Poetry Monday's theme today is talk shows. I do not own a TV set, nor have for many years. But when rarely, I have the chance of watching, I do not like what I hear and see. It's all about being vulgar, offensive and debasing your talk partner if any.
That's not how I remember talk shows from my youth.
Maybe I was just young, easily duped, and innocent. But I miss wit and elegance like his in today's productions.
I go back to the 70es. He was Irish, but his shows aired in Denmark in the years 1974-1978.
Talk Show
When once I was tiny, one channel on TV
Was all that we had if we wanted to see
I remember a talk show, a man on a stool
He made fun with every thing, was not a fool
Religion, politics, education and race,
Just nothing was spared, no person, no place.
He held nothing sacred, yet never was mean.
An as he stood down and the evening's show through.
I still remember his smile and his mien:
"Goodnight, thank you, and may your God go with you."
He is also known for the following quote. Specifically about swear words on TV but I think it is more appropriate today than ever before:
"Language is there to be used. If you sanitise it, you take everything out of it,"
Is there any person 60 or older who has not recognized him from this?
Blogger putter stadig tilfældige kommentarer i spamfængsel. Jeg lover at slippe dem ud hurtigst muligt.
Blogger is still randomly putting comments in spam-jail. I promise to free them as fast as possible.
How I wish we didn't have a TV. Himself loves it - though he mostly has it on for background noise rather than watching it.
SvarSletUnless I am very much mistaken it was Dave Allen you were referring to. A man of class.
Background noise is a thing we do not need here, so no TV for that reason either.
SletYou are not mistaken ;)
That's a talk show worth watching. Today, we don't have a TV either, it got to costing so much and there was so little worth watching, we decided to get rid of it.
SvarSletSame reasons as ours ;)
SletOnly now we all pay via taxes for TV and radio -- the reason: Everybody can watch TV/hear radio on their PC. But we do not pay for more than this.
I don't think I recognise him. The only talker/comedian I remember on a stool was Danny Kaye.
SvarSletI remember him a bit too. I did not like him, I found him arrogant. Dave Allan was kind of the same sort, but likeable, at least to me in my early teens ;)
Slet