Friday, April 18 – My Continuing Study of National Embarrassment
Alan Nafzger surveys the glorious wreckage of British dignity
By Alan Nafzger | Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
Friday, April 18 – My Continuing Study of National Embarrassment
I have been editing satirical journalism for long enough that nothing surprises me anymore. And yet. This week a junior colleague submitted a piece claiming that the British government had achieved full competence. I rejected it on the grounds of implausibility. We have standards, even here at The London Prat, and chief among them is: do not publish fiction dressed as satire dressed as fiction. That is simply too many layers.
The Vocabulary of Failure
I have been obsessing this week over the word prat. Not professionally – personally. There is something philosophically rich about a nation that has a dedicated derogatory term for a particular grade of idiocy: not malicious, not stupid exactly, but comprehensively, theatrically foolish. The prat does not merely err. The prat errs with commitment. The prat errs while wearing a lanyard.
I have been cross-referencing this with our guide to British insults, which ranks the prat favourably against the plonker (too affectionate), the numpty (too Scottish), and the berk (origin too vulgar for a family publication, though I shall say no more). The prat occupies a uniquely British register: the insult you deploy when someone has let the side down without meaning to. Which is most politicians. Most of the time.
Satire as National Sport
According to The Guardian’s culture desk, British satire is enjoying a renaissance. I am not sure it ever stopped. British satire is the national sport precisely because the national sport (football) is too painful to contemplate. We sublimate. We wisecrack. We publish small magazines and congratulate ourselves on our wit while the country quietly privatises the rivers.
This week I commissioned three pieces. One on the Home Office. One on the Treasury. One on a minor royal’s choice of footwear. The footwear piece is getting twice the traffic. I have made my peace with this.
A Note to My Contributors
If you submit a headline with the phrase “sparks outrage,” I will return it with a note reading: “Everything sparks outrage. Nothing has sparked outrage since 2009. Find a better verb.” I suggest: prompts mild tutting, elicits a strongly worded letter, or causes a man named Derek to post a thread.
The history of British satire stretches from Swift to social media and the only thing that has changed is the font size and the comment section. The content – venal politicians, bewildered public, occasional donkey – remains eternal.
More next week, assuming the government provides material. Which it will. It always does.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
Further reading: NewsThump