History and Culture | Age of Division

Eurovision:
I'm Never Giving Up

Initially a colloquial term related to psychiatry used to characterise a confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases as used in speech. Now also used as a criticism or insult against such personalities as political personalities as Boris Johnson or Kamala Harris.

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This is also the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom are civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It includes massacres, the Holocaust genocide, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

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Why We Like It

Well, what to say about this, apart from that it's funny and rude?

Is there anything more entertaining than watching people (just like us) making complete fools of themselves on television? What's interesting about this selection of gameshow clips from over the decades is that most of them are from unintellectual, responsive format shows that invite their contestants to vocalise what immediately appears in their minds.

Cue absurd, unfiltered and, at times, bizarre comments made innocently by people with the best of intentions.

The fact that so many of these examples are sexual speaks to what we are as people underneath the carefully presented surface normality most of us do our best to maintain. Is it really that most of the time what we are thinking about sex, even only as a background hum without much heat or trouble?

On the evidence here, very possibly it is.

The other commonality that this at times very funny selection demonstrates is how impulsive and (let's be honest about this) stupid human reasoning can be when it is unrestrained. As a result, it is comforting to be a party to the silliness on offer here (the couple struggling to spell "mosquito" is a particular joy). It is also reassuring, which is probably why the audience(s) in these clips take such pleasure in what they are hearing. It's a celebration of our commonality, of how dumb beneath the surface we really are.

There are no rocket scientists on display here, just people just like us.

Rather encouragingly.

Before That

Airport

Danger in the air as a bomb, a mid-air collision, an ocean crash-landing and a missile attack bring all kinds of trouble to 1970s air travellers.

2001: A Space Odyssey

One of the most nuanced (and, let's be honest about this) just plain silly science-fiction scripts of the late Twentieth Century is brought to the screen by one of the most distinctive (and let’s not beat about the bush here) over-rated film directors of all time.

Star Wars

(original trilogy)

Culture-shifting, money-making, audience-astounding franchise changes the cinematic experience for a generation (and then some). From its first big-screen debut, Star Wars is a sensation, after which the world is never quite the same again.

Star Trek

(original franchise)

The most expensive American film of all time when it was produced (illogical, Captain!), Star Trek: The Motion Picture is slow, sedentary, obsessed with its own brilliance and stern-faced. Sound of Music director Robert Wise throws all the fun out the window and takes the audience on a slightly pinched journey across the universe to prevent a mechanical entity from destroying the human race.

Sequel Fever:

Sleeper:
What Do I Do Now?

10cc:

I'm Mandy Fly Me

Great Lyrics:

Space: 1999

The British Star Trek – with some Americans (so as not to put off US viewers). Gerry and Sylvia Anderson take us on an odyssey through time and space with a group of earthlings searching for a new home after a freak accident blasts them across the universe. Lots of model work and sets in plastic and grey (it was the mid-70s, after all) and with a certain chin-scratching on the part of everyone concerned, reassuringly, you could also see where the money has gone.

RI:SE

A bright, colourful, bouncy but, above all, SEXY breakfast show, RI:SE launched on the back of an exhausted, long-deserted Big Breakfast (which in its heyday had Hit Hit Hit! written all over it, though that had been a long, long time before RI:SE came gushing onto the screen).

Friends

Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, Friends epitomised television situation comedy in the 1990s. Multi-award winning and a huge international audience draw, Friends also made stars of its leads, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. It even created a cultural moment with Jennifer Aniston’s changing hairstyle.

Bosch

Bold, butchy, sweaty crime series originating from the equally bold, butchy, sweary novels of the same name by Michael Connelly, and a drama that proved to be something of a hit for Amazon Video and lead actor Titus Welliver.

TV Hit or Miss:

Divisions:

Balkan Civil Wars

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Facebook

influence problem

This week saw a major Facebook outage, that took down the massive social media platform, alongside the popular (and at times controversial) Instagram, and the ubiquitous WhatsApp messenger service.

The Book of Mormon is now

a little less shocking

In a not entirely surprising move, The Book of Mormon has recently been tweaked to make it less offensive as part of a theatrical revival its New York and London. This tweaking (a polite term for "editing") was undertaken in an attempt to "sharpen the satire of Mormonism," according to The New York Times, and "give the Ugandan villagers more agency."

Is Joe Biden really the 21st century Jimmy Carter?

As US President Joe Biden finished his first hundred days in office, critics, mainly on the Right, began to formulate opprobrium of the president, claiming that he was morphing into a kind of modern-day Jimmy Carter.

Richard Nixon, TV and movie star

Richard Nixon was the first US president whose entire political career could be mapped out with three decisive appearances on the small screen. In 1952, as the Republican candidate for the American vice presidency, he went on television to head off a growing storm over allegations that he had received improper gifts. In what was then an unprecedented appeal direct to the American public, Nixon detailed every aspect of his finances, concluding that the most significant personal gift he had received was a cocker spaniel called Checkers.

Politics:

Eurovision:

Poupee De Cire,

Poupee De Son

The swinging 60s begin here. Still in black and white, the contest itself is all bow-ties and polite applause and comes from Naples. The number of songs had increased to 18 this year, but it is still, up until this point, the big boring old ballad that keeps on winning the thing. Until this song is heard, that is.

How to win the

Eurovision Song Contest

For some, the Eurovision Song Contest is an extravaganza and a celebration of song, dance and soft nationalism. For others, it is a drawn-out and tedious camp nightmare. For many, it is an irrelevance, just a TV show. But for a dedicated group of Eurovision fans around the world, the Song Contest is also a fascinating model of how politics, soft culture and political gaming come together in the ultimate cultural puzzle box.

Sophie & Magaly with a man dressed as a penguin.

Papa Pingouin

After Israel won (again) in 1979, but declined to host the contest in 1980, the hat got passed around and the Dutch gamely stepped in with a largely no-frills Eurovision with some rather wonderful geometric backdrops. A little bit run of the mill, but at least the 1980 contest has a modern and efficient charm.

Parlez-vous Francais?

Luxembourg rides the disco wave, with chart act Baccara singing in French in an attempt to boogie off with the Eurovision prize.

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iPOD

True Blue (1986)

Madonna

Brittle, bouncy, dusted with hits, and featuring one of the key Madonna images (that Monroe hair, the blue make-up and statuesque pose - like an Athena poster).

Spiceworld (1997)

The Spice Girls

At the height of The Spice Girls dominance of the world, Spiceworld (and how corporate a title is that?) was probably as good as it was going to get.

Hysteria (1984)

The Human League

On release, to many of The Human League's fans, Hysteria was just terrible - upsettingly weak and over-blown, and a smack in the face for critics and music lovers.

Love (2006)

The Beatles

With its genesis in the French performance nonsense of Cirque de Soleil and anchored as a concept in its Las Vegas show, Love was crafted as a soundtrack to Gallic fatuousness.

Pet Sounds:

Perhaps it is bloody-mindedness on the part of our Scandinavian pop parents, or simply their need to blow off their version of creative steam (this was after all at the height of punk), but The Album is a curious affair.

AGE OF DIVISION

ideas, history, culture

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ABBA: THE ALBUM