After 10 years a joke can become a reality

Sometimes I just don't know. Comedy writers sit down and try to be ridiculous and then a few years later the thing they were trying to be funny about because it seems so unrealistic becomes a reality. The Simsons in the season 10 episode, Make room for Lisa, have the TV in the background with a stupid reality TV show called "When Animals Attack Magicians" :

Magician: Pick a card, any… (noise of animal attacking) Aaaaaagh!!!

Roll forward 5 years and in the wake of the attack on the Las Vegas magician, Roy Horn, of Siegfried & Roy, by a tiger they used in the act. NBC couldn't believe their luck when they were able to secure the rights and produce a show where Roy discusses the attack and his recovery in Siegfried & Roy : The Miracle. The joke has become a reality.

The same thing happened again with Meet the Parents, there is a whole lot of humour behind the fact that Robert DeNiros character trains his cat to use the toilet instead of a kitty litter. Type "toilet trained cat" into google and see what you get (or this link) not only are people doing it, people are making money off it, there are YouTube videos as well. Again the joke is now a reality.

Finally there was the Father Ted episode, Flight into Terror, when they feature the Virgin Mary Tape dispenser, which tells you how much tape to you and "God Bless You!". Stupid ridiculous, right? Is it much difference than this Virgin Mary USB flash drive, with beating LED heart. I especially like the :

"Oh Maria, Keep my data safe"

which is inscribed into the halo. All it needs now is a button that tells you how much space you have left and "God Bless you!"

D'Officials - No Hoodies!

In Ireland there are two constructs, "The Man" and "A boy", that are used by parents to corral their kids in. "A boy" is usually a person that got himself injured doing something stupid and is used as a warning to other kids, "A boy broke his legs climbing over those rocks", or "A boy almost had his finger cut off climbing in that window". (There is a window in the primary school of Dungeagan in Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry and I was that boy that people get warned about).

"The Man" however is the marginally empowered person that flexed it when ever he can. You meet them all the time when you go through metal detectors in airports and they take away nail clippers, or the security guards that tell you you can't take pictures of a building. The comedian's John Kenny and Pat Shortt, also know as D'Unbelievables, capture the phenomenon excellently at the start of the performance on D'Video :

I was reminded of "The Man" while reading Bruce Schneier blog, where in the UK a four year old girl was asked to remove her hoodie for vague "security" reasons:

"She had her hood up on her cardigan, a young lad came across and asked her to take her hood down because of security."

When Ms Lewis learned what had happened, she spoke to the worker. She said: "He said 'It's policy, they don't allow any hoodies in there.'"

While it would be great in society to slap these upside the head and tell them to stop acting the maggot that usually doesn't help so we'll always be stuck with them. Here's another example of "The Man" from Father Ted :

Irish Racism? or just culture.

Tir Na Ri
Originally uploaded by netdance

I don't get too topical or political most of the time but my interest has been piqued by the recent view of Kevin Myers on immigration and racism in Ireland into Ireland over the past 5 years Ireland is experiencing huge immigration with new cultures living side by side with the existing one. Some people don't like this and it not uncommon for names to be thrown about. However the call of racism may not be entirely accurate. Long before Ireland became a country people wanted to immigrate into it was pretty much full of just Irish people, there were some exceptions, God Bless Phil Lynott usually credited as Ireland first black man.

Back then, and even now it was not enough to just be Irish. As a Cork/Dublin hybrid I have experienced the Irish life style of the "Eternal Blow In", I'm not bitter mind but it did give me some perspective on the country that loves to make a lot out of people's difference, even if it is just your accent. I have done a fair bit of travelling, a few years in the states and currently residing in Sydney, Australia. In that time I have met many travelling or resident Paddies. Guaranteed, every time, less than 5 minutes into the first introductory conversation with an Irish person the question comes up : "Where are you from?" and it is always to place you, to put you in some county related box, or if your are from the same county what part of it. It is never enough to just be Irish and be done with it. I know/knew an Irish girl that made assumption about you based on how well your county was doing the either the gaelic football or the hurling. After travelling for years my accent has been cleaned up (some times kicking and screaming), I no longer say "Turty Fuhve" after been ribbed too much it has become "Thirty Five" which is even more source for the title of "Eternal Blow-In" any time I return home. Even comedians get great mileage out of making fun of people from different parts of the country, Tommy Tiernans assessment of Cork people while funny isn't too far of the mark as covered in this segment from his Cracked DVD:



I have made the observation amongst friends that you only really become Irish once you leave Ireland until then you better have picked a place to be from. A lot has been made of the Irish being very friendly and a land of a Hundred Thousand welcomes (Céad míle fáilte). While working with a french co-op student in Ireland 8 years ago he pointed out to me that people he worked with were very friendly when out for a few jars in the pub but the next day they would barely talk to him.

So now here we are almost one complete decade into the 21st Century, the Ireland of today is not the one I grew up with 30 years ago. Back then it was the Dubs against the Culchies, north side versus south side, Kerry versus Cork, Munster versus Leinster etc. on and on. Face it, we (the Irish) were just looking for difference so that we could break away into little Travis Bickle tribes and hate "Them" for being different. So now into this incestuous maelstrom walk immigrants that actual are different, they speak different, they look different, they have different religion, different culture. They don't stand a chance against the old guard. They don't have to work hard to find a difference so that they can make fun or, heaven forbid, hate "Them".

To see how far we have come or have yet to go I would direct the reader (any left?) to the first episode of the third season of Father Ted, "Are You Right There, Father Ted" . Part of the hilarity was that there is a Chinatown section on Craggy Island. Now it doesn't seem to too far off base.