One of the great things about Monty Python was they often captured the strange foibles of our humanity by writing them large in their brilliant comedy movies. "Life Of Brian" was no exception. While this movie was controversial at the time, because a substantial number of people saw it as antichristian, the movie was full of little titbits of humour that mocks the way we all sometimes behave as fallen humans. I particularly enjoy this little sketch as it reminds me of an unhelpful habit, which often seems to plague the more left wing among us, of splitting off from one another. The most painful example of this, at the time of writing this post, is the MP Dianne Abbott publicly announcing that she thinks Keir Starmer (the current leader of the UK labour party as of May 2022) should resign if it is found that his takeout dinner with Hartlepool campaigners broke the law in relation to the lockdown rules that were place in the UK at the time the takeout occurred (April 2021). While I guess her comments are technically fair, given the constant infighting in the labour party between the more left and central wings of the party, it does often feel as though both factions of the party would rather the Tories were in power than the labour party of which they are a part if it is the wrong faction of the party.

This video is a brief compilation of the final Blackadder series which was set in World War I. Although at one level it is very amusing, I guess, as is so often with humour, it is funny because it is only a relatively thin parody of the utter stupid strategy that the British ruling army class employed in World War I.

This is quite a funny sketch with Harry Enfield playing the Queen. Not much to say on this one. Best just to watch and enjoy it. I wonder if the real queen would find this little sketch funny?

So it has been a tumultuous week in British politics which has resulted in comedy sketches being released left, right and centre as the politician make a fool of themselves giving the comedians plenty of material that is often a little hard to parody. Nerine Skinner has been parodying Liz Truss now for some months so of course she was always going to release a spoof of Liz's final speech as PM which of course was full of all the grace and humility you might expect from such a high calibre leader.

In the spirit of Private Eye's "Separated from birth" section below I have placed Liz's final speech under Liv's final speech. You the reader will have to work out which is which.

Liz Truss Leaving Speech 25^th of October 2022

Liv Struss Leaving Speech 25^th of October 2022

This compilation of sketches parodies certain modern work environments where everyone competes for patronage from the alpha male that occupies some senior position in their company. As with so many workplaces, there is always the poor Declan who never can find a path into the in crowd no matter what juicy information titbit he brings his boss.

Armstrong and Miller in their comedy series often ran the same sketches for several weeks in a row developing the theme each time as this compilation demonstrates. However, this series of sketches has quite an amusing punchline to it which is the subject of next week's comedy post

So Philomena Cunk aka (Diane Morgan) is a bit of an acquired taste. The concept of the character is that of someone with very little education producing a documentary. The series covers many varied topics including history, science, philosophy, music and politics. In this particular episode, she explores the computer and the history of its development. Part of her USP is to ask experts in the field rather basic questions which sometimes can almost seem profound in their simplicity (or stupidity) although of course, in this context, it is for comedic effect. In some ways, it reminds me of the ancient philosopher Socrates who was said to upset the learned men of his time by constantly asking why. The harsh reality, of course, is that by constantly asking "why" one is led to what is known as the infinite regress where we all are forced to the limits of human knowledge and left with that uncomfortable realisation that none of us really understand at all the strange reality in which we happen to find ourselves.

One of my favourite shows on TV in the 80s was Alas Smith and Jones. Thankfully I also had the pleasure of seeing them in concert when they toured Australia. This sketch goes all the way back to when the Channel Tunnel was under construction and is a classic dig at two particular weaknesses in English culture: 1) poor upper management and 2) terrible workmanship. Sadly if you spend any time living in the UK you will experience both. While there are great trades people in the UK they are sadly not in the majority. Rather a sizeable number are absolute cowboys who do terrible work if they ever complete it in the first place.

Likewise the standard of British management in my experience can also be pretty poor. I have now worked in universities and for both small and large companies and for some mysterious reason the more dysfunctional and incompetent a person is the more likely it seems that they will end up rising to a very senior position. I guess this phenomenon is so common that academics have even tried to give it a name. The Peter Principle was first proposed in 1969 in a semi-satirical book by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull and was actually based on Peter's research into the operations of hierarchical organizations. Yet I think the modified version of this principle, first proposed by the author of the Dilbert cartoons (Scott Adams) is even closer to the truth. The Peter principle states that individuals in an organisation are promoted to the point where they reach a level of incompetence that prevents them from being promoted further while the Dilbert principle goes one step further stating that individuals are promoted because of their incompetence.