By Jack Lesgrin
Three election reflections
One: a full list of candidates is available in…this interview
In the interests of all underdogs and Count Binface, electoral law should be changed so that the media, when talking to one candidate, are required to list the names and parties of all candidates. Currently, they get out of it with the “a full list of candidates is available on our website” disclaimer. Mr A Rose, of the Labour Party and Mr T Ree, of the Conservatives lap up their prime time local or national media exposure, but what about the minnow parties, the independents, the Monster Raving Loonies and Binfaces? In an election, all candidates should be equal.
Two: pop the balloon to expose an inverse emperor’s new clothes
Last week a huge Prime Ministerial head filled purely with hot air floated above Hartlepool. Stage-managed photos followed on the front pages the following day of the corporeal Prime Ministerial head with the balloon above. Can you imagine if any other PM had tried such a stunt? It’s doubtful that the media would have run the photos and they would certainly have penned scathing stories about narcissistic personality disorder. This new abnormal is an inverse emperor’s new clothes. Rather than the observing masses staying schtum for fear of the opprobrium of calling out the leader’s nakedness, past leaders must now be realising that all those ‘good chap’ rules, PR rules, or indeed rules rules, didn’t actually exist. Just think what they could have got away with, or more importantly, achieved, had they ignored the rules.
Three: out of the mouths of vox pops
The best moment of post-election analysis was on the BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme when Lord Mandelson recounted what a Hartlepool voter had told him. “Sort yourselves out. You picked the wrong brother and you ended up with Corbyn, so that’s goodbye to you. When you’ve sorted yourselves out, we’ll look at you again.” It had a certain simplicity and was entirely correct. It reminded me of those moments when the man or woman on the street captures the public’s mood. Remember Brenda from Bristol back in April 2017, whose exasperation on hearing that Theresa May had called an election went viral. “You’re joking? Not another one. Oh for God’s sake, honestly, I can’t stand this. There’s too much politics going on at the moment.” Bearing in mind what came afterwards, she had a point.
Social ‘meania’
“Social media enables and encourages meanness” is hardly a “man bites dog” headline, but my hunch is that the sheer volume of nastiness perpetrated on social media has caused a degree of acceptance and fatigue among us. We (wrongly) hardly bat an eyelid at nastiness or worse in the digital world that we’d simply not tolerate were it to happen on the street. More insidious is that bullying, mocking or worse behaviour is often presented, tonally, as being nothing more than a witty aside. That’s why there was something unsettling about ‘comedian’ Olaf Falafel’s tweet last Wednesday in which he responded to a photo of President Biden kneeling in the living room of President Carter and his wife, by writing “Gottle of geer”. This phrase has come to represent ventriloquism and the ‘joke’ was that the former First Lady Rosalynn Carter appeared small next to the President, who’s right hand couldn’t be seen behind the chair. This mean-spirited, nasty line mocked their appearance during what was no doubt a special day, seeking to laugh at, not with them. Mr Falafel’s followers seemed to have fully bought into the ‘cloak of comic decency’ granted by the idea that this was just a joke: “Hahahaha” chirped comedian @MattForde. “I’m wondering how any camera angle on earth could produce this hilarious picture” opined @grannyfan, while @michellebenato thanked Falafel for her “first guffaw of the day”. Only one of the replies seemed to question the ‘joke’ (@Voodoo_Roy) with a “mate”. Even the BBC wrote an online article headlined ‘Biden Carter: what’s going on in this picture’, noting that the photo had “sparked much mirth and amused comments on social media.”
Social media japery is akin to the crowds that assembled when someone was being picked on in school. Group mentality takes over and people can feel a thrill in joining in with the bullying, especially when there are no consequences because the victim can’t answer back. The cloak of comic decency is worn by others too, and if they also happen to have a ‘National Treasure’ badge to wear, such as Matt Lucas, then the illusion is even more powerful. Matt Lucas, you ask? Yes indeed.
He tweets out a “Good Morning!” many days, in the form of a video of some 1970s or 1980s Saturday night TV performance, or an old advert (I’ve no idea how he does this without breaching copyright). He doesn’t pass comment, but those people replying to his tweets do. They laugh, mock and even scorn, perhaps feeling that they have a licence granted by the cloak of comic decency. When I watch one of Lucas’s “Good Morning!” videos, all I see is a child singing for the first time on TV, or a dance troupe doing their best, or a celeb singing their heart out. Others see ‘humour’, but what I see in their cackling is bullying. Don’t get me started about “Journalist, radio host, TV rent-a-gob” Bev Turner’s awful tweet this time last year from last May – “I think we can assume Nicky Morgan has done herself a fringe trim. Lockdown is the gift that keeps on giving…” To me, social media is the gift that keeps on giving people a licence to be nasty, while thinking they’re just being funny or just passing the time.