Private Eye
November 7, 2001 5:26 AM   Subscribe

Private Eye - Britain's funniest magazine, is 40 years old. The Royal Family wishes them well
posted by scotty (14 comments total)
 
More good news regarding the Eye is here.
posted by chrimble at 5:33 AM on November 7, 2001


In the world, methinks. Thanks for front-paging this, scotty - I'd mentioned it before but take the opportunity to exhort all Onion-lovers to subscribe. Or at least check the website every fortnight - even though it leaves out all the funniest bits.

Is it my impression or is today's(and last week's) Onion way below standard, with the exception of the Steak/Terrorists skit?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:36 AM on November 7, 2001


Not that anyone will care...but I had a piece published in Private Eye in 1963 (issue 35). It is, alas, no longer available.
posted by scotty at 6:10 AM on November 7, 2001


The company I work for had a senior VP named Coleman who used to mangle metaphors a la Colemanballs, a fact that did not go unmentioned during beer busts.
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:11 AM on November 7, 2001


Wow, scotty - I care. Did you get to meet Peter Cook? He's one of my heroes. Perhaps the funniest man who ever lived. The Derek and Clive records have made me laugh constantly, without fail, for over 20 years. What a pity you have no email address; else I'd trouble you something rotten.
In 1963. What a great year. Remember Larkin's poem?:

Annus Mirabilis

Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(Which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP.

Up till then there'd only been
A sort of bargaining,
A wrangle for a ring,
A shame that started at sixteen
And spread to everything.

Then all at once the quarrel sank
Everyone felt the same,
And every life became
A brilliant breaking of the bank,
A quite unlosable game.

So life was never better than
In nineteen sixty-three
(Though just too late for me) -
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP.

Philip Larkin
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:34 AM on November 7, 2001


Happy Birthday Lord Gnome!
posted by salmacis at 6:36 AM on November 7, 2001


Wow, scotty - I care. Did you get to meet Peter Cook?

My piece was a contest that William Rushton and I devised. at the PE office. I had an old photo of a Polish lady during the war who was the image of Harold Macmillan. The contest asked "Where is he?". He had been out of sight for a while. I believe Peter Cook was at the office but I didn't speak with him. My fee was 5 pounds!
posted by scotty at 6:42 AM on November 7, 2001


Willie Rushton? My god Scotty, you're comedy royalty.
posted by Summer at 7:45 AM on November 7, 2001


private eye has also been a good source for war-balls:

"Dear Ross, we should not see anthrax as yet another blow to the economy in the wake of the terrorist attacks. Anthrax will assist the economy by giving us a second chance to move the mechanism of business from offline to online, thereby increasing productivity... Everyone seems obsessed by the negative, and no one seems to be focusing on the positive side... There is good news in all of this, and I challenge anyone who thinks otherwise."
LOUIS HALPERN, CEO and founder of edesigns.co.uk quoted on the silicon.com weekly round-up
posted by asok at 8:53 AM on November 7, 2001


So, farwell then, Chairman Mao...
posted by vbfg at 10:40 AM on November 7, 2001


"The Needle of the Eye" from The Guardian: "For 40 years, Private Eye has enraged and amused. As it enters its fifth decade, can the magazine keep pace with the newer, darker satire of TV's Brass Eye - or is it trapped in its own tweedy past? "
posted by Carol Anne at 12:12 PM on November 7, 2001


The Needle of the Eye, take two!
posted by Carol Anne at 12:14 PM on November 7, 2001


By way of a birthday gift, Private Eye won damages in a libel case for the first time yesterday.
posted by liam at 12:16 PM on November 7, 2001


I give up. It's a conspiracy! Look for the Sunday, October 7, 2001 Observer/Guardian review. It's worth the hunt.

http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,564399,00.html
posted by Carol Anne at 12:20 PM on November 7, 2001


« Older The BBC   |   Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments