Alas Smith and Jones – Think Bensonium https://bensonium.com Sight through thought Tue, 06 Jun 2023 22:39:12 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://bensonium.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/NewEYEIcon-100x100.png Alas Smith and Jones – Think Bensonium https://bensonium.com 32 32 Week 53 – The final Sketch: Head to head discussion of the Beatles, Alas Smith and Jones https://bensonium.com/sketch/week-53-the-final-sketch-head-to-head-discussion-of-the-beatles-alas-smith-and-jones/ https://bensonium.com/sketch/week-53-the-final-sketch-head-to-head-discussion-of-the-beatles-alas-smith-and-jones/#respond Thu, 30 Mar 2023 23:00:26 +0000 https://bensonium.com/?post_type=comedy&p=6183 When I started this comedy list I decided I would work on the project for exactly one year. As such this is the final posting for my comedy section. I thought this sketch was worth leaving to the end as it is a very funny take on one of the greatest bands of all time: The Beatles. Obviously the Beatles feature heavily in my Covid Island Discs collection so this sketch seems an appropriate one to bridge the my two collections of comedy and music. Hope these collections bring as much joy to you as they do to me.

]]> https://bensonium.com/sketch/week-53-the-final-sketch-head-to-head-discussion-of-the-beatles-alas-smith-and-jones/feed/ 0 Week 51: Tunnel Contractor, Alas Smith and Jones https://bensonium.com/sketch/week-51-tunnel-contractor-alas-smith-and-jones/ https://bensonium.com/sketch/week-51-tunnel-contractor-alas-smith-and-jones/#respond Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:54 +0000 https://bensonium.com/?post_type=comedy&p=6180 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.

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