[Samanfur]

I was at a CLP meeting last night. The comment was made that the local Tories used to make a big deal of name-dropping our former council leader as the head of "Mohammed's Labour Party".

Funnily enough, they've stopped the personalisation completely, now that the leader's white.

[Philip Marlow]

Came across this tweet by chance. The replies to it are just ever so predictable.

[davidjay]

Came across this tweet by chance. The replies to it are just ever so predictable.

Depressing but I must admit, my second thought was that I'd had him.down as dying some time ago. It must be even worse for someone like him who endured racism growing up to see it returning.

[MisterMuncher]

I wouldn't mind if any of them were remotely genuine or innocent, but it's just the blatant "Yeah, but something a bit like that happened me once, ever, so shut yer yap" tone of it all.

I'm willing to personally guarantee every single one of them could be heard from fucking orbit if someone skipped in front of them in the queue in Tesco, whilst we're about it

[Youngian]

Racist Karen sends her mates over to as the back man nicely

[Philip Marlow]

Finally got round to watching David Harewood's documentary on blackface. And then I notice Laurence Fox is trending again. I wonder what he's done n...

[Crabcakes]

Given his acting career is now over anyway outside of ‘leading’ roles in crank-funded alternate reality movies like My Son Hunter, I suppose setting out his stall as someone willing to play a black guy as well makes some sort of wonky business sense.

[Philip Marlow]

Fox reminds me very much of Graham Linehan, insofar as he's decided to blame his current status as a nearly unemployable pariah on the sinister machinations of a woke cancel culture cabal, as opposed to the fact that he's burned his personal and professional life to the ground in order to behave like a hateful dickhead online. I suppose young Larry at least gets the occasional acting gig and his own pet political tendency out of the deal. Linehan appears to be reduced to pats on the head from the dregs of twitter and Mumsnet, plus the odd appearance at the Comedy Unleashed clubnight which saw fit to award a standup spot to Toby Young.

[Andy McDandy]

When Fox made his infamous appearance on Question Time, my initial reaction was that he had said something without thinking, and that on reflection he could have made a statement saying "Obviously as a white man from a privileged background, I'm not the best person to comment on race relations in modern Britain. While I can say with all honesty that I haven't witnessed any overt racism myself, I accept that people of colour will have very different experiences. Maybe they should be on the panel, and not in the audience."

That lasted not very long at all. First, I learned that he is by all accounts quite the cunt in real life, and then he seemed to embrace his infamy. While I can see why he's being used as the front man for Reclaim ("Ooh look, it's that nice well spoken boy off of Lewis, Ethel. He got in trouble for telling the truth about the blacks"), it's fortunate for him (to quote Blackadder) that his job is also his hobby.

[Abernathy]

Wondering about the phenomenon whereby those you'd otherwise think to be really decent people can turn out, in reality, to be utter cunts.

I have two examples in mind: the aforementioned Laurence Fox - ostensibly a fine actor whose (adequate) portrayal of the snooty sidekick of the beloved former sidekick of the beloved late Inspector Morse, Robbie Lewis, endeared him to thousands of TV viewers appreciative of long-form detective murder mysteries - in reality, an absolutely reprehensible cunt of the first water who makes Lee Anderson look like Desmond Tutu. And of course, Neil Oliver - Scots former TV History-presenting hunk and gusset-moistening object of desire of sex-crazed lady viewers of the successful BBC series "Coast" - now revealed on GBeebies to be a rabble-rousing, repugnant, racist, conspiracy-promoting wanker.

I'm sure there are other examples. But how the fuck does this happen ?

[davidjay]

It happens because their income streams are drying up so they have to look for another one and Katie Hopkins did well out of controversy. See also many years ago Bernard Manning going down the Chubby Brown 'Too Hot for TV' route to re-invent his live career when mother in law jokes got dated.

[Bones McCoy]

Wondering about the phenomenon whereby those you'd otherwise think to be really decent people can turn out, in reality, to be utter cunts.

I have two examples in mind: the aforementioned Laurence Cox - ostensibly a fine actor whose (adequate) portrayal of the snooty sidekick of the beloved former sidekick of the beloved late Inspector Morse, Robbie Lewis, endeared him to thousands of TV viewers appreciative of long-form detective murder mysteries - in reality, an absolutely reprehensible cunt of the first water who makes Lee Anderson look like Desmond Tutu. And of course, Neil Oliver - Scots former TV History-presenting hunk and gusset-moistening object of desire of sex-crazed lady viewers of the successful BBC series "Coast" - now revealed on GBeebies to be a rabble-rousing, repugnant, racist, conspiracy-promoting wanker.

I'm sure there are other examples. But how the fuck does this happen ?

It's been said that stardom can be isolating.
You meet other stars, and people paid to blow smoke up your arse.

Television now has so many channels that "being off the telly" is no longer quite the status symbol it once was.
Maybe some of them are prone to acting out at the lack of adulation.

[Youngian]

A difficult divorce can take its toll.

