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I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that with repetition, even the best joke loses its ability to make us laugh. It becomes unfunny.
Or maybe it’s just me. I’m growing older and grumpier.
Either way, for me, jokes like that, clever as they might be, no longer make me smile, let alone laugh.
The unchanging truth such jokes reflect has gone well past the point of being funny.
Here’s Scotty in his own words, saying he’s never told a lie in public life (interview with Neil Mitchell, 3AW, November 12th):
Scotty denying he ever called Sam Dastyari “Shanghai Sam” and video recordings of him calling Sam Dastyari “Shanghai Sam”:
The difference between good jokes turned stale and Scotty from Marketing is that he never was a good joke to begin with.
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Another example of joke that turned unfunny?
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Now, I know that many American sympathisers/supporters of the Democratic Party will hotly object to that. Liberal/Leftish intellectuals – often white, male, ageing, educated, middle class but upwardly mobile – these readers with characteristic originality will oppose that we should not let the “perfect be enemy of the good”. Biden’s inconsistencies, they will add, may displease the dogmatic and the purist – yours truly, let’s be clear – but were imposed by a hard-nosed analysis of reality (by that they mean Biden’s approval ratings are going south and something had to be done about it).
They are knowledgeable realists above all. Biden’s critics don’t know – and couldn’t possibly understand – the subtleties of American politics.
That may be a reasonable argument, but, paraphrasing Bill McKibben, the problem is that “physics is uninterested in it”. CO2 emitted for the best political reasons warms the atmosphere as much as any other CO2.
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Speaking on a strictly personal capacity, the report of Kelly Fuller and Tim Fernandez, from the ABC Illawarra, on the support coal miners, members of the Mining Division of the CFMEU give to the Thamoor Colliery, left me conflicted.
On one hand, as a worker, a unionist, a Commie, and a citizen deeply concerned with climate change, I cannot but express my solidarity with those workers. They feel threatened by the eventual closure of the colliery. I understand that. Their concern for their livelihoods and for the future of their families is legitimate. I share it.
It’s just not good enough for politicians (Lib and Lab) to wash their hands of their future. The rest of society needs to provide local communities with a way out when the economy eventually transitions away from coal. Just words don’t make the cut. It has to be something credible and concrete. And, as Scotty’s COVID19-related multi-billion dollar spending spree last year demonstrated, if there is a will, there is a way. It’s not for a lack of money.
On the other hand, I feel that my solidarity, understanding and concern may be neither needed nor even welcome: “more than 100 workers gathered outside the gates of the colliery, where they stood alongside union representatives and mine management in a rare show of unity”
It’s certainly the prerogative of those workers and their union to cast their lot with their bosses and not with other workers. But as a worker, a unionist and a Commie I, sadly, can’t follow them.
Unions, workers, and bosses together in bed is not my thing. The hens may trust the foxes, but I don’t and won’t follow them. That’s a red-line that cannot be crossed. Hopefully, the rest of the CFMEU does not share that kind of proclivities.
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Spontaneous, unplanned humour, however, still makes me smile. An example.
Last November 17th author Bernard Keane joined Ellen Fanning at The Drum. Talking about his new book, Keane said that Scotty was a liar, but not any kind of liar. His lying, Keane went on, exceeded that normal of other politicians. He was a statistical outlier among liars.
That makes of Scotty, I guess, an outliar.
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