29 Responses to MARK THOMAS – THE MANIFESTO

  1. JimS says:
    April 11, 2013 at 8:41 pm

    Sometimes the audience catch him out.

    In a previous series he tried to to urge the rabble to strike down the rich, a voice from the crowd called out, “And how much to you get paid?” To his credit, after a prolonged silence, he did come up with a figure, as I recall, about twice the national average.

       40 likes

  2. Louis Robinson says:
    April 11, 2013 at 8:44 pm

    Seen as even too radical for Ch 4 (“Leaving Channel 4 was a mutual decision, following a series of disputes over how far the channel would go in its broadcasting”) Thomas is perfect for the lefty insult-by-numbers “comedy” perfected by the likes of Jeremy Hardy.

    An example:: “Noel Edmonds should be publicly beheaded and his severed head placed in one of 22 sealed red boxes.” Funny?

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7189989/Mark-Thomas-The-Peoples-Manifesto.html

    And the “Manifesto”? Stacked audience. A free platform for a pillar of radical chic to vent. It’s not funny or entertaining – unless you’re an 18 year old Poly student trying to get your girlfriend into bed and using Thomas as foreplay. In fact, it’s the usual BBC comedy dept. stuff. Move right along. Nothing to see here….

    Let me be clear: I have no problem with the BBC putting stuff like this on the air EXCEPT

    Where is the opposing point of view?

       48 likes

    • Wild says:
      April 11, 2013 at 9:33 pm

      “I have no problem with the BBC putting stuff like this on the air EXCEPT….Where is the opposing point of view?”

      Exactly. It is textbook Stalinism.

         38 likes

    • Smell the glove says:
      April 12, 2013 at 2:26 am

      In 1990 I thought that the argument was settled .A planned economy led to starvation.Capitalism had won. I now here that apparently you can spend x and you will earn xx. How does this work

         13 likes

      • chrisH says:
        April 12, 2013 at 6:33 pm

        And we are still left with the obvious exhibit in the shape of the 38th Parallel.
        That`s the one(I think!) where North Korea and South Korea are divided.
        Communist on one side, capitalist on the other.
        And when thousands of North Koreans risk death and torture in their efforts to escape for asylum in …in CHINA for Gods sake-then you just KNOW how bad North Korea must be.
        In this week of Thatchers death, you need look no further to see what she knew..and the rest of us really need to take into account.

           11 likes

  3. john in cheshire says:
    April 11, 2013 at 8:51 pm

    I unfortunately listened to the whole programme and didn’t care for it. It might entertain some but I thought it was infantile rubbish.

       26 likes

  4. chrisH says:
    April 11, 2013 at 9:04 pm

    And Mark Thomas` view on the regressive, anachronistic and very anti-Soviet concept of paying for free information (i.e the compulsory indiscriminate one-size fits all, duke and dustman notion of a License fee for the States monopoly propaganda machine that is the BBC is…is…is…?
    Come on you fearless rebel Mark.
    A REAL peoples issue that would benefit all the little peoples lives eh Marky boy?…what say you?
    Or are we still at the toffs not allowing us all to see their paintings as per?
    Weekend public school boy rebel turned to balding lard…

       37 likes

  5. #88 says:
    April 11, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    As it happens he’s 50, today.

    A 50 year old peddling his activism, trying to influence and manipulate the minds of teenagers, people less than half his age seems so wrong. It sounds almost…erm…Savile-like

       42 likes

  6. Smell the glove says:
    April 12, 2013 at 3:40 am

    Cos in the reel world comedy would be nationalised . And like we would like vote for the funny people we thought would make us laugh. And Stephen Fry would sort of appear in your living room like even though you wasn’t even thinking of him. Sort of telling you what is funny wich must be good. Oh and eddy Izard would appear in like women’s gear unless he is in Africa then he’s normally dressed and didn’t want to offend the locals

       17 likes

  7. Dave s says:
    April 12, 2013 at 4:37 am

    The man is a phoney. His accent tellls all. Educated at public school- Christ’s Hospital. As middle class as they come
    Every last T is dropped . Every last consonant missing. Talking down is what they do to make themselves appear “authentic”
    A very odd way to behave and so easily spotted.

       37 likes

    • Reed says:
      April 12, 2013 at 8:21 am

      Just like that mockney muppet Ben Elton. I remember a survey of London taxi drivers, who were asked to name the most false London accent. ‘Man-o-the-people’ Mr. Elton came in first.

         30 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      April 12, 2013 at 2:24 pm

      It’s wrong only when a rich Tory does it. Then the BBC will make a feature of it. A rich Leftoid can be a man (or woman) of the people any time, no problem.

         8 likes

  8. Mark II says:
    April 12, 2013 at 10:40 am

    I used to enjoy the 6:30 comedy slot on Radio 4 – anything is a relief after the smug self satisfaction of the PM presenters – but over the last few years it seems to have become an enclave for middle class marxists to try and indoctrinate a new generation of useful idiots.
    Thomas is particularly loathesome – can you imagine the BBC having a right wing equivalent comedian espousing that jobless shirkers are forced to pull their weight and then brushing off any criticism by suggesting “it’s just a comedy program” – I think not.