[Andy McDandy]

Charlie Brooker did a section on Screenwipe about how the entertainment industry turns everyone into wankers. His example was that of a perfectly calm and sane scriptwriter being asked by a runner if they want anything. At first, the feeling of being waited upon is rather strange and you assure the runner that you can get your own drinks. But then the runner says that it's literally their job to keep you happy, and given the precarious nature of employment in the creative sector, you see their point of view. And soon enough you're screaming at them for bringing you DIET Coke instead of Coke ZERO and generally acting like the late unlamented Don Simpson* during his "utter wanker" phase.

But the key thing is the "keep the talent happy" ethos - you get so used to being told how amazing you are that anything that pops the balloon comes as a real shock.

*American film producer, responsible for Top Gun, Bad Boys, and many other action films of that ilk. Generally regarded as an arsehole even by Hollywood studio exec standards.

[Crabcakes]

Apparently, John Malkovich is *insanely* right wing, but also has the sense to keep it to hypothetical policies and the occasional crass action (like holding a champagne party when a serial killer was executed because he’s such a fan of the death penalty) rather than open bigotry.

That said, he also once said he wanted to shoot George Galloway because of his opposition to the Iraq war, so maybe his judgement isn’t too wildly off…

[Abernathy]

Charlie Brooker did a section on Screenwipe about how the entertainment industry turns everyone into wankers. His example was that of a perfectly calm and sane scriptwriter being asked by a runner if they want anything. At first, the feeling of being waited upon is rather strange and you assure the runner that you can get your own drinks. But then the runner says that it's literally their job to keep you happy, and given the precarious nature of employment in the creative sector, you see their point of view. And soon enough you're screaming at them for bringing you DIET Coke instead of Coke ZERO and generally acting like the late unlamented Don Simpson* during his "utter wanker" phase.

But the key thing is the "keep the talent happy" ethos - you get so used to being told how amazing you are that anything that pops the balloon comes as a real shock.

*American film producer, responsible for Top Gun, Bad Boys, and many other action films of that ilk. Generally regarded as an arsehole even by Hollywood studio exec standards.

Somehow, I don’t think that accounts for Neil Oliver or Laurence Fox.

[Spoonman]

Fox reminds me very much of Graham Linehan, insofar as he's decided to blame his current status as a nearly unemployable pariah on the sinister machinations of a woke cancel culture cabal, as opposed to the fact that he's burned his personal and professional life to the ground in order to behave like a hateful dickhead online. I suppose young Larry at least gets the occasional acting gig and his own pet political tendency out of the deal. Linehan appears to be reduced to pats on the head from the dregs of twitter and Mumsnet, plus the odd appearance at the Comedy Unleashed clubnight which saw fit to award a standup spot to Toby Young.

I have a little bit of sympathy for Linehan (not a huge amount, but a little) in that prior to becoming a prominent uberTERF personality, he seemed to be a reasonably decent person - but his meltdowns on Twitter debating Trans issues, rightly or wrongly depending on your opinion, has led him down a hugely destructive path that has otherwise not only destroyed his professional career but also wreaked havoc into his personal life into becoming a classic case of going down the rabbit hole and staying there, unlikely to ever being able to climb back out of it - I'm not sure if family or friends tried to stage some sort of intervention during his public spats, but it is somewhat sad to see him end up where he is.

I'm not sure about Neil Oliver's background before becoming a talking head on GBeebies in the form of that hugely embarrassing uncle that (a) you always avoid being within 20 metres of at family gatherings and (b) always sends to emails to you, your siblings & cousins with the subject reading like "FWD: fwd: Fwd: Re: Bilderberg Group Promotes CLIMATE HOAX!!1", but from what I've researched, Lawrence Fox has always been a cunt.

[Crabcakes]

I think they’re 3 routes to the same awful destination:

Fox: straightforward grifter leaning hard into an already held shitty mindset to bolster a career (indeed, 2 careers) that had hit the skids. Boosted along by a general sense of feeling hard done by on account of being a bitter, middle-aged divorced dad whose ex-wife and immediate family are all significantly better than him at what he did for a living and are consequently more liked and respected.

Linehan: a tragic figure who still thinks he is the hero in his own story and will be proven right, but is so far gone he can’t now escape or see things objectively either from pride or fear. Not helped by previous work with women’s rights where he genuinely was on the right side (abortion in Ireland) bolstering his belief he’s doing the right thing even when people tell him he absolutely is not. Also now adding in bitterness at work and respect draining away.

Oliver: a clearly disturbed man who has fallen in with a group who feed his demons, turning what was a minor grump about feeling all politicians are self-serving and a dislike of COVID restrictions into raging paranoia. From previous work he’s obviously passionate about his interests, but is now pouring all that energy into a poisoned well, spooling off into increasingly unhinged and dubious conspiracy theory.

[Andy McDandy]

I know a few outdoorsy/survivalist types who have views similar to Oliver. At best "I'm not bothering you so don't bother me", and at worst "the death of the weak is an acceptable price to pay".

[Bones McCoy]

Oliver's morphed into Clarkson without any of the warmth and humour.

You may not like Clarkson's warmth and humour, but it is his point of distinction.
He's able to engage with his car driving guests and spin a good yarn.

The likes of Oliver present as deeply strange personality bypass people.
You could say the same for a whole string of shock jocks, Delingpoles, Dolan, Lee Anderson - the professionally angry.