Titania McGrath: satire in the age of social justice 

In the '00's I studied Portuguese, and during a course on post colonial literature, the professor (the head of the faculty) was commenting on a picture taken during the Portuguese colonial wars. It showed Portuguese soldiers with captured fighters. The way one soldier held his weapon, was presented by the professor, as a sign of racism. A student from N-Ireland stood up, and told him, that he had seen this in N-Ireland, and this was actualy a safety measure. That moment showed me, how anyone can see what they want to see.

"If you want to tell people the truth make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you." Oscar Wilde

My favorite: "End the gender pregnancy gap." ~ Titania McGrath

My eyes were opened after a discussion with a former colleague who literally said: 'The person who is offended, is always right'.

I could listen to this guy chat all day. He is my anti depressant.

The worst thing about trying to satirize the Woke is that they take it as advice on what to push forward next.

Some muslims can't take a joke, it just sets them off.

I bet he was an awesome teacher. So much time for Andrew.

Andrew Doyle is one of the great minds of our time. Ella Whelan is awesome too

Titania McGrath is the Dame Edna of our age. Brilliant observation by Doyle.

Ella & Andrew you are both fantastic. The way you think, articulate and reason is so thought-provokingly brilliant. A truly gripping interview.

I never understood this concept of punching down. Who decides who is down? I’m a woman, I’m not a victim. If it’s a clever joke then it’s clever! It makes you think.

Andrew Doyle the Jordan Peterson of Satire. Thanks for this. Excellent discussion and a reminder why Satire still is the preferable weapon when it comes to counteract bigotry.And great host Ella

Titania McGrath is my spirit animal

53:00: "literal mindedness". Try explaining to a feminist that men who tell jokes about women are actually parodying themselves, by adopting the persona of the "male Chauvinist". You will be met by utter humourlessness.

"the woke culture is an infantilized culture". yep

Titania Mcgrath and Andrew Doyle---I just saw my first Titania McGrath video, and she is hilarious and I loved it. I must have more and more.

I saw the latest livestream of Posie Parker the other day wherein she said that now primary school childeren can be labeled with a hate crime if they say something not nice to a minority and that minority kid persieves it as racism or transfobic and all that good stuff :(

This has become a Dictionary war. We can no longer define words like Racism, Oppression, Privilege etc. therefore we cannot discuss them properly.

That insight after 1:12:29 is on point. Class consciousness and woke are mutually exclusive

"Shakira's hips are incapable of deceit." LOL

An excellent discussion. It provides plenty of food for thought; and as your blurb says, it's engaging. Thank you! I would have liked to hear more of Andrew's response to the questioner who asked to what extent the rise of Woke culture is connected to the decline of Christianity as a provider of cultural and ethical norms for the West. It seems to me that they surely must be connected. Instead of the righteousness imputed by God, we have self-righteousness, grounded on a literalistic adherence to the new faith. (Christians can sometimes be equally literalistic - but that's a comment on human nature, not on the teachings of Christ or of the church.) This new faith is a kind of replacement - a quasi-Christian heresy that human behaviour, and therefore human nature, can be shaped by human effort and legislation. By contrast, it is fundamental to Christian teaching that human nature is inevitably flawed, and that the consequences can be ameliorated not by self-fulfilment and self-righteousness, but only by denial of self - one of Jesus' most fundamental teachings. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that; but that will have to do for a start.

I live (uncomfortably) with a woke woman who simply lacks a sense of humor. She's smart as a whip, ivy league educated even, but unless a joke is explained to her, she's unlikely to understand it as a joke, and even then she won't be amused. I've never heard her tell a joke. I've known (less well) several smart people who seem to lack a "sense of humor". Too literal, as you put it. Thanks for a fun interview. and thanks to your tech staff for a great production.

Ella Whelan is an excellent orator. Spiked have some real heavyweights in their camp.

15:40- Exactly! This is why the 'middle classes' were worried about cinema in it's early days, because 'working class' people were huddled together in the dark watching things they wouldn't understand and could lead to rebellion against their masters

Whatever you do, keep Titania alive please! We need her ridiculous voice now more than ever.

I agree about wokeness driving potential lefties away from the left. I like to think I'm in the middle somewhere, but any hint of woke drives me away from the left for sure. I've tried to have conversations but I end up with thes sense of whatever I do or say I can't win ('cause I'm white and male and straight, in case you hadn't guessed. I do apologise).

So many empty seats!!!! Hope Ella and Claire didnt lose money on this and that it will happen again next year.

"sorry kid, that's life!" Gosh, how I'd love to say that to my students nowadays.

