your heroes’. The 2020s version should probably be ‘don’t click on your heroes’ Twitter likes and follows’.

Yes, I probably didn’t need to be so nosey, but what a cess pit.

Maybe he could have chipped in helping Doug with Timewave…

Topic

[loadoftottnumb]

You’re very fortunate to not be embroiled in the sewer that is Twitter and modern gender bigoty in general, but the damage these people do is very widespread and real regardless of your awareness of them.

Well very fair point of course, my not caring about them doesn’t make them harmless. I came off Twitter a while ago, I thought I still had an account but just tried to login to it and says it doesn’t exist, guess Elon zapped it.

[GlenTokyo]

I have a really hard time separating art from artist personally, so modern life is like someone new wiping their arse on my cultural comfort blanket every few months.

[RunawayTrain]

I have a really hard time separating art from artist personally, so modern life is like someone new wiping their arse on my cultural comfort blanket every few months.

I used to find this as well.  Really had to succeed to be able to watch RD again after Chris’ conspiracy nutjob rants though, and it did take me probably a few months.  

[Warbodog]

Another nail in Dimensions Jumps coffin.
I swear to God, I’m like two more problematic/ bigoted cast and crew members away from just burying all my Red Dwarf stuff in the garden and attempting to get into Space 1999 or something.

Baggsy Fireball XL5.

[Dave]

I live in eternal hope that eventually the GC adjacent people who have been conned into this bigotry will move past it.

I agree, the GameCube was a good console but the Dreamcast, PS2 and Xbox were just as good if not better.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Baggsy Fireball XL5.

I’d try Space Patrol instead if I were you. Gerry Anderson was very much of his time with regard to his views on gender and the writing of a lot of his early shows reflects that, particularly Fireball. Even Thunderbirds isn’t immune – ‘The Mighty Atom’ ends with the Hood’s mechanical spy mouse’ pictures coming up with nothing but Lady Penelope on a table looking hysterical. Space Patrol’s premise is basically along the same lines (and doesn’t quite manage to get away from it either) but it’s actually written and produced by Roberta Leigh, one of Anderson’s collaborators on Torchy and Twizzle.

[Captain Bollocks]

I’ve never really brought it up anywhere, but certainly for the last few years, this exchange from the socially-minded beating heart of the show has really begun to stick out like a sore thumb: 

LISTER: I just don't trust that machine, man. Look, I know it's old-
  fashioned, but I'm from the school that believes, "If God intended us
  to fly, he wouldn't have invented Spanish air traffic control". Okay,
  that machine might be able to cure diseases and stuff, but you
  shouldn't use it to change you into what you're not. You are what you
  are. Wasn't it Descartes who said, "I am what I am?"

RIMMER: No, it was Popeye the Sailor Man.

LISTER: Well, whoever it was, he was a hell of a philosopher. And I
  think what he was trying to say was, you got to stay true to what you
  are.

I used to put it down to being of its time, a slightly ham-fisted attempt at telling people it’s okay to embrace who they really are without having to aspire to others’ preconceptions of what you think they think you should be. A bit like their attempt to speak up on sexism and gender roles in Parallel Universe, only to find it feels a wee bit dated in the changing face of 35 years of evolving social politics. 

But now I just reckon Rob probably wrote that bit. 

[Asclepius]

A bit like their attempt to speak up on sexism and gender roles in Parallel Universe, only to find it feels a wee bit dated in the changing face of 35 years of evolving social politics. 
But now I just reckon Rob probably wrote that bit. 

I think that, for its time, Parallel Universe stands up pretty well. It’s dated in places, but it is really trying to say something about misogyny, gender roles etc. Better regarded comedy from that time – hi, Blackadder! – has dated more poorly, I feel.

As for Rob and his views…it looks quite a lot like he’s just tunnelled down a rabbit-hole, doesn’t it? I doubt he used to hold these views, but once you start to pick at one particular thread of rabbit-holery, it’s clear where you end up. I had a good mate once, pre-Covid, who started with being wary of the vaccine, and ends up just filling Facebook with his reposts from GB News’ most toxic presenters. This used to be a sound guy, with a great social conscience and trans friends. But now he prefers sharing posts by Calvin Robinson. Followed the rabbit. I wonder what got Rob into it? He seems to think that Nigel Farage’s treatment by Coutts was poor, for a start, but presumably there was a start into this before then. Date it by his follows if you like.
Also…Into the Gloop. As many mistakes as Doug’s made over the last couple of decades, I’m fairly sure he’d never have given us the line about Lister lusting after Japanese gym knickers. Or the phrase ‘nug-nugs’.

[Podey]

I have a really hard time separating art from artist personally, so modern life is like someone new wiping their arse on my cultural comfort blanket every few months.

For me it depends on if the problematic aspect of the artist is reflected in the work and if the work is on-going or in the past.

It’s not all logical though. I’ll never watch Louis CK again and yet there are Megadeth songs full of right wing conspiracy nonsense that I think are absolute bangers.

[Ian Symes]

My only hope is that he’s only at the edge of the rabbit hole and it’s not too late for him to be pulled back out. 

[Dave]

My only hope is that he’s only at the edge of the rabbit hole and it’s not too late for him to be pulled back out. 

