finishing what you start
It looks like Joan Burton is assuming the mantle of the Dáil’s Lefty front-bench stand-up comedy role vacated by the likes of Pat Rabbitte and Joe Higgins.
As the chamber was debating the wisdom of voting to give themselves an 11-week holiday last week in the midst of our economic “downturn”, she brilliantly summed up the situation in one swift soundbite.
I mean, is it any wonder we have such poor turnouts in elections when there are so few people out there willing to make debates like this interesting?
Most opposition to the Government’s handling of our Exchequer would take the form of either quoting endless reams of figures or sourcing the predictions of the nations leading economists – in other words, boring the pants off of everyone who has bothered to pay attention.
But how can you throw a jab which will have people simultaneously cheering and taking notice? Likening Taoiseach Without Mandate Brian Cowen and Brian “Grin And Bear It” Lenihan to classic British comedy duo Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett would do for starters.
Genius. The Two Brians as The Two Ronnies. Hold on to that image and remember it every time you see them from now on. If sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, surely political satire has to be up there with the highest ones.
Of course the first thing that springs to mind when you mention the famous bespectacled laughter jockeys is their trademark Mastermind sketch, in which the short one brilliantly does a complete round of “Answering the Question Before Last”. O to have been a proverbial fly on the wall of the writers room when THAT script was being crafted!
Who knows - maybe that’s what Brian Lenihan was doing when he appeared to claim the voting age on these shores was 21. Perhaps in his mind he was answering a question previously asked like : “How many weeks' holiday would Fianna Fáil TDs like to have had?”
Have an enjoyable ordinary two-day weekend, folks.
As the chamber was debating the wisdom of voting to give themselves an 11-week holiday last week in the midst of our economic “downturn”, she brilliantly summed up the situation in one swift soundbite.
I mean, is it any wonder we have such poor turnouts in elections when there are so few people out there willing to make debates like this interesting?
Most opposition to the Government’s handling of our Exchequer would take the form of either quoting endless reams of figures or sourcing the predictions of the nations leading economists – in other words, boring the pants off of everyone who has bothered to pay attention.
But how can you throw a jab which will have people simultaneously cheering and taking notice? Likening Taoiseach Without Mandate Brian Cowen and Brian “Grin And Bear It” Lenihan to classic British comedy duo Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett would do for starters.
Genius. The Two Brians as The Two Ronnies. Hold on to that image and remember it every time you see them from now on. If sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, surely political satire has to be up there with the highest ones.
Of course the first thing that springs to mind when you mention the famous bespectacled laughter jockeys is their trademark Mastermind sketch, in which the short one brilliantly does a complete round of “Answering the Question Before Last”. O to have been a proverbial fly on the wall of the writers room when THAT script was being crafted!
Who knows - maybe that’s what Brian Lenihan was doing when he appeared to claim the voting age on these shores was 21. Perhaps in his mind he was answering a question previously asked like : “How many weeks' holiday would Fianna Fáil TDs like to have had?”
Have an enjoyable ordinary two-day weekend, folks.
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