       24 likes

  9. Mat says:
    April 12, 2013 at 11:03 am

    Seriously find if you can his expose of ‘Coke’ working title ‘how to make your self look like a total ass’ he spent a hour traversed the world and the best he could come up with was er they were around at they same time as the Nazi’s so are evil and er well a water outfall that was full of water that you shouldn’t drink [sorry mark so has your toilet !] it was embarrassing to watch as he seems to feel it was his best work !!!

       7 likes

  10. Deborah says:
    April 12, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    David V, you were lucky only to listen to a few moments of The Manifesto. I listened to quite a lot of it – as I have previous weeks (cooking supper and not bothering to find the ‘off switch’ – the entire programme is a half hour left wing political rant (where is the right wing comedian allowed the same?

       11 likes

  11. Kenneth says:
    April 12, 2013 at 2:01 pm

    When the radio 4 lady confessed that they were struggling to find “right-wing” comedians, I thought this was hilarious.

    Yes, some right wing comedians have been banished to Spain and Cyprus as political correctness and the smoking ban have made their acts impossible in the UK or closed down the clubs where they used to perform. But many are still out there.

    Oh the irony:

    Very few Marxists in the real world. Plenty in BBC world.
    Plenty of right wing comedians in the real world. Very few on the BBC

    The BBC needs to take its nose out of the Guardian and off of the Thatcher-hating twitters spend some time in real-life land and they will find plenty of right wing comedians.

    NB I see even the socialist and infiltrated Met police have accepted the resignation for a nasty tweet against Baroness Thatcher. How many will the BBC sack today?

       15 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      April 12, 2013 at 2:32 pm

      How about just finding a few comedians who aren’t openly political all the time? I know topical stuff is the best way to keep coming up with fresh material every week (hence the rash of topical comedy panel shows across the spectrum of BBC broadcasting, featuring mostly the same dozen faces, which only adds to the impression of overwhelming Left-wingery), and a swipe at Thatcher or Tory toffs is the easiest way to get a laugh from a BBC audience, but the Head of Comedy or whatever could make an effort to expand the range of humor just a little bit.

         12 likes

      • Kenneth says:
        April 12, 2013 at 2:42 pm

        The problem is the myth (no doubt a myth seeded and promoted by the BBC) that most arty types are left wing.

        I have never accepted that myth.

        It is simply that the main way comedians get national exposure is on the BBC (commercial tv rarely risk untried talent of any kind). The BBC, of course only frequents the places that will house left wing comedy. That is their world.

        Thus the myth feeds itself.

        NB I agree that it would be better to take the politics out of it, especially as the BBC cannot be trusted.

           9 likes

  12. jimbola says:
    April 12, 2013 at 2:10 pm

    Oh lord I hate Mark Thomas, but he did wake me up to politics, not in the way he intended.

    How ever many years ago, I had no idea who he was and I happened to see an episode of the ‘Mark Thomas Comedy Product’.

    But this was not comedy, this was hard left, commie propaganda, blatant, red in tooth and claw.

    I’d never seen anything like it, I quickly began to feel nauseous. Was a real wake-up call for me.

    Thomas does his cause no favours.

       19 likes

    • Kenneth says:
      April 12, 2013 at 2:30 pm

      The BBC has always had at least one lefty ‘lecture’ comedian on at any given time.

      I remember the Ben Elton tirades against Mrs Thatcher on Saturday night tv in the 1980s. I must admit that I found it very funny but it was a left wing lecture all the same and the effect of that propaganda is feeding today’s BBC propaganda.

         11 likes

  13. Christopher Scopes says:
    April 13, 2013 at 9:53 am

    Twinned with that other plonker Mark Steele , the pair of them are marked men as far ae I am concerned.

       5 likes

    • Deborah says:
      April 13, 2013 at 10:17 am

      after Chrstopher’s comment – I had to look him up – had thought he was Mark Steele (they sound alike) and it is still Left-wing political propaganda thinly disguised as comedy.

         6 likes

  14. Brigitte says:
    April 13, 2013 at 7:42 pm

    Where’s your Thumbs-Down button?

    You allow only positive feedback, and judge others on bias?

       4 likes

    • jimbola says:
      April 14, 2013 at 11:55 am

      Be happy you got two thumbs up so far.

         2 likes

      • Brigitte says:
        April 15, 2013 at 3:18 pm

        Isn’t the point to see both sides?

        If I see positive feedback because that’s the only option allowed, it’s not positive, it’s amputated.

           0 likes

        • stewart says:
          April 15, 2013 at 3:34 pm

          Who’s stoping you from defending the BBC?
          Perhaps theres no thumbs-down button because people on this site define themselves by what their for, not what their against

             1 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      April 15, 2013 at 3:58 pm

      ‘Where’s your Thumbs-Down button?’
      If that line wasn’t made for ‘A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum’, I don’t know what is.
      A complaint that there’s not enough anonymous ways to rig thread voting than there are already?
      I am resisting the inherent irony to give that a thumbs up too, as I presume three others did out of more than mindless fealty.

         0 likes