LATE LATE PROPAGANDA

We the People of this Country are Disgusted,

Fianna Fail are out of government but a change of government doesn't solve all our problems no not by a long shot the next little dictator that needs to be de-throned is that bastard Ryan Tubridy not only is he a FF man throughandthrough but he and RTE have made an unholy mockery of the Late Late Show which was a shining beacon back in Gaybo's time Gaybo had class and he had balls he wasn't afraid to ask the hard questions and he broke so many taboos in this country like about the gays and sure didn't he launch Boyzone who were brilliant but now Tubbers and before him Pat Kenny have made an absolute dog's dinner of the Late Late getting celebrities in to talk to other celebrities about their personal experience of the economic crisis and ignoring abortion because they're completely detached from reality altogether only a few weeks ago while this country was in the throes of a leadership crisis they had Jim Corr and some ponce from the United Kingdom Independence Party saying how 9/11 was faked and climate change is a hoax well no one doubts that America had a hand in knocking over those towers but there are more important things to be talking about than a secret race of lizard people who control the world.

2010: Antiheroes, Mixed-Bags and Non-Entities of the Year

This 2010 retrospective is taking place in late January, as befits this crowd of misfits who not only failed to define the year, but left us all scratching our heads in idiotic confusion like the shaved gorillas that we are.

Antiheroes

Gerry Ryan

Ah, Ger Ger. Mr. Ryan, a beloved-by-some-hated-by-others radio shock jock, passed away this summer. However he will regret not living long enough to attend his funeral as the nation began wailing and rending its collective clothes as though this were a repeat of that whole 9/11 business, or someone had just said 'Princess Diana' in a sad way. The mourning and venerating of the man went so far over the top it may have been possible to see China. From all corners of the nation people were calling old Gerry a genius, a poet, a prophet and possibly a candidate for fast-track sainthood. Yes, it seemed Gerry could fly no higher than when he was six feet under.

Inevitably, it all fell to pieces. Towards the end of the year, just at the point when most of us had accepted Ryan Tubridy's voice as a reasonable substitute, some news arrived that would shock us all.

But not really though. Everyone knew that Ryan was a heavy cocaine user. To call it an open secret would be understating it massively. Yet everyone from the top of RTÉ to the loneliest listener claimed that they had no foreknowledge, that they were shocked, and yes, appalled at his conduct. The denouncement began in earnest. Gerry was a cautionary tale, a fatter Katie French, a man who some whispered 'got what he deserved'.

Of course all this was ludicrous hyperbole. Ryan was merely a human being. He was flawed and something of an idiot for his continued drug use, but neither a monster nor a saint. He was not worthy of venerating, not worthy of condemnation and certainly not worthy of the countless column inches spent pouring repulsively over ever gory detail of his life.

Mixed Bags and Non-Entities coming soon.