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A WORLD OF IDEAS
Phillip Adams interviews US comedian Rich Hall:
Adams: Can Americans laugh or poke fun at religion?
Hall: Americans … are, ah … well, you know what they say about George Bush is, that it was … ah … you know, guns, gays and God that got him into office.
Articulate fellow, isn’t he? Interesting that Adams has never met an American who can laugh at religion; I’m sure there must be one or two of them. By the way, Chimpler W. Hallibushton’s opponent supported a gay marriage ban in Massachusetts, and offered these comments on God and guns:
“Faith has given me values and hope to live by, from Vietnam to this day, from Sunday to Sunday.”
“I’ve been a hunter since I was about 12 years old, and I went through the whole progression, you know, BB gun to .22s to .30-.30, you name it.”
Didn’t do John Kerry much good. We now return to our festival of dumb bigotry at Radio National:
Hall: And ah … when I say God I mean from a very fundamentalist point of view. Ah … born again, Bible beatin’ Baptists, who have a tremendous, a tremendous amount of power when it comes to electing a president. And they’re forgotten, you know … everyone forgot that … ah … there are a lot of people in America, in that sort of hidden section that people, you know, the fly-over area between LA and New York, who … ah … go out and vote for whatever reasons – because they heard right-wing talk show hosts tell how, you know, how idiotic the whole liberal media is, you know; because … ah … they don’t want gay marriages; because they want to keep their guns; or, because … ah … God is still on their side.
It was an ambush. They were hiding, listening to coded right-wing messages emerging from sinister communication devices in their underground cells. Then, when nobody was looking and when it was least expected, they came out and wielded that tremendous power, against which there was no possible defence.
They voted.
Damn them all to hell. Maybe this hidden fly-over area, where everyone seems to be, you know, practicing democracy, could be put under … ah … some sort of, you know, UN administration, so its tremendous power could be … ah … used as an energy substitute for oil. You know.
Hall: And … ah … I find the word “fundamental” extremely scary. I find fundamental Muslims and fundamental Christians, you know, both, you know, extremely scary. Because the word “fundamental” means you know a little bit about something.
It does? Well, you learn something new every day. Adams’ program is promoted thusly: “From razor-sharp analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and culture, Late Night Live opens up a world of ideas, putting you firmly in the big picture.” Read on as Adams puts you in the big picture regarding George W. Bush:
Adams: I would have thought he’s been in a vegetative state now long enough to pull the life support from him.
Terri Schiavo hasn’t been on life support; not that Phillip’s topical little joke is any less razor-sharp for this. Earlier in the show Adams seemed fascinated by a tune Hall has been performing since 2003: Let’s Get Together and Kill George Bush. Now conversation turns to Bush’s attempt to keep Schiavo alive:
Hall: Well, you know … he’s busy doin’ that … ah … busy keepin’ that … I think he’s passed a law yesterday to keep them from pullin’ the life support on him …
Adams: (laughter)
Hall: It was applied to someone else, but we all know what he meant. Ah … here’s a guy who cuts his holiday short to go back and try an’ put this bill into effect that will effectively keep someone who wants to die from dying for whatever reason … basically to placate his electorate. I don’t know. There’s something very scary about religion in America.
Adams: Very. Very.
Rich Hall knows that Schiavo wants to die. A more informed or alert interviewer may have asked: “How do you know this, Mr. Comedian Man?” But Adams is very uninformed and very stupid. Very. Very.
(Edited transcript via Alan R.M. Jones; Real Media link here, Windows here)
UPDATE. Melbourne Age editor Andrew “The Mancunian Candidate” Jaspan isn’t treated with nearly as much respect during his appearance on Radio National. He should book a slot with Adams.
Hm. There must be a Sniglet for what Rich Hall suffers from.
Posted by Patrick Chester on 2005 03 26 at 02:32 AM • permalinkYeah, who is Rich Hall?
*heads off to google a pic*
Oh yeah, I’ve seem him before. In the last routine I saw of his on TV in Australia he was justing plastering on the anti-Americanism. He’s one of those self-loathers who likes getting patted on the head by non-Americans for trashing his own country.
And has Adams ever, ever, conducted an interview with someone who vehemently disagreed with him? Why should taxpayers go on funding this personal hobbie of his - that’s all it is.
CL, Adams often speaks with Christopher Hitchens, Charles Krauthammer, and Daniel Pipes, among others. You must concede that these are figures from across the spectrum who would not agree with each other often, let alone Adams. He also speaks with Australian conservatives such as Owen Harries more or less regularly - although it is often the case that invitations to appear on the ABC are declined. For the most part, these are his most interesting and balanced interviews - and they are never churlish. It is disengenuous for Blair to present this chat with a US comedian as indicative of LNL’s broader direction.
I actually do remember Rich Hall; he is really a ‘C’ list celebrity whose major claim to fame would be having been on ‘Saturday Night Live’ during one of it’s unfunniest periods and a series of TV ads for something or other as a ‘mock’ reporter on the road. Entirely forgettable.
I’ve met Daniel Pipes, a very intense and serious man, and I’d wager much funnier than Rich Hall.