"I don't understand this", is what I'm hearing a lot. You can understand it. Let me explain by use of a metaphor: imagine you are talking to an anorexic person. Do you think you are able to convince them that they're really not fat? With logic or with facts? Do you think they would understand an obvious joke about their weight or misrepresent it and take it very seriously? People who are very emotionally invested in their self image, warped as though it may seem, really do not see logic or understand jokes if it touches upon their particular area of sensitivity. They just don't. To defy logic even to the point of self-destruction. Most of them not deliberately, but because the emotional rewards of following their vision or philosophy keeps them afloat. It allows them to feel in control and not victimized. If you think about it, it is not that hard to understand. It is perhaps the more difficult question: how did this come about and why are so many people, especially in media, feel attracted to this source of emotional stability and control.

Theresa May looks like an NHS poster warning about dehydration 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Hey Britain, forget Europe and join us. USA + UK = we could be the first Galactic Empire!

I'm so glad I don't know anyone like Andrew describes but I'd love to meet one and see for myself. I enjoyed the show. Thanks

I needed to hear this just as much as I needed to hear Dr. Peterson

off the gulag with you ! they left the working class in the gutter . not victim enough for them ,, they woke up to them .. can't . pat them on the head,,,, poor little victim ...give us your money and vote! ! so they had to import new victims to survive

It was actually BDS promoter Rashida Tlaib (as well as BDS promoter Ilhan Omar) who wasn't allowed into Israel and then she was and made a big song and dance about not going. But yes, her grandmother would have been the winner there.

25:00 "What's been very eye opening, is how many people that I'd been told were monsters, have been the loveliest people I've ever met". Reminds me of my sister who converted to Catholicism over the past few years and changed her stance on abortion accordingly. It's telling how feminists treat women like her or somebody like Margret Thatcher for example. They pretend like they don't exist, that only Feminists speak for women and that anybody who is against them is a "patriarchal oppressor".

I’m told that I’m a Boomer and a Gammon, in this talk we hear about Millennials and Generation Z. My suggestion is that we abandon all groups, including the other groups that are used such as Male, Female, White, Black, People of Colour (which actually means “people who are not white”), Upper Class, Middle Class, Lower Class etc. Surely we are all individuals (queue Monty Python).

6 months old and look how bad things are now.

This was wonderful! Thank you for your beautiful mind!

Sticks and Stoes may break my bones, but Names will never hurt me.

Godfrey Elfwick was a triumph

LITERAL INTERPRETATION starts with social networking not being able to translate SARCASM in the print. We either need a FONT that means "JOKE" or we need to educate people with limited LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION to understand satiric language.

So lucidly tangible it actually gives one chills.

One of the things I find interesting is that there are lots of discussions about the relationship between exposure to 'social media' and reading 'screens' and 'phones'. But there seems to be a lack of discussion between what is actually consumed. I am spending several hours a day reading Les Mis (Victor Hugo), but no distinction seems to be made between that and selfies.

The thing is that critical thinking is what the liberal arts were designed to do. If you teach these subjects like history, government, philosophy properly it does that already. It's such a mess right now.

That thing Emma Goldman said, about not wanting to be part of any revolution where she could not dance? I feel that way about humor.

Re question around 51:00 about "do they really believe what they say?" Ideology makes people stupid because it stops thinking.

Just love this guy. He talks so much sense.

I love it. Satire, whether it comes from the liberal perspective or the conservative, places a mirror up to our faces, showing us our own ridiculousness we're hardly ever aware of. It dare us to recognize where we're going wrong, how we're screwing up, prodding us to change for the better, get back on track and improve. It is hopeful and optimistic and isn't just mockery or ridicule; any of us are capable of acting like the subjects to whom it is directed. In our politically-energized state, my favorite is liberal satire critiquing liberals, with conservative satire on conservatism a close second. Libs on cons and cons on libs land in realms of condescension and antagonism, but the self critiquing itself has qualities of self-effacement, commiseration and constructiveness to compliment the anger-- real power for changing minds, behaviors and ideologies. Plus, it's great PR for re-defining the perspectives of how counterparts see each other, killing polarization and stereotypical, generalized thinking. After the past four years, I'm looking forward to a surge in dramatic satire-- the Captain Fantastics, the For All Mankinds, the Dr. Strangeloves, Titanias and Jonathan Pies. Such an amount of fodder has been created recently, it seems absurd it won't happen. Maybe, insider films on the media critiquing the media, political vehicles exploring their own contradictions, a series about how academia turned and turned and some about how corporations and governments have done the same will come to light. Could be a new Golden Age in film and television is just around the corner, that this past year has clued studio and network execs, screenwriters and producers in on the ridiculousness of what's been going on. Figure things like "Idiocracy," "The Death of Stalin" and "Iron Sky" are on the way, too. Mirrors. Gotta love 'em.

