or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 10, 2007
Tony Blair, England's Most American Leader
Here's John Cleese in Life and How to Survive It:
CLEESE: ...even Americans who are successful are under a tremendous pressure to appear endlessly optimistic and upbeat. A New York friend in advertising tells me that there is only one acceptable response to the question, "How are you?" It is: "Never better!" Anything less is considered defeatist, and the first sign of inevitable decline...Perhaps that's why it didn't attract any notice when Bill Clinton claimed during his election campaign that, with the right changes, American could 'become the greatest country in the world, forever." Can you imagine a European leader saying that?
Here's Tony Blair, today:
This country is a blessed country. The British are special. The world knows it, we know it, this is the greatest country on earth.
Apparently England stole our title! I guess America didn't make the right changes.
Posted at May 10, 2007 09:13 AM | TrackBackI am even surprised that even Clinton got away with the bit about WITH THE RIGHT CHANGES...
Posted by: En Ming Hee at May 10, 2007 09:33 AMThanks for mentioning Life and How to Survive It once again, Jonathan - it reminds me that I promised to send a copy to a Canadian cousin (actually, his wife is more likely to read it).
In my opinion, with global warming sealing the deal, I think the North American country that will 'become the greatest country in the world' - not forever, but for the foreseeable future, however long that is - is Canada.
Say, kids, let's have a "greatest country on earth" competition. Cook-off? War? Bake-off? Circle-jerk? Debate? Essay contest? Sleep-over?
Actually, studies conducted at the Technische Hochschule in Zuerich have shown that, inhabitant for inhabitant, Liechtenstein is the "greatest country on earth." The only caveat, as footnote #342 reminds us, if "Baywatch" were a country, it would be the "greatest."
In fact Blair gave this speech today (Thursday). The Guardian report you linked to is a web-only story with the telltale word 'today' in the first paragraph. :)
Posted by: Gag Halfrunt at May 10, 2007 11:19 AMOne wonders WHICH UNITED STATES we are discussing, the 50 States or just what's inside the Beltway.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at May 10, 2007 11:35 AMof course this depends on how far into the future you see forever.
Posted by: almostinfamous at May 10, 2007 12:09 PMGreatest country on earth? Not sure. But with global warming I am quite certain one day it'll be the greatest country under the sea.
It sounds better in the original German.
Posted by: darrelplant at May 10, 2007 02:59 PMHow about greatest country that never existed?
Everyone knows the U.S. is an empire, right?
Posted by: at May 10, 2007 03:04 PMTony desperately wants to be an American, and I — and I'm sure many people here — sincerely hope he emigrates.
Preferably to a cell in The Hague, but the US will do.
Posted by: Mike at May 10, 2007 03:22 PMJawohl, everything sounds better in the original German.
But it sounds best in the original Indo-European. Best language on earth.
“I guess America didn't make the right changes.”
I think it started to go wrong when Columbus started hanging Indians because they would not tell him where the gold Columbus was looking for could be found. Then things really started to go downhill when the Europeans and Brits started arriving as the Native Americans really had no idea what they were in for. I think we could all agree America was never the same.
I believe that the importance of being important should never be underestimated as it is far too important to do so. The funny thing about being important is that the results are inevitably the same, lots of dead people.
Roy, "England" and "Britain" are not the same thing, in much the same way that "Texas" and "America" are not the same thing.
Stop it. It's really fucking annoying.
Posted by: Dunc at May 11, 2007 06:36 AMOr indeed, the way that "Roy" and "Jonathan" are not the same thing... Forgot whose blog I was on for a moment there.
Posted by: Dunc at May 11, 2007 06:38 AMMy response was "Bllearrgh. Fucking jingoistic crap!" I was on his side (bar Iraq and the usual cock-ups all governments have made so far) up until that point.
If you think he's fake, wait until you get a load of Cameron. I should find out more about him. Thinking on it, I've no idea what connections his family have, for instance. But I'm pretty sure he's trying the tactics of Reagan in the 80s and Bush in 2000 of presenting a moderate face (he calls himself a "liberal conservative") whilst his party works to drag a portion of the country into far-right lunacy.
Posted by: monarchyintheuk at May 11, 2007 11:47 AM