Coming soon on the Adams show: More ‘humourous’ songs such as:
Let’s all get together and kill the Jews.
Let’s all get together and kill the Blacks.
Let’s all get together and kill the Commies.
Let’s all get together and kill Terri Schievo.No chance of anyone getting offended by those, is there?
Let’s all get together and kill Ken Livingstone
Let’s all get together and kill George Galloway
Let’s all get together and kill John Pilger
Let’s all get together and kill Ward ChurchillNone of those would be considered as actual threats, would they? Should those songs become popular, there’s no way that Democratic Underground, Daily Kos, or Margot’s diary could consider them to be anything other than harmless fun, is there?
Personally, the people I find alternately scary and pathetic are fanatical Bush-haters. Fundamentalist Liberals, in the US sense. But enough of “Oh God Don’t Let Bush Win!” Phillip Adams…. who may God preserve, as along with Margot and a few others, they serve as constant reminders of how idiotic Idiotarians are.
There are still people out there who think the Argument from Personal Fright will convince anyone of anything? I find this very scary.
Posted by Paul Zrimsek on 2005 03 26 at 06:53 AM • permalinkFor nwab’s benefit, here’s Adams being interesting and balanced (and not at all churlish, or even dishonest) about interviewee Charles Krauthammer.
Some select Phil quotes on Charles:
Let me introduce you to the wonderfully christened Charles Krauthammer. It’s a name worthy of Evelyn Waugh or Dickens. And it fits its owner like a glove. An iron glove containing, yes, an iron fist. For Krauthammer simultaneously evokes notions of a master race and massive blows to the anvil.
{snip}
I spoke to him in his Washington, DC, office just a few blocks from where his friends rule the roost – and the world.{snip}
To describe Krauthammer as an apologist for the present regime does him a disservice. For Krauthammer never apologises. He is the most hawkish of the Bush chickenhawks.
Yep, tim, you got it right. Phil is interesting, balanced, unchurlish, and entirely honest. I gotta start taking nwab more seriously.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 03 26 at 09:08 AM • permalinkrich hall !
king of sniglets !!
comedian’t ???Hall, a rather wooden performer with a sullen, deadpan delivery, needed very witty material to win over a crowd, material that required careful scripting.
...[Hall] considered himself a “humorist,” not a “comedian.” He said “a humorist is not a laugh-out loud kind of artist but someone who injects wit into something that is a little more humane.”witty and humane…
check.Fans can look forward to favourites such as: ‘Women Call It Stalking’ (It’s Just Selective Walking), ‘He Almost Looks Like You’ - a ballad about prison rape, ‘Fattening Up’ - a lip-smacking request for a woman as his last meal on death row and ‘Fast Cars & Airplanes’ a tribute to all those rock stars who have died in tragic gardening incidents. A lucky local from the audience can also look forward to a specially created country song.
It is disengenuous for Blair to present this chat with a US comedian as indicative of LNL’s broader direction.
Where does Tim do that?
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2005 03 26 at 12:03 PM • permalinkthere are a lot of people in America, in that sort of hidden section that people, you know, the fly-over area between LA and New York, who … ah … go out and vote for whatever reasons – because they heard right-wing talk show hosts tell how, you know, how idiotic the whole liberal media is, you know; because … ah … they don’t want gay marriages; because they want to keep their guns; or, because … ah … God is still on their side.
God knows, we here in that hidden flyover region would never go out and vote for any other reason.
What a moron.
Sweet Jayzus, next thing Phillip Adams will interviewing “international cabaret stars” from Bournemouth at Ibiza holiday camps…
Wass — Gimme two cases of beer and Hall might start to sound smart and articulate. But it would have to be really bad beer…
One of the tragedies of the death of burlesque was that it left “comics” like Hall nothing to do but hang around with reporters…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 03 26 at 01:34 PM • permalinkI second (25th?) the question: Who the hell is Rich Hall?
I know plenty of comedians (no, really, I do) and watch / go to see a lot of comedians and I have never heard of Rich Hall.
Posted by Secret Agent X-9 on 2005 03 26 at 02:25 PM • permalinkI always get Rich Hall confused with this guy. Unlike Rich Hall, Christopher Guest appears to be a decent and talented chap, and is married to this charming and attractive lady.
Wow!! What a great interview with Rich Hall, comedian.
I can’t wait for Phil to interview Cyndi Lauper, songstress, and discuss lunar exploration or maybe discussing nuclear fusion equations with Vanilla Ice, rapper.
In the U.S., Phil, the television channel VH-1 has a show that is basically a “What happened to….?”. Check it out. Plenty of potential topical interview candidates.Ah, so that’s a Rich Hall. Seems to have something else in common with Franken, too… once you get past the smirk, there’s not a whole lot of there, there…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 03 26 at 04:25 PM • permalinkI’ve never heard of this “comedian” either. I checked out the photo, and he looks like the sort of guy who could probably manage to get kicked out of a trailer park (in spite of the Confederate do-rag). Actually, I suspect that if you were to ask people to visualize a serial killer, this is pretty much what would come to mind.
