There is something so perverse about a British immigrant to America weighing in on the election in France. But, I enjoy John Oliver so much that I did watch his latest show. The obligatory joke about the French eating snails didn't do much for me. Hello, stereotype! (For the record I eat tasty snails with butter and garlic but we all know better than to eat the disease-carrying ones in the garden.) It got funnier as he poked fun at the various candidates. It became deadly serious for me when he profiled Marine Le Pen of the Front National. Nothing funny at all about Le Pen's program and you can read on-line her 144 Engagements Presidentiels. Number 27 would eliminate dual-nationality for those who do not come from another EU state. Her target, of course, is the North Africans but it would also apply to Americans, Canadians, Brazilians, Chinese and anyone else who doesn't come from a European member state. I don't know if it would apply to people who are already dual citizens, but I think she'll go as far as she can if she's elected.
Oliver ends with an appeal in French which is indeed very funny because he has the most amazing. accent. (He should have included subtitles in French as well as English.) Can't argue with his take on the UK, US, and Le Pen though.
For your viewing pleasure today, here is the video from Youtube. Once you've watched it, please head over to Arun with a View for some serious, well-written, informed posts on the candidates.
5 comments:
Disappointing lack of originality shown with the gratuitous, ineffective use of expletives, and the stereotyping. And did he not see the cognitive dissonance between the latter and his criticism of Le Pen for her stereotyping of immigrants?
George Carlin he ain't.
Oh yeah!!!! Those "quirky" "quaint" French who eat SNAILS. He really went to town, didn't he? And he would probably say (as many do) that these are perfectly harmless positive sterotypes of French nationals typically held by Anglo-Saxons, whereas Le Pen is encouraging those nasty, negative sterotypes against migrants. Good catch, Nezumi-san. Not Oliver's best work. Read Arun instead. :-)
Arthur Goldhammer of the French Politics blog posted the following status update on his Facebook page last week:
"Just had a fascinating one-hour conversation: 'I’m a researcher for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, a comedy-news show on HBO. We’re preparing a long segment about the French election for our show this Sunday, and XX recommended I get in touch with you. (He also recommended your blog, which I’ve found very helpful!).' I've done a lot of interviews lately, and I must say, John Oliver's researcher was the most conscientious and diligent of my interviewers. Clearly, there is a lot going into the comedy news that isn't going into the regular news. Money, to begin with."
Oliver's segment is funny and clever - particularly the latter part on Marine Le Pen - though I didn't understand some of his references to characters in popular culture. That's often the case with him, and late night comedy in general. I guess that reveals my age ;-)
Oh yes, Victoria, thanks for the plug for my blog ;-)
Arun, Fascinating. I am really pleased to hear that Oliver and his staff do their homework. I still winced at the snail references, though. But he's one of my favorites and I always enjoy his work. My children love him, too, but they miss Jon Stewart.
And you are very welcome. You are my main source right now for the election news and I was very happy to send my readers in your direction.
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