True bollocks
12 May 2005. Inspired by .
There comes a point where satire is so sophisticated that entertaining truths become disappointing for not, as it turns out, being the products of a cynical imagination.
On our left, we have Be Nice to Nettles week (Special guest: John Nettles).
Occupying the middle ground is Bollocks to Alton Towers, a book of true British days out made by the Framley fibbers. How guidebooks should be, and I ought to know.
(both those via the ever-resourceful Rogue Semiotics)
Then on the far side, is the magician-historian Ricky Jay's Extraordinary Exhibitions. It looks like a marvellous piece of research, but I can't help feeling ever-so-slightly let down by the list of contents, mostly because it doesn't seem as good as a scrambling of the words in the blurb would be.
Imagine, if you will, a flea spirit medium, a showman circus, a rabbi incubating machine, a ghost hermaphrodite, a mermaid catcher, an armless bee keeper, a chess playing mouse, a singing bullet, an automaton ventriloquist, a glass African woman, a chicken magician, a cannon ball blower, a dulcimer player juggler and a speaking machine equestrian with prodigious memory.
Now THAT'S what I call a show.