Hollywood backs Labour

By Dan McCurry

I’ve just been on a spying mission to ConservativeHome and it was hilarious. I only meant to have a nose around, but there was a group bemoaning their lot at the way Hollywood portrays the centre-right. The writer, Peter Whittle, began the piece by describing the scene in Misery where loony fan Kathy Bates holds novelist James Caan prisoner and smashes his ankles to stop him escaping. Amongst the devices the film uses to convey the nasty character of Bates is a scrap book which includes a political memento; a “Vote Nixon” flyer.

Each blog-contributor miserably offered yet another example of how put upon they are. There’s the Family Guy episode when Stewie and Brian are in Nazi Germany, steal some Storm-Troopers clothes only to discover a McCain/Palin “08” badge on one of the uniforms.

When multiple murderer Sideshow Bob stands as the Republican candidate for mayor of Springfield, his campaign team includes Rainier Wolfcastle, Count Dracula and, worst of all, C Montgomery Burns.
Then there was the TV show ‘Dead Like Me’ featuring a teenage girl who had died and become a ‘reaper’. During a political discussion she was asked what her politics were. She didn’t know. So the questioner suggested she, “Might be a Republican?” Her response, dripping with disgust: “I don’t know what I am, but I’m definitely not THAT!”

The simple fact is that The West Wing simply wouldn’t have worked with a right-winger as the president. How long could our attention be held by a man who wants to invade for national interests rather than to stave off genocide?

However, probably the best gag has to go to the Simpsons for the moment when the family drive past the annual conferences of the Democrats and Republicans, conveniently held side-by-side. The writers must have thought, “Why don’t we put the truth in their slogans rather than the message they’d like us to put?” So they had the Democrat hoardings display “We Can’t Govern!” while the Republican hoardings claimed, “We’re just plain nasty!”