Yesterday we posted about an out-of-control bulk carrier which, after losing its steering gear, destroyed a mansion on the banks of the Bosphorus. By my count, roughly half of the media reports described the ship as a tanker, because apparently, many in the non-maritime media think that all large merchant ships are tankers. Anyone who has spent time in shipping sooner or later expects the media to get at least the terminology wrong. With that in mind, we offer the video below from BBC2, in which Philomena Cunk explains what life must have been like on Drake’s ship, the Golden Hind, when they first circumcised the world.
Yes, this is satire. Philomena Cunk is a character developed by English actress, comedian, and writer, Diane Morgan. The clip, after the break, is from her BBC mockumentary series “Cunk on Britain.”
Face it, the news media is stupid!
The other day on a reported shooting the reporter said the shooter used a “semi-caliber” weapon.
And AR-15s are NOT assault weapons!
Morgan really nails it– the delivery style is so very familiar but the content so delightfully witless.
Phil, you do realize this is a satirical presentation? Although– as you suggest– satire focused on myopic gun-geekery could be pretty sweet: “Laughably the victim begged ‘please don’t shoot me with that machine gun’ when in fact the murderer was wielding a semi-automatic lightweight rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design, the patent of which had expired years before and which is now widely sold as a sporting rifle.”
I was sort of waiting for her to tell the folk etymology of the term “brass monkey” and the full phrase its is purportedly associated with in cold weather. All bunkum, balderdash, and gollywobblerosity.