Latest / Mark and Pete / Paddington Parodied, Liberal Democrats in Decline and Showgirl Taylor Swift

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Paddington Parodied, Liberal Democrats in Decline and Showgirl Taylor Swift · Mark and Pete

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  Paddington parodied Liberal Democrats in decline and
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  showgirl Taylor Swift. Welcome to Mark and Pete.
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  We have three stories lined up with a saintly bear going rogue,
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  a party fading into political compost, and the High Priestess
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  of Pop selling everything but your soul.
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  So far, yes, this is Mark and Pete.
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  Here's our first. Story A sandwich short of a
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  picnic marmalade is made with citrus fruit and is a tongue
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  tangy, tasty treat. But if you cross a bear from
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  Peru, the result could be bitter sweet.
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  Well, it should be because the producers behind the hit
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  Paddington Films and the estate of his creator Michael Bond are
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  suing the company behind Spitting Image after they had
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  depicted the beloved bear as a foul mouthed podcast host.
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  Well, could it get any worse Now Mr. Pete?
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  I know that we all like a bit of a jive, a bit of humour, but
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  maybe in this particular case, while we know that Spitting
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  Images had some cutting edge humour, have they simply gone
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  too far in parroting? Paddington Bear, A lovely little
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  bear. Yes, well, I I think this this
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  if, if listeners will bear with me.
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  This is similar to the misguided or or going astray in your
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  comedy as was done by many people when they did a parody of
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  the character from some mothers to have them.
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  And so they would be doing a parody of a character who was a
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  comedy character. And in this case, they if if you
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  don't remember that, just remember the line a parody of a
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  comedy character that's already a parody character is fictional.
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  So if you doing a parody of Paddington Bear, you could make
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  fun of the fact that I don't know that it's it's not Bears
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  don't really talk. I don't know what how you would
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  make fun of him, but the fact is it's an amusing character
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  already. So what do you do doing making
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  him into some sort of a political figure in your satire
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  comedy? What?
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  I can't see what you're doing. I mean, the line calling,
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  calling him Pablo Escobert, that is amusing.
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  That's the fact. The one thing about it that's
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  funny. And I think this is my theory,
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  Mark, I think that that's what why they did it.
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  I think they came up with that joke and thought, oh, we'll run
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  with that. And whoever, whoever the editor
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  is who was meant to stop them from going, going astray, didn't
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  pull them up short. You see what I'm saying is they
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  didn't go too far. They went astray.
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  They made fun of the wrong sort of character.
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  It's a, it's a comedy character already.
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  What are you doing? Well, what's ironic is that
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  spitting the Images parody of Paddington is where he's
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  actually depicted hosting a podcast, ironically with Prince
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  Harry, which in itself is a is an odd scenario, but where the
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  bear is seen swearing, reading adverts for guns and robot sex
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  dolls and admitting to taking cocaine.
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  Now, maybe there is some association there that you can
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  bring some, you know, alignment with Prince Harry.
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  Maybe, maybe not. But essentially what they've
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  done is maybe misread the room here because to your point here
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  is that this is really a children's character.
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  And OK, it has been manifested into films which have appealed
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  to adults as well. But at the end of the day,
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  really, maybe turning it into a sinister character that way
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  seems to get to people's emotional behaviour.
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  Because I think it's not only upset adults, um, it's upset
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  children, it's upset people in the industry.
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  I think to your point about the joke, yes, if we were to take
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  the line of thinking offline where behind the scenes the
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  writers thought this would be amusing, I think maybe one of
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  the reasons commercially is that Spitting Image is still trying
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  to bring its brand back and they've got themselves back in
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  the news. I'm not sure necessarily in the
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  right way. Yeah, that's.
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  Right. Yeah, Well, yeah.
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  And I would say this, I don't think this is a case for us
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  bringing in censorship. I don't think the government
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  should step in and stop this satire show from satirising
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  whoever they like. What I think is they they are
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  open to being sued. And it does seem to me that
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  it's, it's damaging the brand of Paddington Bear because it's
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  taking their nice cuddly bear, as you said, an amusing, funny
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  character and making it actually unfunny apart from the name.
