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A review by sarahetc
Tough Crowd: How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy by Graham Linehan
4.0
The gist of the book is variably excellent, but the construction is uneven-- probably because the saga is still unfolding and will continue to for any number of years. You can read this as roughly two sections: first, Linehan on his career as a writer; second, Linehan on his career as a lightning rod for politics and public discourse in defense of women and girls.
Part One: Writing starts with quite a few details and a lot of names and places and it would all have probably made a lot more sense if I were ten years older and Irish. The detail level decreases as he goes on. There are heaps of details about the littlest parts of Father Ted. Again, I would probably understand (and care) more if I were 10 years old. Never seen it but I may seek it out at this point. If any streaming services will deign to allow us plebes to watch programming written by Wrongthink Heretics. And then Black Books gets a little bit of time and I was thoroughly twitterpated at the details because Bernard Black is my spirit animal. Linehan writes that an average day developing and writing the first season of the show was Dylan Moran smoking, ranting and pacing for two and a half hours while Linehan wrote, trying to capture quotes, until Moran said, "Well, is it time for lunch then?" And that was the day. A man after my own heart. And then I was greatly disappointed in his coverage of The IT Crowd. Perhaps it's because, as he stated over and over again, he left out many names and details so as not to implicate other creatives by association. Who was it? Berry? Ayoade? My vote is Chris O'Dowd, but not for any real good reason. Anyway, it was short and it sucked and I would like more.
And then comes a break and we move into part two, connected to part one via his inspiration for The IT Crowd. He's always been a computer dude; he screwed up and bought some Alienware to game on in the 90s; cue house-call IT guy hilarity. The point is, Linehan, like Douglas Adams before him, believed in technology, the power of the internet to bring people together, and loved living in the future. He also thought his progressive politics were impeccable-- well known, beloved, BAFTA-bedecked writer who was instrumental in helping to change Irish law around homosexuality and abortion. The later because he was, and apparently ever had been, a die-hard feminist in the second/third wave Greer tradition. So when he became aware of the troubling movement encompassed by the word "trans," he saw clear evidence of harm to women and girls, and to hard-won gay rights. And spoke up, thinking surely his fellow travelers would agree. Nope. He can canceled, if such a word can apply when the consequences are not merely social disapprobation or even platform banning (both of which were swift and certain) but divorce, the risk of estrangement from his children, near-bankruptcy, and the threat of prison.
The second half of the book references the first, but only very obliquely, hence my uneven construction note. It starts with a general gloss of relevant terms by relevant authorities and a brief history of the trans movement/debate starting sometime in the early 21st century with references to the collective cultural memory of those of us born way back in the 1900s. And then walks the reader through some of the more egregious examples of self-ID, including an Irish psychopath Barbie Kardashian, whose crimes and promises of crimes were all about torturing women, who self-identified as a woman and so was housed in a women's prison-- before apparently being released on bail, then recaptured and moved to the men's unit. And then he gets into the entirely approved establishment torture of children that was Tavistock.
All of this was written before the release of the WPATH Files, which are a nightmare, and not simply because they are a nightmare of tautology. Good on Glinner for his part in getting them out there.
I don't know how many people are like me and are both highly gender critical and really, really into Black Books and The IT Crowd, but if you are one, this is for you. Friend me up.
Part One: Writing starts with quite a few details and a lot of names and places and it would all have probably made a lot more sense if I were ten years older and Irish. The detail level decreases as he goes on. There are heaps of details about the littlest parts of Father Ted. Again, I would probably understand (and care) more if I were 10 years old. Never seen it but I may seek it out at this point. If any streaming services will deign to allow us plebes to watch programming written by Wrongthink Heretics. And then Black Books gets a little bit of time and I was thoroughly twitterpated at the details because Bernard Black is my spirit animal. Linehan writes that an average day developing and writing the first season of the show was Dylan Moran smoking, ranting and pacing for two and a half hours while Linehan wrote, trying to capture quotes, until Moran said, "Well, is it time for lunch then?" And that was the day. A man after my own heart. And then I was greatly disappointed in his coverage of The IT Crowd. Perhaps it's because, as he stated over and over again, he left out many names and details so as not to implicate other creatives by association. Who was it? Berry? Ayoade? My vote is Chris O'Dowd, but not for any real good reason. Anyway, it was short and it sucked and I would like more.
And then comes a break and we move into part two, connected to part one via his inspiration for The IT Crowd. He's always been a computer dude; he screwed up and bought some Alienware to game on in the 90s; cue house-call IT guy hilarity. The point is, Linehan, like Douglas Adams before him, believed in technology, the power of the internet to bring people together, and loved living in the future. He also thought his progressive politics were impeccable-- well known, beloved, BAFTA-bedecked writer who was instrumental in helping to change Irish law around homosexuality and abortion. The later because he was, and apparently ever had been, a die-hard feminist in the second/third wave Greer tradition. So when he became aware of the troubling movement encompassed by the word "trans," he saw clear evidence of harm to women and girls, and to hard-won gay rights. And spoke up, thinking surely his fellow travelers would agree. Nope. He can canceled, if such a word can apply when the consequences are not merely social disapprobation or even platform banning (both of which were swift and certain) but divorce, the risk of estrangement from his children, near-bankruptcy, and the threat of prison.
The second half of the book references the first, but only very obliquely, hence my uneven construction note. It starts with a general gloss of relevant terms by relevant authorities and a brief history of the trans movement/debate starting sometime in the early 21st century with references to the collective cultural memory of those of us born way back in the 1900s. And then walks the reader through some of the more egregious examples of self-ID, including an Irish psychopath Barbie Kardashian, whose crimes and promises of crimes were all about torturing women, who self-identified as a woman and so was housed in a women's prison-- before apparently being released on bail, then recaptured and moved to the men's unit. And then he gets into the entirely approved establishment torture of children that was Tavistock.
All of this was written before the release of the WPATH Files, which are a nightmare, and not simply because they are a nightmare of tautology. Good on Glinner for his part in getting them out there.
I don't know how many people are like me and are both highly gender critical and really, really into Black Books and The IT Crowd, but if you are one, this is for you. Friend me up.