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Last updated on July 2nd, 2017 at 08:02 am
Dave Follett sends Michael Leunig to the madhouse:
This week’s column – or anything by Leunig, in fact – explains why.
The War is over? Does that mean no more trolls?
Do we get a parade? Marching band?
Medals?
What? We lost? Wron I think you’d better check up on what Stoop Davy Foley was upto in his absence…
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 24 at 05:11 AM • permalink
I dunno, Tim, forgive me for this critique, but I felt this column wasn’t up to the usual standard. I think it is best when you wittle them down with gentle humour, this was almost demolishing with sledge hammer wit. Too easy to tip over into nasty.
‘cept where you said that Caldicott was ruining the truthers’ credibility. I liked that.
A beautiful soul, Helen is.
To be honest, I’ve never actually had to face a rabid leftist face-to-fact. Oh sure, I’ve worked with misguided peeps who feel that their views might be the truth and the whole truth. I’ve seen others froth at the mouth with the fervency(?) of their beliefs. But I’ve never met an outright, barking mad, certifiable public loony like Leunig.
This is probably a good thing. I don’t react well to strange situations and/or people. It’s not so much that I refuse to see them, it’s more that in my line of work, leftists usually end up simulating Lenin. As ex-parrots.
You can only laugh at all the ironies, people crying about the lack of available dissent under Howard, now calling for a ‘cleansing’ of obverse opinions.
You can only laugh at a guy like Leunig who on one week, wept about an apology to Aborigines and the next, without batting an eyelid called for an apology to Lizards. The culinary relationship between Aborigines and Lizards being totally lost on him.
From the previous thread, #229 Ash, Sharpe Jr on Australia Day.
Posted by Richard Sharpe on 2008 02 24 at 05:37 AM • permalink
A sharper edge to Tim’s column is to be expected. Last year we could giggle at the inane schemes of the left. This year we have to live with them. It like having a stroke that leaves you paralysed and mute and for a treat you are taken to a long long lunch where Phillip Adams, Julia Gillard, Traceeee Hutchison, Michael Leunig, Bob Brown and Kevin Rudd are the other guests. Of course you’ll get angry.
Did anyone else choke back the bile and read David Marr’s latest travel piece in the SMH.
What a f’wit. Poncing around Spain within a large cloud of smugness; he can’t resist making snide and asinine remarks regarding Americans (crass), Spaniards (lazy but bloodthirsty).
The only heroes in his piece are the poor Moors.. and the tragedy of their loss of Andalusia.duncan
Uh-oh… is Dr. Helen Caldicott a woman? Stand by for a scolding from g&t. Because women just became editors. Or something.
I admit it, his argument is far too subtle for me. From where I stand, it appears that nobody can criticize a woman for anything because they’ve been oppressed, plus they’re frail pathetic hapless creatures. But nobody posting here, even a troll, is really that stupid, right?
Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2008 02 24 at 06:32 AM • permalink
Caldicott was one of the ‘useful idiots’ the KGB funded back in the days of the Cold War. She was especially idiotic, and thus they thought her especially useful.
Of course, the trouble with funding idiots is that… well… they are idiots, which may go some way to explaining why the Commies lost the Cold War.
Let’s face it. The KGB were dumb enough to think that giving money to cretinous, total off-the-planet whackjob douchebags like Caldicott was actually a good idea.
This goes some way to explaining why socialism was and remains such a spectacularly stupid concept.
MarkL
Canberra
- Best Leunig cartoon ever.
Can’t believe I was the first in with that punchline.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2008 02 24 at 06:42 AM • permalink
I think it is best when you wittle them down with gentle humour, this was almost demolishing with sledge hammer wit. Too easy to tip over into nasty.
Progress against today’s “progressives” isn’t always a matter of applying the Roman theatrical saying, ridendo castigat mores (satire corrects the customs of the day). This is especially true when so many of them are not only impervious to humour but positively inclined to see it as tantamount to intellectual capitulation. What’s more, the preponderance of like-minded leftists in culture, arts, media and letters means they not only don’t get the joke; they’re shielded from being corrected by it. Ever. I think we of the non-left have to depend less on mickey-taking and more on case-making.
Improbus a nullo flectitur obsequio.
Tim mentions in the article that Leunig has changed for the worse over time. I agree. My auntie has a beautiful Leunig poem from many, many years ago framed on her wall. I know it by heart:
Grandpa ran away to sea
Father went away to war
I’m away to a good cafe
With a smart Italian floorGrandpa faced a world of cruelty
Father faced his frightened heart
I have faced a coffee laced
With cognac – and a lemon tartGrandpa learned of loneliness
Father learned of dreadful sadness
I have learned that a croissant burned
Is the depth of human madness.There’s a kind of touching self-deprecation that has been missing more recently.
Follett’s a plagiarist.
I demand my royalties in bold tags.
- C.L. I love latin quotes! Our state motto in NSW, obviously aimed at loved ones in the morning when they’ve overslept and stagger blearily into the kitchen/family room:
“Newly arisen, how brightly thou shine.”
(orta recens quam pura nites)
Or the RAAF one, celebrating the role of the wives in their ongoing support role:
“Through adversity to dancing with the stars.”
