“Every time you fire it, you take it apart and oil it.”
Posted: January 21st, 2003 Comments OffTonight, Channel 4 repeated Bremner, Bird & Fortune’s superb Christmas special, Between Iraq And A Hard Place. As with everything they do, it’s a mixture of great gags, duff gags, impressions and surprisingly large quantities of hard facts. Thankfully, even if you missed it (or, for some bizarre reason, are not in Britain at the moment) you can both watch the whole thing and read the transcript (HTML version in the nav bar) on the title="Didn't we do this one already?">website.
There was the usual stuff you’d expect from a satirical treatment of the situation: fingering the Americans (and British, French and Germans) for giving Saddam the goodies they’re now attacking him for owning (see also Bill Hicks’ “Shane” routine), the corporate criminals Dubya is sharing the White House with, etc.
Better, though, was the history lesson: A ruling dictatorship in Iraq, bombing & gassing the Kurds, holding opposition-less elections and generally shitting all over the Mid-East… Saddam’s only copying what the British Empire did 80 years earlier. (scroll past the crap “Bush & Condy” routine) And the “George Parr” sketch was fab as ever. (Thanks for the pointer, Sean!)