Thursday 22 March 2018

Not your hoity-toity intellectuals


The Liberal Democrats harvested data from millions of MySpace accounts, it has emerged.

The party was found to have employed controversial tech company Humberside Analytica to comb through the data which they hope will give them an unfair advantage in the 2022 general election.

Investigative journalist Francesca Johnson said: “It’s not just MySpace. They’ve cross-referenced with Bebo and Friends Reunited.

“With that weight of data they’ve already run simulations which prove they could enter into a coalition with the Conservatives in the 2010 election, and after that apparently go from strength to strength.

“Apparently voters that could be swung to the Lib Dems like custom fonts and listening to Travis, are friends with Lily Allen and do shots of Aftershock, both red and blue.”


Lib Dem leader Vince Cable said: “There is nothing unethical about our use of this data. Until we start blackmailing voters with pictures of them as teenage goths.”
The Daily Mash

Of course.

There is no direct link between satire and Stephen Sondheim [although many of his works do tackle politics and human frailties in a satirical tone], but, by way of a tribute to the Great Man on the occasion of his 88th birthday today, I have dug out of the vaults a jazzy home-made video worthy of those flashing-graphics MySpace days - made to accompany the chorus from his obscure musical The Frogs [to the UK premiere of which we went last year]:


Frogs!
We're the frogs!
The adorable frogs!
Not your hoity-toity intellectuals,
Not your hippy-dippy homosexuals,
Just your easy-going, simple,
Warm-hearted, cold-blooded

Frogs!
Of the pond
And the fronds we never go beyond.
When you rearrange a single frond,
We respond
With a...

Brek-kek-kek-kek! Brek-kek-kek-kek!
Whaddya care the world's a wreck?
Leave 'em alone, send 'em a cheque,
Sit in the sun and what the heck,
Whaddya wanna break your neck for?
What for?
Big deal!
Big bore!

Forget your troubles,
Wallow with us,
Squat and take a mud bath!

What's it get you,
Making a fuss?
Just another blood-bath!


Fantabulosa!

4 comments:

  1. A Frogs musical?! Good gods... It sounds fun though (I've just read your linked-to post). As I missed it, I shall have to make do with watching the randy frogs in our pond almost strangling/drowning each other as they furiously copulate...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not merely a "Frogs musical", but a musical based on the work of that name by Aristophanes, no less - it could only be Stephen Sondheim, really! And yes, it was fantastic - such a shame it never transferred from the tiny arts venue that is the Jermyn Street Theatre to anywhere more prestigious... Jx

      Delete
  2. I have always thought Aristophanes underrated.
    It is a fab musical both witty and jolly and well worth seeing.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave a message - I value your comments!

[NB Bear with me if there is a delay - thanks to spammers I might need to approve comments]