Friday, October 20, 2006

The Politics of Cringe

The comedy of cringe has been popular in recent years - The Office, Extras and Curb Your Enthusiasm (the latter being genuis but I can't stomach more than two episodes at a time). But now, cringe seems to be spilling over into politics.

Perhaps politians have always been this bad and I've not noticed, but I really do think they are getting worse. Previously they might have been bigots/buffoons/pompous/liars etc, but I'm sure they weren't so downright embarrassing.

Bush is an obvious culprit, but then everything about him is wrong. The 'Yo, Blair" greeting was particularly cringe-inducing. Blair has had his moments too, but now David Cameron is at with full force.

Yesterday, he met with the rapper Rhymefest for 'tea' to discuss the negative effects of hiphop. Probably as much a publicity stunt on the part of Mr Fest as Mr Cameron, but how embarrassing is he? Apparently he like 'Stan' by Eminem because he can hear its message and Mr Fest invited him out clubbing with him! He only declined this offer because of his busy diary. Can anyone really imagine him in an RnB or rap playing club? He would have had to swap his trademark Converse for Nike or Adidas for a start. Is anyone really taken in by this?

I've not felt this embarrassed for someone since my dad threatened to wear jeans and a denim shirt to my parents' evening when I was thirteen.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Agree 100% with Northern Monkey. Why, why, why do they bother? It's not exactly imrpressing anyone, least of all inspiring them to vote.