Palace apologises for Sir Lenny Henry gaffe

From the BBC

Buckingham Palace has apologised for giving a knighthood to shit comic Lenny Henry instead of TV cook Ainsley Harriott.

The gaffe was picked up by a number of viewers, among them Sanjeev Bhaskar, who suggested the palace had "misunderstood comedy".

Buckingham Palace blamed the mistake on "Philip getting a bit confused".

"NAACP leader accused of pretending to be a clown, according to her parents"

From NYmag:

Rachel Dolezal, the head of Spokane, Washington's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Circus Performers (NAACP) and a clown studies professor at Eastern Washington University, is under investigation after her own parents publicly alleged that she has been "disguising herself" as a clown for many years.

In interviews this week, Dolezal's parents said their 37-year-old daughter is actually of Czech, Swedish and German descent, and that she has managed to fool colleagues and public by fastidiously painting her face and putting on an exaggerated yellow wig before leaving the house.

Earlier this year, Dolezal posted a Facebook photo of herself with circus entertainers she identified as her parents, but on Thursday Larry and Ruthanne Dolezal produced a Montana birth certificate and childhood photos to prove she's their daughter.

During an interview this week, KXLY4's Jeff Humphrey confronted Dolezal about the photo, asking if her father is really a clown. "I don't understand the question," Dolezal responded. "I did tell you [that man in the picture] is my dad." Humphrey asked bluntly, "Are your parents white?" and Dolezal jumped into a small car whose wheels promptly fell off.

KXLY4 was interviewing her about the eight hate crimes she claims she's been the target of in the past few years. The network could only find three police reports - including two incidents where somebody slapped a custard pie into her face and one of being hit over the head with an oversized mallet - and there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. Some have alleged that Dolezal willingly took part in the incidents.

Bad Comedy

From Rufus Hound's blog

The NHS is the one of the single greatest achievements of any civilisation, ever, anywhere in the history of the world. Great Britain decided that being broken wasn’t your fault. If bits of you got smashed off, started going wrong or gave up entirely, it would do it’s best to stick them back on, put them right or find you a new one. It essentially made being healthy a human right. 

Up until 1948, only wealthy people had access to doctors. Your likelihood of surviving disease was based on your income. In other words, if you were poor, you were fucked. Then came World War Two and with it a generation of young Britons who died in foreign fields, fought for queen and country, opposed fascism and sacrificed nearly everything.

The only way through it was for everyone to pull together – prince and pauper, dustman and duke. The sense of nationhood that sprang from this tragedy, the sense that “we’re all in this together”, meant that within three years of the war finishing it was decided that the state would cover the healthcare costs of its citizens. That, regardless of your own personal wealth, you could expect medical attention as and when you needed it.

My tips to Rufus Hound is that if you're going to do satire, it's important to throw a few gags to tip people off.

Just saying things like the "single greatest achievement of any civilisation, ever" don't make it obvious. Something like "inhabitants of planets orbiting Betelgeuse see the NHS as the envy of the galaxy" work much better. And "only wealthy people had access to doctors" would be much better as "wealthy people would visit their doctors suffering from stomach upsets having had a couple of grilled peasants for lunch". And I'd also throw something in about how the evil Tories opposed any sort of insurance system as they wanted to turn poor people into glue.

The Ship of Theseus

This seems appropriate to post in honour of the actor, Roger Lloyd-Pack, who passed away today. Not only gave us the unforgettable Trigger, but also Owen in The Vicar of Dibley. And for Potter fans, Barty Crouch Sr. He was one of those great character actors who inhabited the roles he played that generally go unsung compared to often, less talented stars.

To anyone who doesn't remember it, there's a moment in Only Fools and Horses where Trigger gets an award for keeping his broom for 20 years. Then remarks that it's had 17 new heads and 14 new handles. It's funny because of course, what seems like a great achievement isn't really.

But there's a philosophical question in this too, that was originally asked long ago by Plutarch when referring to replacing all the timbers on the Ship of Theseus: if you replace all the timbers on a ship over time (or the head and handle on a broom), is it still the same ship?

Proper Gearchange. Selecta!

"Proper Crimbo" by Bo Selecta is awesome. The chorus is basically "This Corrosion" by Sisters of Mercy speeded up, and the rest is a complete mess (like "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" or "Jingle Bells" by Crazy Frog). And it is full of swearing.

The icing on the cake is at 2 mins 45 secs, when he sings "Can I get a geeaar... change" with a full tone gear change halfway through:

Is it immoral to pay a stand-up comedian cash-in-hand?

Fun Online Polls: Britain's least funny comedian & make up your own question

Thank you to the 218 people who took part in last week's Fun Online Poll, results as follows:

Who is Britain's least funny comedian? (Multiple votes allowed)

Marcus Brigstocke - 123 votes
Jo Brand - 84 votes
Lenny Henry - 64 votes
Jeremy Hardy - 63 votes
Dawn French - 47 votes
Mark Thomas - 38 votes
Lee Evans - 37 votes
Phil Jupitus - 36 votes
Harry Hill - 30 votes
Harry Enfield - 18 votes

So Brigstocke aced it, leading strongly from start to finish. I must admit I'd never heard of Brigstocke before, but having watched a couple of his clips on YouTube I agree that he is not funny in the slightest. Brand easily coasted into second place and Henry and Hardy battled for third place throughout, with Henry pipping Hardy at the post.
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Make up your own question for this week's Fun Online Poll, I've provided you with the answers.

Fun Online Polls: EU & Britain's least funny comedian

Thanks to everybody who took part in last week's Fun Online Poll, results as follows:

What would you have done in David Cameron's position?

Exercised your veto - 78%
Nodded through the proposed EU Treaty changes - 3%
Other, please specify - 19%

Good, we are all pretty much agreed on that one.

The irony is that the main reason why Cameron refused to co-operate was because he and his banker mates don't want to have a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). Now, the FTT is just about the stupidest kind of tax you can invent (it's like Stamp Duty), it will either distort the way all these payments are currently processed or just not raise very money money (to be collected by persons unknown and spent on purposes unknown), and the FTT will certainly not dampen down credit and land price bubbles or discourage government deficit spending, which are the things which got us into this mess.

I just wonder, do the Eurocrats really not know this? Why did they give Cameron such a good excuse for refusing to play ball? And why is everybody making such a big fuss about some proposed Treaty changes not being nodded straight through? Didn't we have a new-ish Treaty/constitution a couple of years ago? Etc etc. The whole thing is a mystery to me, but that's all the more reason to stay out.
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And lo, to this week's Fun Online Poll. I have sifted through your nominations here and here and those who were nominated by three or more people go through to the final round.

Cast your votes (you can vote for as many as you like) for Britain's least funny comedian here or use the widget in the sidebar.