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  So, you know, they're not, they're not doing what they're
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  say they're doing. They're not satirising, they're
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  actually damaging the brand of a cuddly bear and giving it a
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  different image. And it that's not, that's not
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  covered under free speech. I wouldn't say well, it it is
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  covered under free speech in in the in the sense that, well, you
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  can say it if you want, but there are consequences.
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  Well, indeed, I mean, of course, obviously one of the things
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  about a brand is that it's a commercial entity.
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  So coming from my perspective on a business level, you know, the,
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  the brand of, of Paddington has been quite long standing.
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  I mean, when Michael Bond produced his first books, they
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  had immediate success. In fact, you know, he he was
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  very much this little creature, cuddly little creature coming
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  from Peru. And his first book was in a
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  scene made in 1958 and it was a bear called Paddington.
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  And this was obviously very popular.
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  Now Michael Bond, who and had worked for media companies like
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  the BBC and turned his attentions to writing books and
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  really got a lot of success also through the 1970s and early 80s
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  when it became a children's TV series.
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  And of course, obviously what's then happened is a lot of people
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  that have thought this could grow even more.
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  And as we've seen, this has now manifested itself into a
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  franchise. And I also think that one of the
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  things that is the other side to this is that the little cuddly
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  Paddington is actually a character in Paddington.
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  This is the station in London. So he's depicted.
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  If you actually go there, there's this, but Bronze Bear
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  actually there in Paddington Station, which of course is
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  where he first arrived in London, for anyone who's read
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  the stories. So to me, to parody it in that
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  rather sinister way, I can see why people would have been,
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  Yeah. And I don't see it as, I don't
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  see it as being satire. When you satirize something,
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  yes, something that should be ridiculed, either because
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  someone's corrupt or they're using their power wrongly,
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  there's something, there's something there to make fun of
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  because they're doing something wrong.
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  There's two things. One is Paddington is just a
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  lovable bear. What?
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  What are you actually satirising by just switching his character
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  over? And the second thing is it's a
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  fictional character. So you're not really satirising
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  anything. You're just taking someone
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  else's creation and using it. Hence, they're open to being
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  sued. Correct.
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  He's not a politician. He is as you say, I'm afraid
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  folks, breaking story, breaking news.
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  He is actually fictional, sorry, which unfortunately, as I say is
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  does actually prove the point that some brands there are some
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  boundaries when it comes to critique.
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  Well, we move on to a different story.
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  Now this is something where sadly actually these are real
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  characters but in some cases maybe in decline.
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  This is the burning question. The Liberal Democrats is a party
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  no one remembers and faded from politics like dying embers.
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  Now comes the burning question or fiery suggestion.
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  Where are the flaming members? Yes, indeed, that's.
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  What? That's what Ed Davies say, yes.
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  Well, it's remarkable that despite the fact that the
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  Liberal Democrats had one of the most successful achievements in
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  the last general election in in 2024, the number of liberal the.
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  Liberal Democrat Party. Members has declined under Sir
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  Ed Davy. It's gone from 118,000 in 2020
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  now down to just 60,000 members and and is predicted to decline
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  even further. Now is this just simply that
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  many people are disillusioned with politics or is it something
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  more? Are they actually more
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  disillusioned with the Liberal Democrats?
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  Mr. Pete, I ask you, what do you think is going on here?
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  Because this is a massive decline for the Democrats,
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  isn't? It well the the short answer to
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  that could be summarised by saying 2 words.
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  Nigel Farage I think that what's happening is that the those who
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  don't like the current government or are
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  disenfranchised for Tory, Tory voters, because the
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  Conservatives let them down so badly by not being Conservative
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  for the 14 years that they were in power.