(per ardua ad astra)
Great column Tim. It’s articles like these (and Dave Follet’s illustrations) that are no doubt partially responsible for the Telegraph selling out on Saturdays.
As noted here, other people are having problems too. Newsagents, supermarkets and service stations in the inner northern suburbs of Canberra in particular seem to be having big distribution problems (or popularity problems) and sell out of the Tele well before midday (in spite of the fact that it’s chardonnay socialist territory). Whereas the two metre high piles of unsold copies of the SMH and Age speak for themselves.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2008 02 24 at 07:20 AM • permalink
- #20
Sums up the sacrifice made by others so that left tilting idiots can say and do whatever they like, to the denigration of society and it’s values.One I liked by him was in a newspaper, a little poem about an “ordinary bloke”.I love this new one, better than they’ve been for years, maybe sectioning Mr Curly will lead to enforced meds and some sanity.
Or not.
(yes, I know he didn’t do it)
- Zuzzy (#20) I have to confess that I once appreciated Michael Leunig’s work. He had a whimsical and gentle outlook on life, his drawings were gently humorous, and as you say, often self deprecating or poked gentle fun at the world around him.
I have a copy of his book, “The Bedtime Leunig” c. 1981, and it is a classic, and a prized inhabitant of my bookshelves.It is all the more distressing to see a once favourite artist descending into the depths of stupidity and bitterness when you once seriously considered him truly gifted.Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2008 02 24 at 07:45 AM • permalink
#4 I’ve met quite a few leftists face-to-angry-face, and the speed with which they can push buttons is reeeeeeemarkable.
Of course, it means that their buttons get pushed pretty quickly too,which is always fun, but it’s tense stuff.
Not for the faint-hearted, but it do build character, oh yes indeedy. It’s also good if you have a capcity to stay calm in the face of insanity.
Hard to do on the hop, at least for me.
What I have found is that even among leftists there are those who have a sense of humour or wonder about their “cause” sometimes. They’re the ones to talk to.
Just cos they’re there doesn’t mean they’re 100% committed. Some only join up to bonk the object of their desire, for instance.
Others cos they’re bored or exploring.Posted by carpefraise on 2008 02 24 at 08:29 AM • permalink
#20 Leunig’s strength has always been his noticing of fragility in the human spirit and paying homage to it with the duck and the pen.(And being able to get paid for it, so there are some real-world skills there somewhere!)
Well and good.
It’s when he tries to ANALYSE the outside world and its motives that he falls so spectacularly on his shrivelled, lizard-placating ass. He has no analytic skills – none. He cannot see the world and has no interest in reading or learning about it.Unfortunately, someone persuaded him to venture out of his brain and we all lose brain cells from the sheer frustration of it.
Posted by carpefraise on 2008 02 24 at 08:40 AM • permalink
What? We lost? Wron I think you’d better check up on what Stoop Davy Foley was upto in his absence…
I’m first checking on whether this is the real Stoop Davy Dave. I trust no one.
Posted by wronwright on 2008 02 24 at 10:05 AM • permalink
Here’s an action photo of Alpha Team I* of the VRWC. Taken a couple months before Stoop Davy Dave ran amock. SDD is the unshaven one in the front. Please compare this photo with the stranger who just showed up.
* Not to be mistaken for Beta Team II, an all female team comprised of RebeccaH, kae, Pogria, and missred, which seems to go shopping everytime we hand it an assignment.
Posted by wronwright on 2008 02 24 at 10:28 AM • permalink
#35 Wronwright: I dunno. It’s a very good likeness. But this guy FHF – well, his mustache has some gray in it, and his eyebrows seem a little less bushy. I think we ought to wait until the results of the DNA test come back. And there’s one curious thing that still makes me skeptical – he completely turned up his nose when I placed a bowl of goat chow in front of him.
And I agree with the sledgehammer approach.
First, gadflies are always necessary in a “majority rule” society, lest the majority gets too arrogant. And the Oz lefties can’t complain, they live by this rule.
Second, smacking these clowns with a clue by four is necessary, regardless of their position; they live in La La Land, and need a reality injection now and then.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 02 24 at 12:04 PM • permalink
I was wondering what my Newfie (dog)*, was chewing on the other day.
I thought he’d just got a real big rat. Oh wait, he did.
*: Insert ‘crappy Wikipedia link rant here’
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 24 at 12:49 PM • permalink
Brilliant, Tim. Great job. Leunig is one more missing brain cell away from living in a dumpster.
Posted by Mystery Meat on 2008 02 24 at 01:26 PM • permalink
I guess I cant argue with that logic.
I just dont particularly like dogs I need to bend down to pat.
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 24 at 01:28 PM • permalink
Michael Leunig must be a genius, Fairfax says so.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 24 at 08:28 PM • permalink
- #51
DM takes his hits somewhere else we are told.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 24 at 09:27 PM • permalink
- #19 C.L.,
Non illegitimus carborundum.So there.Posted by Michael Lonie on 2008 02 25 at 12:23 AM • permalink
Enough with the latin already, Dont make me sow your lips shut.
Exitus Acta Probat.
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 25 at 12:47 AM • permalink
See I have enough trouble with English…
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 25 at 12:49 AM • permalink
Another excellent column and another excellent drawing from Mr. Follett.
Have you given him a payrise yet Tim?