Quote: sootyj @ February 20 2012, 2:56 PM GMT
It was part of a weird sort of satire that seemed popular at the time. Kind of when satirists couldn't deal with the "Labour's in power and they're pretty shit" paradigm. And so made lots of silly stuff that just repeated what was happening in the world rather than satirising it.
Quote: Harridan @ February 20 2012, 3:17 PM GMT
I'm still waiting for the boom of brilliant satire now that we've got a Conservative government. Have all the satirists died in the interim?
This is what I've been saying for years. I don't think it's a coincidence that the left-leaning satire boom peddled off in the late 1990s (last series of Spitting Image was in 1996, for example), and as sootyj says, what has come since has been half-hearted. 10 O'Clock Live Series 1 just seemed to underline the notion that in the years between, everyone had forgotten how satire worked, what it was supposed to be and do.
Perfect example of 'satire' vs 'repeating what's happening in the world': Hacks, compared to Hot Metal.
I'm a Tory, but I can laugh at my own 'side'. Surprisingly, "David Cameron looks and sounds a bit, you know, POSH!" doesn't cut it.
Oh, and re the original point, I never liked The Office either. I've warmed to it somewhat in recent years (after working in some myself, perhaps), but it still doesn't strike me as anything special. Similarly, The Thick Of It I enjoy, but it doesn't grab me and is certainly no Yes Minister.