The Long Kiss Good Night is one people should see. Fun action flick.

It been a long time since I have heard so much common sense in one video ....what a breath of fresh air!

What a pleasant surprise to see Ella Whelan conducting the conversation.

I absolutely love this guy. Thanks Andrew and Ella. Not forgetting Clare Fox too. XXX

"half-understood version of Foucauldian theory " -- bullseye !!

The police investigated a joke. It sounds like a Monty Python sketch.

43:28 Are you kidding me? Since when are jews a race? Judaism is a RELIGION as well as Islam. Why was noone pointing that out??? It is not possible to be racist against members of religions! This overuse of races is starting to get ridiculous! Lets start with: "We are all human!"

NAILED IT: "Unless you're a Racist you're a racist"

This whole mess only gets fixed when people grow a spine, tell the snowflakes "NO" and make it stick. Expect to fight against the cancel culture BS they will pull and fight to win. Your rights depend on it.

If someone had thrown acid brand would have been the first to celebrate that’s the difference between woke people like brand and other people

Andrew! Andrew! Andrew! I love this man! And i say the same thing: no one noticed, no one cared...and those few who were mean or awful about it, got shunned by everyone.

Listening to this discussion on lack of humor, I am reminded of my dogs. Buzz never understood playful teasing. Dinah knows immediately when I'm trying to be a pest. And you have to be on guard because she will pay you back. The main difference between dog and human is that dogs have no malice in what they do.

20:53 Wow. What a point.

I totally disagree with his comment about Trump calling Kim fat. Countries have tried for decades to be diplomatic with kid gloves. Trump played nice but firm. Kim rattled the sabers then Trump one upped the crazy. Got kim to shut up after giving up his chips in the form of prisoners. Then Trump did the crazy thing and walked into North Korea during the g20 to avoid war with Iran. It isn't just that Trump is funny. He is a wild card who actually wants the best for his country unlike a lot of politicians. He will out crazy the crazy. General crater from iran was shitposting Trump for months and Trump shitposted back. All the while the general was planning shit. He killed the dude only when the time was right. He had the justification for months. General flattop was into child soldiers and terrorism all over the world. But he left the offenses build up to avoid war. If Trump got a fair shake in the media his approval would be high 70's at least. Let alone if he got the same ball polishing that obama got. He got countries who normally stonewall to give in in trade policy. Granted we all know china will cheat those deals via their ever manipulated currency. But I return to the main point. Instead of sending a deal or ignoring nkorea he just called kim fat after they threatened to nuke somewhere. That wasn't crazy, that was diplomacy while calling their bluff. My god look back in history and what diplomacy looked like. Not even a hundred years is enough for a total change. America literally has the top military but under the democrats have wielding diplomatic messages as if they were one of the weakest. Walking softly while carrying a big stick only works if people think you will use the stick. Otherwise they just see the emperor with no clothes.

Love you. But I can't follow you any longer as I'm on Twit as I am on a lifetime Twit ban as I said on Twit "Anyone who defines their pronouns on their Twitter bio as 'she' and 'her' is male". BTW. My pronouns are I, me and my.

We were always taught….. STICKS AND STONES MAKE BREAK OUR BONES BUT NAMES CAN NEVER HARM YOU! Such a sadness that this generation is offended by everything!!!

Fantastic interviewer well done

17:30: spot on.

I know this is an old post by youtube standards, but since Andrew said he's ok with criticism, here goes: Maybe it's because English is not my first language - I never understand why many of the worst insults are to do with women. Either women's parts or the ghastly image of motherf**. This is not a rhetorical question. Is it just a bad habit or is it misogynie or is it something I don't understand because I'm just a bloody foreigner? Anyway - I don't like it and I wish men would use their own parts to insult someone. What do you think?

That is a man who knows how to scan a sonnet. I've said it before and I'll say it again

Shakira's hips incapable of deceit. This guy is so funny.

This guy... I love this guy

You didn't predict those events, you created them.

And aren't the Frankfurt bunch somewhat to blame (nice people though they be/were) for all this "wokeness".

The problem has been the transition of the generation who went parents - school - college - transnational corporation. They are essentially children mentally. They have always lived under a protective structure, and believe that this is what they are creating.

