Spitting Again

[James]

Series 2 Review. Interesting. http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk:80/content.php?contentid=68418

Topic

[Tanya Jones]

“First, the bad. Aside from the pop bands of the time, to best appreciate some of the gags in Spitting Image you need to know much more than who was in government at the time. Around our way, we spent most of the first two episodes not laughing but trying to remember the names of those in Margaret Thatcher’s Goverment or those on the benches opposite. We did alright, even getting as far as Gerald Kaufmann, but found ourselves stumped with Norman Fowler. Then there’s knowing who the Wets were, who’s this ‘Ed’ that Ronald Reagan was capably assisted by (Edwin Meese), who the Moonies were and how one of the handful of leaders the Soviet people enjoyed before the arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev was Konstantin Chernenko. And one doesn’t really need to say it but if you only vaguely know who Margaret Thatcher is, there’s probably very little for you here.”

TOPICAL SATIRICAL PROGRAMME BEING TOPICAL SHOCKER. The rest of the review is alright, though. I guess that if your political consciousness was formed by the show, as mine was, it all makes rather more sense. Thanks for the heads up, James!

[Phil]

>I guess that if your political consciousness was formed by the show, as mine was

It’s funny how growing up with a comedy program can actually influence your entire political view, isn’t it? You had Spitting Image, I had Saturday Night Live (back then the cast was hilarious AND smart)…I mean, as a young boy I’d watch the news with my parents, I’d skim the paper, I’d head out to my father’s shed and listen to he and his buddies discuss current events…but my memories of George Bush Sr. (and, to a lesser extent, Bill Clinton) come largely through the filter of a comedy show.

[Tanya Jones]

It’s odd to think that I could name the key members of government as a child, but find it a lot harder now, even though I read Private Eye (the only real source of political comment and satire at the moment in the UK). Spitting Image made these people real to me, and I absorbed exactly what they were doing and the objections to them. We really do need a modern-day SI; Headknockers (?) seems far too interested in laughing at celebrities, despite there being countless outlets for that sort of thing. Although SI did a bit of that, it’s the political stuff that was really hard-hitting and memorable. You don’t need to know the Presidential staff to understand that Reagan was a populist dumb-ass, which is why ‘The President’s Brain Is Missing’ worked.

[John Hoare]

Headknockers (?)

Headcases, tit-face.

[Tanya Jones]

Get your tags right, wanker.

[Jonsmad]

Speaking of Saturday night live mentioned in this thread. Both Volumes best of’s are out now on DVD and recently Friday Night Live was released, also with Hattie Hayridge on it. I enjoyed Michael Redmond on it who went on to star as Father stone in Father ted. He always had an air of uncomfortableness between him and the audience which he perpetuated I think. I would want to be in a lift with him.

[Author]

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