Socialist Comedy

[Followthewhiterabbit]

Mark Steel with some socialist comedy.

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1140827163899724067&ei=NnMsSe_fGabGiAKRypGyBQ&q=socialism

[UndergroundConnexion]

saw this one a while ago , quite fucking brilliant

[zein al-abdeen]

it's so funny :laugh:

[Prairie Fire]

Not very funny, and he reduces Marxism to ivory-tower musing, giving the obligatory bashing of all of the countries that actually had revolutions, and put Marxism into practice.

Also, "Conservative" isn't a class.

[Followthewhiterabbit]

Not very funny, and he reduces Marxism to ivory-tower musing, giving the obligatory bashing of all of the countries that actually had revolutions, and put Marxism into practice.

Also, "Conservative" isn't a class.

I think we can allow comedians to make fun of who they want, its all just a bit of fun.

I think when he says conservatives he means upper class / right wing, here in the UK (where mark is from) the conservative party are like the republicans.

[Led Zeppelin]

It's not funny at all, he just oozes boring.

Watch George Carlin for some great comedy with a socialist message in it as well.

[Rosa Provokateur]

Socialist comedy? I think Marxism-Leninism is pretty funny myself:D

[Prairie Fire]

I think we can allow comedians to make fun of who they want, its all just a bit of fun.

He's not even a comedian by proffesion, I think. He's a Trot/ ivory-tower "Marxist", who was simply try to spice up their speech a bit.

Marxist-Leninists are much better at adding humour to their serious content. See Slavyanskis awesome blog, Eastern Star (I laugh out loud when I read this):

http://rationalred.blogspot.com/




Watch George Carlin for some great comedy with a socialist message in it as well.


Are you kidding me? Best case scenario, Carlin could be liberal; worst case scenario, he had that distasteful right-wing anti-humynism, where he jokes about humyns being killed, and how he has total contempt for other people, etc, etc.

Now, Liberal/ libertarian comics can be very funny, but don't go calling them "socialist" because occasionally, some of them take a principalled stand on an issue.


Green Apostle:

Socialist comedy? I think Marxism-Leninism is pretty funny myselfhttp://www.revleft.com/vb/socialist-comedy-t95361/revleft/smilies/biggrin.gif


All that you seem to know how to do, is take gratuitous shots at Marxism-Leninism. You are either an deluded petty-bourgeois "leftist", or an obvious police provacateur. Either way, fuck off Troll.

[Followthewhiterabbit]

He's not even a comedian by proffesion, I think. He's a Trot/ ivory-tower "Marxist", who was simply try to spice up their speech a bit.

Nah he's definitely a comedian. I seens him on the telemavision

[ZeroNowhere]

obligatory bashing of all of the countries that actually had revolutions, and put Marxism into practice.
Is that even possible?

Also, the video isn't too bad, though not worth the time I could've spent (re)watching Hicks.

[Led Zeppelin]

Are you kidding me? Best case scenario, Carlin could be liberal; worst case scenario, he had that distasteful right-wing anti-humynism, where he jokes about humyns being killed, and how he has total contempt for other people, etc, etc.

I don't know about you but I've never heard liberals talk about abolishing private property before:


The two big mistakes were the belief in a sky god -- that there's a man in the sky with 10 things he doesn't want you to do and you'll burn for a long time if you do them -- and private property, which I think is at the core of our failure as a species. That's the source of my indignations, my dissatisfactions, however it comes out on the stage. I feel betrayed by the people I'm part of, these creatures, these magnificent creatures.

Nor about smashing the capitalist state and religion:


I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

Nor about capitalist politicians deceiving the people:


Bipartisan usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.

Or about bullshit excuses used to apologize for imperialism:


Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?


Or destroying the myth of the "American dream":


The owners of this country know the truth: It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.



Watch the video of that here: Link (http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/georgecarlin/youtube/carlin-american.htm)

Or how about this; destroying the myth of the "peaceful white settlers":


This country was founded by a group of slave owners who wanted to be. Am I right? A group of slave owners who wanted to be free! So they killed a lot of white English people in order to continue owning their black African people, so they could wipe out the rest of the red Indian people, in order to move west and steal the rest of the land from the brown Mexican people, giving them a place to take off and drop their nuclear weapons on the yellow Japanese people. You know what the motto for this country ought to be? 'You give us a color, we'll wipe it out.


