I can’t stand immigrants who come here from England, and after SEVEN GENERATIONS, still only speak English. Anglos need to assimilate and learn to hold a conversation in the local Indigenous language.
I can’t stand immigrants who come here from England, and after SEVEN GENERATIONS, still only speak English. Anglos need to assimilate and learn to hold a conversation in the local Indigenous language.
Wow, homophobic AND racist slurs in the same sketch.
Yeah, that’s why you don’t find it under their official account. They aren’t terribly proud of that one nowadays. Back at the time they did it, there was FAR less awareness and sensitivity regarding marginalized groups so that kind of thing was extremely common. If they hadn’t come around on the topic, then I wouldn’t be so casual about it. I don’t think they actually believe those things, but were just playing exaggerated caricatures of how Aussies were perceived by the British at the time.
Hmmm… well I certainly see your point, and I agree it would be a good sketch if they were just playing exaggerated Aussie characters. But I actually think there’s more going on here. This sketch is taking place in a university philosophy department. These are professors who specialise in Hegel and logical positivism and they’re willing to have discussions about Marx and Kropotkin even though they disagree with them. So it’s actually a subversion of the trope, where the characters are supposed to look like dumb bogans, but are actually intellectuals. So under that reading, I would expect them to in fact be rather open-minded and left-leaning, while appearing regressive. So a joke like “No harassing the poofta members of staff” would, I think, be more true to the joke they were actually telling. They’re using regressive language with progressive sentiment, like the rest of the sketch.
So… can a poorly executed joke ruin a satire of conservatives? I think it can. I think if you can’t thread the needle and stick the landing on such sensitive topics, then there should be a backlash and the sketch should be “cancelled”.
Honestly, you’ve put way more thought into it than I have. The fact they don’t have it on their official account would imply they might agree with you, however.
I’ll admit that being of an age (Gen X) straddling both generations, might make me more tolerant and willing to let such stuff go than the younger generations of today probably would. I tend to remember the skit probably a bit too fondly because my older brother loves Monty Python and this was one of the many skits he could recite by heart. I, of course, looked up to him as a kid {5 years my senior), and had no clue about what those words meant until a few decades later when I finally stumbled upon a discussion of the skit on the Internet.
My apologies if that’s still too offensive for your tastes. I can understand that, even if I don’t personally feel it. If it were something they were still promoting today, then I’d probably feel a lot less comfortable with it myself.
I kinda like the fact that so many old things are no longer acceptable today, because it’s a sign of our progress. We’ve grown as a society. I hope that in 100 years, I’m considered a far-right extremist by modern standards.
If we put in effort to be understanding of the views of the past, I think that’s going to hold us back, stunt our societal development. I like analysing old myths from a modern point of view, I like constructing new meanings. I’m one of those technology geeks who really likes seeing new inventions debut and become commonplace, but for memes. For the engines of society. I’m a political technology geek. I say throw out yesterday’s garbage and usher in a gayer and more socialist future.
I’m fairly progressive myself, while my brother is unfortunately pretty conservative (I suspect in large part due to a mixture of events in his life, and the external influences they led him into, but that’s a story I’m not going to get into). We don’t talk anymore.
I think perhaps you’re too eager to forget the past, however. There’s a reason for the saying “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” I’m not intellectual enough to say how much that applies to the situation we find ourselves in today, but I’d be surprised if there weren’t something along those lines having contributed to this mess.
Even if you just look at the past in a manner similar to what you just did - a measure of the progress we’ve made - I think it can provide valuable perspective, as well as a foundation to build upon.
Oh, yeah, I also really value history. And I think there is a very strong historical allegory to the modern day: the 1930s. Specifically, modern America and 30s Germany. But that’s an equation thousands of others have amply made, so I’ll move on.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, most people view the past as this untouchable, sorta divine thing, to put up on a pedestal and look at without judgement. You know, “the good old days”, “it was a different time”. But I want to put the past under a microscope, pull off its legs, and see how it ticks. Like what I did with the Monty Python sketch, I analysed it from the point of view of a comedian or a writer, and pointed out how well they managed to stick to their artistic vision, or at least what I maybe think their artistic vision should be. I’m engaging in a dialogue with it, you could say. So yeah, I don’t want to be understanding, I want to understand. I want to be like a scientist, not like ChatGPT’s idea of a therapist. I want to use empathy to create knowledge, not use empathy to forestall action.