h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Franklin, Colbert, and the Power of Truthiness - A87783817
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - U1590784

I'm sorry. This is an awfully long entry - especially when it doesn't even mention the Isle of Wight ONCE.

I hope it's as much fun to read as it was to research. Please check out some of the links. I mean this as a tribute to a very witty man who is an inspiration to us all.

May our jokes be half as good as his.

This is terrific and not too long at all.

At one point you spell out >Mister Rogers, though it is hardly ever spelt out; > Mr Rogers?

There are many easily-found explanations of Teapot Dome, but if you want a handy reference, try http://hnn.us/articles/550.html

>Colbert's 'truthiness' had met its mark. >This is unsettling; the usual phrase is 'met (his) match'. For 'mark' the common phrase is 'missed its mark'. How about 'hit its target'?

Again >holding the mirror up to reality is not the usual phrase; Shakespeare's Hamlet spoke of 'holding the mirror up to nature'.

Thanks for the link. I'll add that.

Mister Rogers is usually spelled Mister Rogers. It's a kids' show. Everybody knows him as 'Mister Rogers', not 'Mr Rogers'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkz13s54Eqk

I don't see anything wrong with 'met its mark'. It doesn't always have to be a cliche. But I'll reword that, and drop the Shakespeare.

Perhaps 'Colbert's truthiness had made its mark' ? Though I don't think that quite fits.

Nah. I just avoided the subject.

Marker's Mark. I'll drink to that.

This is a fine entry on the nature of truth and truthiness, Dmitri. I'm working on obtaining permission to use an image. If you want to see what we have in mind, visit the trello board. If you have something else in mind, please let me know.

HN

Oh, thanks for that, HN. I'll be sure to check it out.

Thank you for letting me know about Stephen Colbert. What a courageous guy. He got scanty laughs for his near-the-bone comments, and little enough applause from such a huge gathering.

By the way, if it's possible you could point the viewer of http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/192243-1 to 50 minutes into the clip.

That's the only link that seems to work.

He begins talking at 51.30

Ah, you mean, point out the point where Colbert is on? We could do that.

When you say, that's the only link that seems to work, do you mean you can't see the other links?

This is a great article, and Colbert sounds like a brilliant satirist.

I was a bit surprised when you said Colbert accused the press of sycophancy. Our press seem to be more voyeuristic than sycophantic.

A history of political satire might be interesting. I think it goes back quite a long way.

I think your assessment of the difference in press corps is spot on, MVP. If you watch Colbert's speech, you might see a bit of it in action. Helen Thomas was considered to be in 'poor taste' for asking, 'Why are we invading Iraq?'

Satire is indeed an old art - and a dangerous one. Doing that in any century up to the 18th could have landed you with legal penalties you don't even want to *think* about. Okay, if you want to think about them, think Clive Barker...

Franklin's approach was fresh, though, I think: have you SEEN political cartoons from that period? Of course you haven't. That's because they look like something some high school kid drew in study hall to mock the teacher.

The 'humour' is all in long, rambling text in balloons. Long, rambling text produced by a quill pen does not exactly foment revolution...

This was no doubt very droll, and it's English:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a45602/

Something about John Wilkes.

John Wilkes lived on the Isle of Wight between 1788 and 1797 (in my home town of Sandown)
Ha! I knew something Isle of Wight related would come along sooner or later

<BB<

Well spotted, that man.

18th and early 19th century political cartoons were fierce, scatological, unsparing.

http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/patriotism/images/gillray_hopes.jpg

But wordy, yes.

Any more comments on this?

Me? Late to the party? Never.

I got confused by the second aka, but that got explained further down. Nothing to see here....

"Colbert ironically remarked ---when interviewing a creationist member of the Texas School Board--- that he believed in deciding reality by majority vote.'Truthiness' contributes to the process of democratising reality."

-Any chance we could put the middle of this sentence at the beginning? I got there in the end but it took me a few goes to work out whether the 'he' was SC or the creationist. It might just be baby brain but there's a few of us with it out there.
-I think you're missing a space between the full stop and the apostrophe before 'Truthiness'.
-Democratising reality... I don't really know what that means. I know what the words mean, certainly, but I've not come across them together before. I'm not quite sure what I'm asking you to do here - the more I read it the more it makes sense but I've spend nearly twn minutes trying to put my finger on why this sentence is causing me so much trouble. I'll keep going but come back to this later.

"Colbert identified with Mr Bush on the grounds of 'truthiness', the idea that their wisdom was not learnt from books."

There's nothing wrong with this at all. I just like it rather a lot.

I'm not sure why Franklin gets to be in the title of this, given he is merely the appetiser for the main event. I think it stands just fine without him.

---

I'm still not sure about that ''Truthiness' in Action' section I mentioned above. I'll post this, and then have another think.

Hey, Vip, thanks!

I reworded that sentence.

I added an explanation of 'democratising reality' - the problem is, it sounds plausible, when you're supposed to say, er, that phrase that starts with a 'w'.

Then I went crazy and added a footnote about the Colbert/Wikipedia feud.

Personally, I'm jealous. There's 'wikilaity', thanks to Colbert. Where's the 'h2g2ality'?

Let me know if anything else is unclear.

I wanted Franklin in there as a warning that we were going to start back in history with the satire - but I'm open to suggestion. In fact, I'm very suggestible after sampling my gluten-free carrot birthday cake...blissed out, in fact...

Thank you for that explanation, especially the bit about Wikipedia. Somehow *that* definition makes it just click. Plus I love the part that Wikipedia had to lock down pages because of him. Elephants, eh.

You may be jealous about wikiality, but I'm jealous about your carrot cake. And does that mean it's your birthday? Many happy returns!

Yes, it is, thanks!

You're right - that titbit about Wikipedia was worth a note. I don't know why I didn't put it in before - probably came over all virtuous and didn't want to rub it in.