You'd think a day when it was announced that "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps" was finally being cancelled would be a time of wild celebrations around the world, uniting all peoples and cultures, but even had it been announced that all the tapes were going to be wiped so it could never be repeated and that everyone involved was to be imprisoned for life and everyone who watched it was to be lobotomised, then that wouldn't have been enough to cheer anyone up for more than a few seconds.
The full extent of the Norwegian tragedy became apparent and the ripping apart of people's lives turns out to be all down to someone whose right wing zeal and hatred of multi-culturism makes him somehow conclude that the best course of action is to blow up and shoot his fellow countrymen. If that's a person who loves their country and their race, then I'd hate to see what an unpatriotic person would think was justified. The newspapers whose front pages openly blamed Al Qaeda had to backtrack and reposition and declare that this wasn't the actions of a Muslim Fundamentalist, but just a deluded nutcase - as if the people who fly planes into buildings and blow themselves up in marketplaces are all rational and sane. This guy, it seems is a Christian fundamentalist and it would, of course be ludicrous to start tarring all people of that religion as potential terrorists that you would be scared to sit next to on the plane or to organise a protest if one of their number suggested the building of a church two blocks away from the bombing in Oslo. Will that stop people making such comments about Muslims when deluded people of that religion blow things up? No it won't. And yet ironically it seems possible that this man's hatred of Muslims has led him to blow up his own country in a way that he presumably imagines the people he hates want to do. He no more represents Christianity or Norway than the 9/11 terrorists represent Islam.
Kudos to Norway for the dignified and measured way it has responded to this outrage. I hope it will make their democracy stronger. The magnitude of what this man has done does not detract from the fact that he is just a dick. A dick who represents nothing but himself and other dicks. A dick who attempts to justify his actions via political and religious invective, but who ultimately, just like all the others, just wants to destroy.
And then as we were all failing to come to terms with that madness came the news that Amy Winehouse had died. Just horribly sad to see any 27 year old self-destruct and in contrast to the death of Michael Jackson whose death prompted a barrage of jokey comments on Twitter, on my feed at least there was nothing but dulled hearts and sadness. Though some saw it as inevitable, I think the shock that was felt showed that most people did hope that she would turn her life around. Some thought that her arguably self-inflicted death was nothing compared to what had happened in Norway but a) it's not a competition where you can only feel sorry for the worse incident (in which case surely Somalia eclipses Norway, so what are you doing mourning the wrong thing?) and b) any young person dying is something we should be sad about. I blogged a few years ago
about seeing Amy on an old Jonathan Ross show and feeling sad about how she had changed. We've seen her decline and the effects that fame and bad choices can have. It seemed too sad to be searching for the jokes on this one. Though I did wonder just how far the Murdochs would go to get News International off the front pages. Surely not this far.
But life and laughs must go on, at least until Rupert Murdoch reads that last bit and sends his goons to deal with me in a non-suspicious way and I was gigging in Hammersmith.
I finally got to see Catie Wilkins show. I've been previewing with her a lot, but usually working on my own show while she's on. She is one of many newer acts coming up to do their first full hour in Edinburgh and this one is charming, funny and assured (though I think she's a bit harsh on her boyfriend).
Go see it.
My own show went well, though I was recording the show on my iPhone and at one point accidentally knocked it off the chair on to the floor. I think it was clear to all what I love most in the world. I was so concerned for the well being of my beloved smart phone that I almost dropped my microphone in horror and when I saw the case of the phone was cracked I told the audience that I hoped they'd understand if my performance was a bit off for the rest of the show. It was quite a shock.
Despite cutting some stuff I was still 15 minutes over my hour time slot, so there's some work to be done in the last five previews (plus three other gigs where I'll be doing bits and pieces. Come and see me if you're in
Oxford, Cambridge, Colchester or Cardiff (Newcastle gig sold out.