Or about voting being pointless because the owners of the country stay the same regardless:


I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I don't vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain,' but where's the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote -- who did not even leave the house on Election Day -- am in no way responsible for that these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created.



See the video of that here: Link (http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/georgecarlin/youtube/carlin-voting.htm)

There's a lot more stuff in his stand-up acts, where he further elaborates on these issues and attacks the capitalist system.


Now, Liberal/ libertarian comics can be very funny, but don't go calling them "socialist" because occasionally, some of them take a principalled stand on an issue.

I did not call him a socialist, so I'm not sure who you're quoting. Are you quoting the imaginary me that you made up?

I said his comedy had a socialist message in it, which is a fact, whether you like it or not. Just see the quotes I posted above or watch a stand-up of his.

Also, his "anti-humynism" [sic] and the other stuff you referred to is what's called comedy. I'm sure a guy who had a humanitarian message politically and was progressive socially did not actually want people to be locked up in a massive prison and have their heads cut off on national television.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Are you kidding me? Best case scenario, Carlin could be liberal; worst case scenario, he had that distasteful right-wing anti-humynism, where he jokes about humyns being killed, and how he has total contempt for other people, etc, etc.He definitely wasn't an out and out communist, but he sure wasn't a spineless liberal. A lot of things he said had a socialist tinge or at least exposed the contradictions and absurdities of life under capitalism. Mark Twain pointed out the role of comedians like Carlin who have "a useful trade, a worthy calling; that with all its lightness and frivolity it has one serious purpose, one aim, one specialty, and it is constant to it—the deriding of shams, the exposure of pretentious falsities, the laughing of stupid superstitions out of existence; and that whoso is by instinct engaged in this sort of warfare is the natural enemy of royalties, nobilities, privileges and all kindred swindles, and the natural friend of human rights and human liberties."

Some more Carlin quotes:

"Folks, I'd hate to spoil your fun, but there's no such things as rights.... Rights are an idea, they're just imaginary.... Sounds like one group trying to control another group. In other words, business as usual in America. Now, if you think you do have rights, one last assignment for you. Next time you're at the computer get on the internet. Go to Wikipedia. When you get to Wikipedia in the search field .... type in 'Japanese-American 1942' and you'll find out all about your precious fucking rights, okay? .... In 1942 there were 110,000 Japanese-American citizens in good standing, law abiding people, who were thrown in internment camps, simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That's all they did wrong. They had no right to a lawyer, no right to a fair trial, no right to a jury of their peers, no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had? 'Right this way .... into the internment camps.' Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most their government took them away. And rights aren't rights if someone can take them away. They're privileges. That's all we've ever had in this country is a bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news even badly you know that every year the list gets shorter and shorter and shorter..... Sooner or later the people in this country are going to realize that the government doesn't give a fuck about them. The government doesn't care about you or your children or your rights or your welfare or your safety. It simply doesn't give a fuck about you. It's interested in its own power, that's the only thing, keeping it and expanding it wherever possible...."

"I saw a slogan on a guy's car that said 'proud to be an American,' and I thought well what the fuck does that mean? Proud to be an American? You see, I've never understood National pride .... To me, pride should be reserved for something you achieve or attain .... not something that happens by accident or birth."

"I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don't believe anything the government tells me."

"They want to put street criminals in jail to make life safer for the business criminals. They're against street crime, providing that street isn't Wall Street."

"God bless America. Once again I saw to myself respectfully what the fuck does that mean? God bless America? Is that a request? Is that a demand? Is that a suggestion? Politicians say at the end of every speech, as if it was some sort of verbal tick that they can't get rid of .... Listen, there are over 200 countries in the world now. Do these people honestly think that 'god' is sitting around picking out his favorites? ... Why would god have a favorite country? And why would it be America out of all the countries? Because we have the most money? Because he likes our national anthem? Maybe it's because he heard that we 18 delicious flavors of classic Rice-a-roni.... It's delusional thinking. Military cemeteries around the world are packed with brainwashed dead soldiers who were convinced god was on their side."

