Trabia Garden

(Riona and housemate Rachael have returned from a trip to the supermarket. Riona checks the Internet.)
Riona: Rachael!
Rachael: What?
Riona: While we were out, David Cameron became Prime Minister.
Rachael: Oh, God! This is what happens when you leave the house!


Had to crack up at Charlie Brooker's response on Twitter: LEAST SEXY PRIME MINISTER EVER

It's not the outcome for which I was hoping, and Cameron still terrifies me, but I do find it hilarious that the media have been portraying our political turmoil as a massive Cameron/Clegg slashfic (this manip was on the BBC website, apparently). And, as was pointed out on the Alternative Election Night, a Conservative government means these are going to be a great few years for satire (a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition probably even more so. Are Cameron and Clegg going to be living together at Downing Street, thus making the running of this country into a ridiculous sitcom? I do hope so). Every cloud has a hilarious lining!

(Here is a video on the BBC site of Clegg arriving at Number 10. Is it just me, or is Cameron's body language incredibly, creepily possessive?)


Anyway, you already knew that David Cameron was Prime Minister. To continue the entry's theme of 'Things You Already Knew': SO IT TURNS OUT THAT I WAS IN THE ROOM WHEN CHARLIE BROOKER WET HIMSELF ON LIVE TELEVISION. I can't believe he actually wrote about that in a column. That's amazing. It would have been a great fact for Would I Lie To You?

Also, in case you're interested but somehow missed it, the first episode of Charlie Brooker's new Radio Four panel show, So Wrong It's Right, aired yesterday. The panel were David Mitchell, Victoria Coren and Rufus Hound; you can listen to it here if you're in the UK. My favourite part, predictably, is about seventeen minutes in, when Mitchell gets shirty with Brooker for calling him 'smartypants' and then comes up with an entire bitter reality TV premise in response to it; this was recorded over a year ago, so I'm delighted Mitchell and Brooker had chemistry even then. I want Mitchell, Brooker and Coren to be on everything together. (They're all on tomorrow's episode of You Have Been Watching, incidentally: ten o'clock on Channel Four.)


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I'm not sure The Bubble, in which three guests are locked away from the world for several days and then presented with news stories that may or may not have genuinely occurred in their absence, would work were anyone other than David Mitchell presenting it. The guests are essentially talking about things about which they know nothing, which naturally imposes limitations on their discussions, but I sort of wanted to marry David Mitchell when it began and I desperately wanted to marry David Mitchell when it ended, so I certainly enjoyed it. (Of course, the guests' inability to talk at length on any one subject means that the host has to get involved a lot, which I selfishly appreciate.)

Also, Reginald D Hunter is very funny and Victoria Coren seems a pretty cool chapess, and their interactions were great ('I learnt how to play snooker!' 'No, you didn't'). One thing about the format that definitely works: as the panellists have been shut up together, they've had the opportunity to develop a relationship before being brought onto the show.

(FIC I WANT FOR NO GOOD REASON: Mitchell/Coren/Brooker. Oh, I don't know. They would make a delightfully intelligent and ranty threesome.)

The start was a bit uncertain, but I was laughing a lot by the end of the episode, and I'm looking forward very much to the next one! (If anyone missed it and wants to give it a look: it is on the iPlayer if you're in the UK and on YouTube (1, 2, 3) if you aren't.)

Here are some suggestions to improve the show:

- I wasn't sure about the question on the assassins. If The Bubble is going to bring in topics like murder, I think the circumstances should be particularly bizarre. I don't think murder is an invalid topic for humour, but I didn't think there was enough scope for humour in that particular story to justify its inclusion.
- At some point, one of the fake stories should be a tabloid going 'WE PEEKED THROUGH THE WINDOW OF THE BUBBLE AND WE THOUGHT IT LOOKED LIKE THE PANELLISTS WERE GETTING AWFULLY FRIENDLY', just for the guests' reactions.
- Charlie Brooker should definitely be on the panel at some point. I am obviously suggesting this purely because it would be interesting to see how a news critic judges whether stories are true or false and for no ulterior motives at all.
- On the week on which Charlie Brooker is on the show, one of the news stories (probably one of the fake ones, although I suppose one can't be certain) should be about a zombie outbreak during the guests' incarceration. I don't care if it's too implausible; it would be brilliant.
- In the same week, one of the guests should be a clone of David Mitchell.


Here are some completely unrelated videos:

Hooray, the 'My Shiny Teeth and Me' video from Fairly Odd Parents has turned up on YouTube! I love this stupid song. 'Why should I talk to you when I've got thirty-two?'

Also, Genevieve Cortese adorably informs us that she does not have Twitter. I cannot fathom the rudeness I've seen in some parts of the Supernatural fandom, because I have seen no indications that she is anything other than perfectly sweet. Awww.