A British moon on a British stick!
January 14, 2015 12:55 PM   Subscribe

Comedian Al Murray has decided to stand in the UK General Election against Nigel Farage, leader of right-wing, populist UKIP. His initial appeal to the people of South Thanet is here.

This should be interesting. Guardian link to the story.

Example of Al Murray in character as The Pub Landlord.
posted by Gratishades (20 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is excellent. I'm very much looking forward to the campaign.
posted by knapah at 1:28 PM on January 14, 2015


Black Mirror
posted by gwint at 1:32 PM on January 14, 2015 [3 favorites]


FUKP have pledged to restore the Creme Egg to its original size and recipe, just to link this to another Very Important Political Discussion on the front page.
posted by sobarel at 1:51 PM on January 14, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's interesting that the quote used in the FPP is a nod to his old friends Lee and Herring (well, Herring is a friend, I'm never quite sure what Stewart Lee's attitude to Murray is). I hope it's an indication that Stewart Lee is also going to enter the race as his own well known comedy character "Stewart Lee".
posted by howfar at 2:42 PM on January 14, 2015 [5 favorites]


I may try "blah blah blah blah paradigm blah blah blah dialectical..." at my next meeting!
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:58 PM on January 14, 2015 [3 favorites]


GAME CHANGER
posted by ursus_comiter at 3:08 PM on January 14, 2015


Wow, this wasn't how Al Franken did it.
posted by Dreidl at 3:22 PM on January 14, 2015


I believe Mr Murray is about to find out why you don't wrestle pigs.
posted by fullerine at 3:57 PM on January 14, 2015 [3 favorites]


I believe that Al Murray was at university with Lee and Herring, along with noted tech critic Danny O'Brien (now with the EFF) who used to be Murray's writing partner, and my cousin Claire.
posted by Hogshead at 4:58 PM on January 14, 2015 [2 favorites]


fullerine, I can't see what the downside for Al Murray is. It's not as if he's going to be made to look stupid. At least he's legitimately not taking it seriously, in order to split the dimwitted politician hater vote and steal some of the craven clickbait stories from the people who would like to do enormous harm to the country and its tradition of liberal democracy. Basically, I don't see a way anyone but Farage loses from this. He'll keep his deposit, too.
posted by ambrosen at 5:52 PM on January 14, 2015 [2 favorites]


I think it'll be fun to watch an entertaining comedian without any sensible policies competing in an election with Al Murray.
posted by HoraceH at 8:15 PM on January 14, 2015 [8 favorites]


I don't understand Al Murray. A man who is even more posh and privileged than Farage, who makes his living pretending to be a caricature of a working class man?
Who is Murray's audience? Is it the people he's pretending to be/laughing at, or is it middle class people who want to feel superior? Am I missing the point?
posted by AFII at 1:11 AM on January 15, 2015


Stewart Lee has discussed Al Murray before on tour (at least when I've seen him previously). He thinks it's great that Al Murray has doubled his audience by appealing a) to idiot Little Englanders and b) people who get that it's a character mocking those in the former category.
posted by longbaugh at 1:26 AM on January 15, 2015


As an aside - I don't think it's a class thing so much as a viewpoint. I went to school with the kids of some of the richest people in the UK (and the world) and I currently live on a street that is about as working class as you could ever see. The opinions that Al Murray mocks as The Pub Landlord are *not* working class opinions, not at all. They are the opinions of Little Englanders, and that is a category that spans all class divides.
posted by longbaugh at 1:44 AM on January 15, 2015 [7 favorites]


...caricature of a working class man...

posted by AFII at 1:11 AM on January 15 [+] [!]


I think that's a an over simplification really, and also a bit of a sweeping generalisation about the "working class". The pub landlord is a send up of a very specific character, to wit the small-minded, racist little Englander who still has Princess Dianna commemorative plates hanging on the wall (numbered editions by the Franklin Mint, natch). The kind of person who looks on anything the other side of the English Chanel with suspicion bordering on hatred, and to whom Germany is still synonymous with the Third Reich.

These people, unfortunately, still exist and ridicule seems to be the best way to deal with them. Whether Al Murray does that well is another question.

Arguably Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett from the series Til Death Do Us Part did it first, did it better and, given when it ran, more courageously.
posted by fatfrank at 4:29 AM on January 15, 2015 [1 favorite]


Interesting how humourless and angry the UKIP responses in the Youtube comments are.
posted by lucien_reeve at 4:48 AM on January 15, 2015


These people, unfortunately, still exist and

...have won 2 seats in parliament over the course of the last year.
posted by ambrosen at 4:53 AM on January 15, 2015


Well, "won" in the sense of getting their sitting Tory MPs to defect.
posted by sobarel at 5:12 AM on January 15, 2015


Interesting how humourless and angry the UKIP responses in the Youtube comments are.

Looooooow hanging fruit there...
posted by longbaugh at 6:07 AM on January 15, 2015


I think it'll be fun to watch an entertaining comedian without any sensible policies competing in an election with Al Murray.

Ridiculous comedy buffoon to stand against Al Murray’s Pub Landlord
posted by naoko at 1:38 PM on January 15, 2015 [3 favorites]


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