"Custer? He had a really bad hair day. But he had it coming, that blond, blue-eyed criminal fuck."

"America prays for god to destroy our enemies. Our enemies pray for god to destroy us. Somebody's going to be disappointed. Somebody's going to be wasting their fucking time. Could it be.. everyone?"

"Let's leave the Bible aside. We'll get back to science-fiction reading later."

"The last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument: It came from god."

"....People are going to lie in court. The police do it all the time. All the time. Yes they do. It's part of their job. To protect, to serve and to perjure themselves whenever it supports the state's case."

"Religion has actually convinced people … that there's an invisible man … living in the sky … who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of 10 things he does not want you to do! And if you do any of these 10 things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry, forever and ever, 'til the end of time! … But he loves you! … He loves you. He loves you and he needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, all-wise, but somehow – just can't handle money!"

"So what if some civilian contractor from Oklahoma gets his head cut off in Iraq? Fuck him! If you don't want to get your head cut off, stay the fuck in Oklahoma! But if you're going to go into someone else's country carrying a weapon, you better expect some fucking action!"

"[T]he difference between left and right of center … originated in the French parliament. The people left of center were liberals; the people right of center were conservatives. Broadly speaking. And generally speaking, people on … the right of center, are interested in property values, property, property rights. The rights and the rights of property. And generally speaking again – it's all generalized – the left-of-center people are more concerned with humans and human beings and human concerns; to the care of humans, not the care and worry about property rights. That's generally been true."

[ZeroNowhere]

He was also once compared to Marx, and didn't object. He objected the next sentence once the other guy claimed that the owners of the US were 'the people'.
Certainly, he had some knowledge about class theory, though I have no idea whether he was a socialist. Bill Hicks was an anarchist, last I remember, though.

[bellyscratch]

I think Mark Steel is brilliant. The Mark Steel Lectures are all good, which includes everyone from Marx, Che Guevara, Aristotle, Darwin, Einstein to name a few. Theres loads on youtube to check out.

I RSS his weekly article in the Independent which is always a good read and means I don't actually have to buy the Independent to read it.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

I believe ZeroNowhere's post was about Carlin.

[ZeroNowhere]

I believe ZeroNowhere's post was about Carlin.
Yup, it was.

[Prairie Fire]

Bill Hicks was an anarchist, last I remember, though.

Where does it say that? Hicks was a libertarian, as far as I know (And I don't mean libertarian socialist. I mean Libertarian).

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

I don't know. He referred to himself as "Noam Chomsky with dick jokes."

[ZeroNowhere]

Where does it say that? Hicks was a libertarian, as far as I know (And I don't mean libertarian socialist. I mean Libertarian).
Not at all. He was libertarian socialist, not an Authoritarian. After going through pretty much all of his routines and most interviews, I never saw anything praising capitalism, though I did see references to Chomsky (and being Chomsky with dick jokes), being an anarchist, dismissing people as 'capitalist sell-out fucks' and the like, references to the Republicrat Party as the 'Business Party' (seriously, what Authoritarian would do that? It's even less likely they'd play out the rest of the routine that that came from), pointing out that the Free Trade agreement with Mexico will simply allow "US corporations to shift their operations south of the border where they can hire a peasant workforce willing to work long hours for low pay without insurance or health benefits (retirement being a moot point, as the lack of environmental controls will return the average lifespan to what it was during the Jurassic period)" (sure, a reformist could point this out too, but he referred to himself as an anarchist, and it does seem to indicate that he wasn't exactly an 'anarcho'-capitalist), etc. He wanted drugs legal and such (because if we take them, we may realize that we're all being fucked over), but this hardly meant that he supported capitalism. Certainly, he was a libertarian (in the sense of the word before the pseudo-fascists stole it), but he didn't seem to have much affection for capitalism. Also, rather than promoting the Libteryin Party (or dissing it for not being 'libteryin' enough), he claimed that he was voting for 'Maddona's twat' (it makes a bit more sense in context).

"Before going any further, you must understand one thing about my personal philosphy. I do not believe making money in order to consume goods in mankind's sole purpose on this planet (if you're wondering what I believe our purpose on this planet is, I'll give you a hint... it has to do with creating and sharing.)"