Andrew has a beautiful mind and lovely expressive hands

To avoid getting into Nebulism in political discussions that refer to left-wing and right-wing, it would be helpful for the interviewer and interviewee to define what they mean by these terms at the outset.

Amazing talk. But what's with the 3 or 4 questions at a time?

Issue with jokes inciting behaviour is conflating correlation and causation. The people who act violently after a comedian makes a joke that, if taken literally, would be an incitement, would have acted violently anyways, they just use the joke as excuse...or rather, critics claim that as reason.

Andrew be like the Queen……. Never explain, ever complain.

He believes in BREXIT and DEMOCRACY and reading the CLASSICS of Literature and Philosophy, but he's not a NATIONALIST?? Hmmm. interesting. BE PROUD OF YOUR HERITAGE!!

My God this guy is spot on

Thank you for defending the word “left”, and maintaining its association with class consciousness.

I disagree slightly with some aspects of his arguments, and it is for that reason I think he should never be allowed to work again.

A voice of reason. Funny and eminently sensible 👍😃

Nothing is perfect, Always getting better. Building up personal and societal capital.

127 Improper use of public electronic communications network (1) A person is guilty of an offence if he- (a) sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or (b) causes any such message or matter to be so sent. Just had to look this up. And I think it's grossly offensive to assume the gender pronoun 'he'. (A person is guilty of an offence if he- )

id rather sleep in than being woke

But people are getting silenced. He has interviewed some of them. I think it would be more fair to say his focus is on the self censorship.

They might feel less "unsafe" if they had the skills to formulate a counter argument or articulate their thoughts.

This ...was... TOP! Not just Andrew, but top marks imo go also to Ella Whelan and... (I do now say that often) the audience!!!! Long and yet not boring conversion with sensible questions from the audience? I mean... it's almost like it's not #currentYear

brilliant discussion

needs way more views

Gory, another part of all this literal-mindedness is people not taking others at their word, distrusting the face-value of what someone had said and spinning it into something they suspect it's saying or something they prefer it to say-- all for the purpose of not discussing what they've said. It's a convenient way to avoid discussing a topic by discussing something else or assuming it's cloaking it's very opposite. This dysfunction in society we're seeing may be stemming from two areas: a lack of education, of experience, of coddling people's psyches and a willfulness to ignore the obvious for something more personal or irrelevant. Don't know how we've done it, but we've managed to prioritize the subjective over the objective. We've made both metaphor and the literal into tools of emotion rather than of intellect. The consequence of all of this is we've zapped all the fun in life into selfish non-existence, whereby individual expression is not only paramount, but threatening, unless it comports with the collective. Figure we really need to start ignoring the ignorant again and just do what we do, paying no mind to those who want to distract us into playing their superficial, egotistical games. Maybe, with more experience they'll abandon their moral and judgemental junior high school furor, but until that happens, maybe the only attention we should give them is our pity and a referral to a mental healthcare professional.

14 months later and I suspect he's changed his view on cancel culture somewhat.

33:11 Try spot the woke SJW with no humor in the audience, haha ^^,

Such an intelligent articulate funny man and it’ll never not be funny hearing a well spoken person say cunt.

Thank you Andrew and Ella, for constantly reassuring me there are still 'Lefties' who don't buy into the worse excesses of identity politics. As a young man in the 90s, I used to 'half-joke' that identity politics was an interesting distraction from the real work of equality, but it would eventually destroy the Left.

Really enjoyed that, but taking several questions at a time always results in questions not being answered. I reckon at least 5 good questions got no answer.

I find it surprising that an intelligent man like Andrew Doyle appears so innocent when it comes to modern media coverage. Of course journalists intentionally misinterpret under the disguise of taking things literally. Why so much now than ever before? Many reasons I expect but talk to an average American about satire; not many get it. 'Oh, I get it now, you Brits, that's sarcasm isn't it?' American culture has permeated our culture more and more over decades. You could also say it is because Spitting Image stopped! Brass Eye was allowed to become reality. Our modern mainstream media is a disgrace and truly damaging to our society. Their main aims are to invoke fear, anger and/or division. Why? Well, it may be partly political but, quite simply, these are commercial companies out to make money and want your attention. When they invoke these emotions in people, it boosts sales, viewing figures and makes their brand more popular. It gives them more power. They incite fear and outrage for their own benefit. The problem is that it is far easier for busy politicians to pay more attention to these false self elected representatives of society when what they should be doing is talking to the real people they are supposed to be representing. What really disgusts me is that most of the public are blind to this and that they get away with doing it under the guise of information outlets. Stop being so gullible, people.