Wednesday, October 13, 2010

That's you, that is

Yes, Mr CCP (and all your loyal army of fenqing trolls), I'm talking to you.

Democratic reform will come to China, one day.  With or without you. Trying to hold back the process indefinitely is futile.  And it makes you look FOOLISH.  [Ah, you see, the thing about dear old Cnut - often forgotten in retelling of the 'legend' - is that he was perfectly well aware of this, and only made this show of trying to command the tide to demonstrate to his courtiers that he wasn't as omnipotent and infallible as they supposed him to be.  That's a lesson the CCP - and its more uncritical enthusiasts - might take on board too.]


For the title reference, see here.

2 comments:

Gary said...

Ha! Never seen that History Today skit before. Brit comedy rocks. How old is that?

Froog said...

I guess that must be from the early '90s, Gary. It's a pair of comedians called Rob Newman and David Baddiel. They broke up as a partnership shortly after this. Baddiel teamed up with another comedian called Frank Skinner, and I think they're still working as a pair to this day, very successful on TV. Newman (the one on the right) was, I think, the more talented, but also the more eccentric; he's lapsed into obscurity (well, no TV work for over a decade, I don't think; I suspect he refuses to work on TV), although I gather he still does some solo standup.

There were quite a few of these History Today sketches - making fun of academic rivalries by staging a would-be very highbrow talk show between the two doddering old professors, who soon degenerate into abusing each other in the idioms of the elementary school playground. I love this - very, very funny.