We want Red Dwarf creators flying out of our burrowskis.

[Jonathan Capps]

As for Rob and his views…it looks quite a lot like he’s just tunnelled down a rabbit-hole, doesn’t it?

This has been so depressingly common since the pandemic. And in my kinder moments I do give some people the benefit of the doubt about this stuff. When presented with TERF talking points, shorn of context and taken at face value, it must be easy to get started with it. “What’s that, beloved author JK Rowling is getting death threats? Of course I’ll sign a letter supporting her!” / “They’re doing WHAT in changing rooms? Well that doesn’t sound good, I’ll be retweeting this for sure” and so on until you’re willingly inviting Lawrence Fox’s rat bastard face into your daily timeline. The big issue is that there are a hell of lot of people that have been widely regarded as reliable, nice people putting this bile out there and it’s legitimised the whole movement, making it much easier for people to join in.

However, there comes a point where you have to start judging people for not realising what they’re putting their name to and getting the hell away from it. If not for basic human compassion but for the fact that you’re standing next to an actual Nazi.

[Jonathan Capps]

And I say all this knowing full well that as a white, CIS male (got it in one, Asclepius! How did you know…) I have in the past been racist, homophobic and transphobic. And I know it can take a lot to take a step back, reject learned attitudes and try to improve yourself.

[Ian Symes]

And while Cappsy is no longer racist, homophobic or transphobic, it’s important to remember that he is still a cunt.

[Jonathan Capps]

I am now unapologetically smegazinequizphobic.

[Asclepius]

And I say all this knowing full well that as a white, CIS male (got it in one, Asclepius! How did you know…) I have in the past been racist, homophobic and transphobic. And I know it can take a lot to take a step back, reject learned attitudes and try to improve yourself.

I think there’s a lot of us white, cis men of a similar c40 age who thought we were terribly amazing EdgeLords in the late 90s/early 2000s Internet days, and I’ve certainly been guilty of what you note for yourself. But that’s the schism, isn’t it? Eventually, a combination of “that’s not ok” from others and realising the way things were shifting in the National discourse, the rise of the right, the far right etc. and you came to realise that either you stop sounding like them and make jokes about something else, or you were one of them.
And it’s ok to have made mistakes and have learnt. Or, hell, even to still slip up. When Doug Gets It Wrong (TM) generally there’s a factor of thinking “Oh, that’s not like him”, even in the heavy – and justified – Timewave criticism. You can trawl his Twitter timeline too, if you like. For a white guy in his late 60s it’s remarkably ‘ok’. A lot of us probably think we ‘know’ him from interviews, brief convention meetings, or just from watching his solo RD work for the last few decades, and we know that when his ideas are jarring or hurtful to us and others, that it’s an anomaly. But if that feeling changes, I’ll be happy to throw the appropriate opprobrium at him.

[Dave]

I dunno, I think Doug probably started all this with The Promised Land.

[Frank Smeghammer]

The European Space Agency gag is fine. The joke is on Rimmer because he decides to do something with Brexit-esque gusto, ignoring the red tape and the warnings, and only realises he made a mistake when diamond light fries his battery. Then he blames Kryten for not following proper safety regulations.

It sort of touches on contemporary politics without too heavy a hand to wade in deeply

[Dave]

I think both gags are fine, I’m just being silly.

[Formica]

as a white, CIS male

It’s not all caps, it’s not an acronym. Don’t know what the deal is with people capitalizing it all over the place like that

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

No no no. Cappsy is a three letter agency. Crime Investigation Scene. 

[katagogo]

I’ve lurked since the 2000s in case someone finds out that I’m the one championing Ouroboros every time there’s a poll, but I do want to piggy back on the thread and Asclepius’ comments to say this has always been my favourite online community to … well, watch at a distance.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Flap Jack]

as a white, CIS male

It’s not all caps, it’s not an acronym. Don’t know what the deal is with people capitalizing it all over the place like that

I assumed the capitalisation was for emphasis, but as it happens Cappsy is a staunch ally of Count Dooku.

[Jonathan Capps]

[Formica]

in all capps…

[Warbodog]

[Moonlight]

[Warbodog]

[Unrumble]

[Moonlight]

[Dave]

[cwickham]

[Jonathan Capps]

Corbyn wuz robbed

[Ridley]

Can we talk about Grant following Red Dwarf parody accounts yet?

Excuse me, Mr Canary, sir, I’ve just shivved a spiv with my groinal attachment for I am the Krytens.

[Jenuall]

Kryten takes a walk through Rob Grant’s Twitter likes

[Jonathan Capps]

Excuse me, Mr Canary, sir, I’ve just shivved a spiv with my groinal attachment for I am the Krytens.

The amount of follows those things have keeps me up at night.

[Warbodog]

[Ridley]

[Ian Symes]

Superlative.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Come on that was clever.

[Dave]

Too subtle, but drawing more attention to it would have ruined the joke.

[Dave]

[Nick R]

[Dave]

[cwickham]

[clem]

[Ridley]

Shoulda done Richard III so Rimmer would have grimaced in pain then said “ow.”

[Dave]

[Moonlight]

[Author]

Replies