Showing posts with label Steve Punt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Punt. Show all posts

Sunday, 25 September 2016

A Modest Letter



In fairness - and following on from both of the last two posts...

This morning's Broadcasting House also feature a satirical squib from The Now Show's Steve Punt that inevitably outraged the Corbynistas on Twitter....

....at least one of whom chose - in their usual "kinder, gentler" way - to rhyme Steve's surname in a James Naughtie-like fashion, whilst not forgetting to add the word 'Tory' in front of it.

In some respects, Mr Punt's joke - a 'draft letter' - could be seen as being on any Labour 'moderate' who (Sarah Champion-like) goes crawling back to Jeremy Corbyn for re-admittance to Labour's shadow cabinet (having previously resigned), especially now, in the light of his latest internal triumph. But (and this might not be mutually contradictory!) all the biting bits of Steve's satire were at the expense of Mr Corbyn, his cause and his supporters, and there was a very striking (and obvious) undercurrent of 'Blairite' messaging too. 

Here's a very brief sample:
By now I hope you can see that I have been cruelly misrepresented by the sinister forces of the Establishment that have conspired to prevent socialist revolution by brainwashing the voters into consistently not voting for it for the last 71 years. 
You may notice that in the paragraph where I ask the question, 'Can a man who openly despises the military, the financial sector and the concept of 'profit' be put in charge of a trading nation with NATO membership and a service sector providing a third of the tax base?', the anonymous hackers have then deleted the second sentence, 'Nobody but a tool of the capitalist system would ask such a question, denying (as it does) the inevitable triumph of the workers' revolution.
 As you can see, Steve Punt wasn't quite as subtle as James Naughtie there. 

Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Steve Cun..er...Punt



A new series of The 3rd Degree began on Radio 4 this week. 

It's the university-based quiz show that pits students against lecturers and its host is Steve Punt from The Now Show. 

Now, I will say that I enjoyed it, as ever. I especially liked the bits where I got the answers that neither the students nor the dons got. I felt insufferably superior as a result. Then they talked higher mathematics and I felt thoroughly ashamed of myself again. 

My point, however, is the predictable one (for this blog) about Radio 4 comedy. 

Our Steve began the programme by naming four famous alumni of York University. They were Harriet Harman, Peter Hitchens, Christine Hamilton and Harry Enfield. And obviously Steve was going to be 'Radio 4 humorous', sarcastic even, about them...

...and given that Harriet Harman was among them I'd have very much hoped he was! 

(Everyone on blogs like ours loves a good Harriet Harman joke!!)

Except, of course, this was 'Radio 4 comedy' and Harriet isn't to be joked about on Radio 4 - unlike, of course, Peter Hitchens of OMG The Daily Heil:

Here's how Steve Punt's introduction ran here:
Famous alumni span the political divide including, as they do, former Labour cabinet minister Harriet Harman and professional right-wing fulminator and columnist Peter Hitchins.
The next punchline mocked Christine Hamilton and "disgraced Tory MP and UKIP wannabe Neil Hamilton". (Harry survived as a result).

I think that pretty much sums up Radio 4 comedy for ever and eternity.