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Pretty naff cover what with the Aladdin Sane lightening bolt layered over a decent photo. The UK cover is better. Anyway, the books (and periodicals) have a strong dose both of sophisticated and pretty basic humour, counterposed by books of philosophical interest, especially if one is wary of regressive Leftism. The following are the most…
This in Cognitive Processing. A total of 156 adults rated black humour cartoons and conducted measurements of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. Cluster analysis yields three groups comprising following properties: (1) moderate black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence; low mood disturbance and moderate aggressiveness; (2) low black…
Chuffed to come across this recently broadcast (previously blocked) programme. Among the featured gems are The Dead Sea Tapes, Peter’s views on religion, his taste in reading and much more besides. I have a chum who used to live around the corner from Perrin’s Walk in Ellerdale Road, near the convent (or was it a girls school) mentioned in…
Hopefully this will find its way onto youtube. “Following the death of Britain’s greatest satirist in 1995, Peter Cook’s widow Lin locked the door of his house and refused all access to the media. Until this year, when she invited her friend Victor Lewis-Smith and a BBC crew inside to make a documentary about the…
Christina Pazsitzky, comedian and philosophy major, talks about her approach. These days it seems that a significant number of philosophers have long-since traded in TRUTH for self-aggrandizing activism posing as inquiry and so now, more than ever, the health of liberal culture depends on the Shakespearean fool pricking the elites, the common clay, and everything in-between — some of…
Released on this day in ’79 Zappa’s target was, according to some sources, motivated by the banning of music in revolutionary Iran. The target we do know Zappa had in mind was the ascendancy of the fundamentalist Right of the ’80s and the idiotic PMRC proposal . . . but now the target is more appropriately applicable to the regressive…
I did make this suggestion a year ago. In my view while he has several good suggestions, the two vital components to Alice’s platform is to have Groucho Marx on the $50 bill and Peter Sellers on the £20 note. To this I would add Peter Cook on a five quid note. alice coopergroucho marxhumourpeter cookpeter sellerssatire
Comedian Jim Norton tackles the twisted state of the 21st century, including how modern technology affects everything from free speech to hooking up. People typically invoke Lenny Bruce as a litmus test in these matters but I think the real test is Derek and Clive which, on recent form, I believe would be subject to…
This genius died 20 years ago. Check out the documentary Peter Cook At A Slight Angle To The Universe. Also John Bird’s obit. The direction his work took had nothing whatever to do with marketing a talent, finding a niche, developing a career. It had everything to do with a compulsive articulation of his view of…