What a smug little bastard. “Ahhhhh, religion, scary!” Seriously. I’ve just about had it with these brain-dead little bags of bellyfeel illogic. If you have a problem try to spell it out in actual words and not just gibber like a lemur on crack.
Let’s follow you here, Mr. Hall - supposedly you can’t make fun of religion in America, and the Bible-thumpers have all the power (and the Patriot Act) - but you can go on the air and stammer out these hackneyed unjokes (that are promptly laughed at by your host)? And how, exactly, do you explain George Carlin’s popularity? Did the Thugs4KKKhrist haul him off the stage at Madison Square Garden the last time he performed? I daresay you don’t believe it yourself, you tired old bag. Or maybe you’re bitter because even Kevin Nealon was funnier than you?
And “They have all the power!” WTF? Christians have been hung, spitted, sawn in half, enslaved, crucified, fed to lions, shot with arrows, beheaded, and God knows what else for centuries; nowadays they can barely say anything about their faith and how it applies to our society without being belittled, shouted down, or sued. In some otherwise-civilized nations, preaching unpopular bits of the Bible is now a criminal offense (Paul Martin, call your office).
Now, my Boss warned me that it would be that way, and I signed on anyway; I’m not surprised that He was right, but I am constantly puzzled at the ludicrous non-reasons given for that opposition. This convinces people? It didn’t even convince me when I was a non-believer.
Geez, what a jack off.
If you listen to the whole thing (sorry, I was driving home and there was shit-all else on) even this Hall bloke admitted that there was (and he knew some of them) intelligent people who had voted for Bush - this was the point at which Adams got very uncomfortable.
And Adams has only started to talk to Owen Harries since Harries (a “realpolitic” warrior to the end) came out against the Iraq war.
Earlier in the show Adams seemed fascinated by a tune Hall has been performing since 2003: Let’s Get Together and Kill George Bush.
It comes as news to me that Rich Hall has been performing anything since 2003. He’s been off the radar for at least a decade.
Posted by Randal Robinson on 2005 03 26 at 08:06 PM • permalinkAh, but Nightfly, he went on the air in Australia. Obviously the Thugs4KKKhrist have driven him from the puritanical shores of America to the more tolerant land of Australia - if he said such things in the US, he’d be drawn and quartered within the day.
I mean, he can’t be in Australia because there’s no market for him over here, can he? :)
Patrick Chester
There must be a Sniglet for what Rich Hall suffers from.
Ah yes, sniglets. Now I remember why I hated this man that I barely remembered.
Just the mention of him brings back memories of fuzzy TV reception, Jimmy Carter, big hair, tinted glasses and gigantic cars.
Wasn’t he on the show Real People?
So are we shipping off all of our has-been, coked-up, monotone, know-it alls in wrinkled suits, or just this one?
Mr. Adams should be embarassed for even wasting the network’s time on this hack.
Obviously the Thugs4KKKhrist have driven him from the puritanical shores of America to the more tolerant land of Australia
Actually, I think he spends most of his time in the UK these days. The Brits love Americans who are “undervalued” at home. I think even they are getting sick of him, though; I haven’t seen much of him for the last year or so year (thank God).
I must come to Rich Hall’s defence. About twenty years ago, one Sunday morning my wife and I were sitting in a coffee shop after church. In walked Rich Hall. He looked like he’d slept on the street. I recognized him because he was either still doing his SNL thing, or his oblivion had only barely begun. Anyway, he drank two beers while we ate and was working on the third when we left. So he isn’t all bad.
They serve beer at coffee shops where you live?
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 03 27 at 04:11 AM • permalinkCL asks, ”...has Adams ever, ever, conducted an interview with someone who vehemently disagreed with him?”
Yes - About 15 years ago he interviewed Roger Scruton. Mr Scruton, polite and quietly-spoken, corrected Adams frequently. Adams even admitted, “This is the sort of conservative I could like”. Since them Adams has only interviewed fellow-travellers.
Posted by walterplinge on 2005 03 27 at 04:33 AM • permalinkPhillip Adams is trying to find entertainers and well known personalities who agree with him. He’s down to Rich Hall. Darn tough finding him too.
He’s currently looking for any of the actors on the old Flipper show. Flipper would work in a pinch too.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 03 27 at 09:36 AM • permalinkWell, the guy who played the father just died, Luke Halpin works in postproduction in Florida, and I understand Flipper is doing dinner theatre in Branson after sexually harassing a trainer at Marine World…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 03 27 at 02:56 PM • permalink...word is, he kept offering her free willy and she finally sued.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 03 27 at 02:57 PM • permalinkAndrea… real men walk around in public with their own…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 03 27 at 02:58 PM • permalinkOl’Phil is so browned off by all things political, esp. Australian, since 2004’s ‘fascist’ elections, that his handlers must be careful he doesn’t actually explode on air. Old lefty Christopher Hitchens is as close as they dare come to a righty or centrist, just in case..
He long ago said his last interesting word.
A Phil Meltdown could end his overlong ABC career - as with Rather.
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Who the hell is Rich Hall? Did we send him to Australia because that’s the only place he could get a gig?