Friday, September 10, 2021

Peter Cook was realistic about what satire can achieve

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Satire is everywhere. I've been known to write it myself. But what does it achieve?

Peter Cook, the godfather of the satire boom of the Sixties, was a realist on this question.

He once said his own Establishment Club had been inspired by "those wonderful Berlin cabarets which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the second world war".

And the most notable achievement of 30 years of Have I Got News For You has been to help make Boris Johnson prime minister.

3 comments:

nigel hunter said...

Spitting Image.Keeping Johnson in the spotlight? Think about it!?

Phil Beesley said...

Spitting Image marketed great squeaky toys. I gave a 40 year old Ronald Reagan toy to the neighbours' dog and it kept him happy for months. The Spitting Image presentation of David Steel as David Owen's pet unfairly cost a few Liberal seats.

Matt Pennell said...

I'm glad you mention Have I Got News For You because they get REALLY angry if you suggest they've had a hand in Johnson's ascent to power.

Perhaps now he'd have receded from the civic realm, to live out his days as an anonymous buffoon working in a Golf course pro shop or a high end Estate Agent, having been sacked from the Times for lying, were it not for that show . . .