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  They where do they go? They're not going to go to the
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  Liberal Democrats. They just, they're, they're not
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  really the, the, the party to oppose what's happening, what
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  the Labour Party are doing. They haven't got a vastly
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  different agenda. And the Conservatives, you know,
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  certainly didn't. They were, if anything, more
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  left wing than the Labour Party. So where are they going to go?
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  All these people are going to the are going to reform or maybe
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  to the the new party set up. Is it advance Uki forget the
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  name of it now, which which is still still small, but it's more
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  likely. I think they're more likely to
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  gain membership and in fact they they gained, I think I believe
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  it was 30,000 within a week of them being with them being
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  launched. And if the Liberal Democrats
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  have less than 60,000, well, that's that's a significant
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  number. So I think that's that's what's
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  happened. They've lost any sort of
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  relevance that they had. And just one final point before
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  hand, back to you, Mr. Marker, that I have to say that the the
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  role of the role on the right, who is taken by mainly by Reform
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  UK and Nigel Farage as leader of people who are disaffected with
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  the current government, They're not going to go for the Liberal
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  Democrats on the left. Well, they're not going to go
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  for the Liberal Democrats. If anything, they'll go for the
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  Green Party who've now really become, yes, the Marxist.
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  So what we have is a position where the Liberal Democrats who
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  weren't that relevant in the 1st place and they're completely
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  irrelevant. And Oh yeah, I said that was
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  going to be the final thing. The other thing, other thing
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  that I would say fight sort of weighs them down is Ed Davey.
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  Yes, See, no more. Well, the point here is, is that
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  you're right. Let's start with one thing.
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  On the periphery, there are other parties that are seeing an
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  uplift and there's a number of reasons for this.
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  So if we take the Green Party, so the Green Party of England
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  and Wales says that Nas has 90,000 members, that's a 91%
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  increase on figures of 2020 to the present day.
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  So you can see there is a bit of a rise, but one of the reasons,
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  of course, is that they've got a very clear agenda.
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  The word green sort of comes very much to mind and they've
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  got a cause whether you agree with it, whether you disagree
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  with it. But the point is that it's very
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  distinctive in terms of what they're trying to go for.
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  The Liberal Democrats, in my opinion, are struggling to
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  really get a sense of identity. And I know that Ed Davey has
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  tried to do all sorts of very strange things in terms of PR
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  stunts to get his name out there.
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  Well, that's all very well and something my people might say.
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  It's very entertaining, but it's not irrelevant.
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  It's not really getting to the point.
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  If you look at somebody like the Nigel Farage factor, he's very
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  much focused on the substance of of his subjects and his policy.
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  And then that's the thing which I think is really resonating
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  with the public. But I also think there's
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  something else and that is you've highlighted about the
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  challenges that the Conservatives have had and also
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  Labour. I still see that what is
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  happening now is a lot of people are seeing the Liberal Democrats
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  as being part of that sort of traditional sets of of
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  politicians or parties that have failed over recent times.
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  And so in many ways, they've just not cut through and and
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  been able to explain to the public why they can address some
• 13:34
  of these big things that happen on everybody's day-to-day lives,
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  whether it be the cost of energy, whether it be the cost
• 13:40
  of food, whether it be just taxes rising, whether it.
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  Be whatever. It is.
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  I don't think anybody could really point to many, many clear
• 13:47
  policies. So maybe, and let me ask you
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  this final question before we move on to the next subject.
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  Do you think that the Liberal Democrats should change their
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  leader or is it really more of a lost cause?
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  Well, there are two ways changing the leader would be a
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  good, a good thing to do. I think Ed, Ed Davy hasn't done
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  them any favours, has he? I mean, he, he's now a bit of a
• 14:12
  laughingstock. I don't think he's got the right
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  strategy for them. Not just change the leader, of
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  course, as part of a whole rethink, change the leader.
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  But I think that they are all lost scores.
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  I think the, the point you made there was just thinking that was
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  a good one. You, you were linking them with
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  the old guard, the what's known as the UNI party, who seem to be
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  all trying to do the same thing now, although they have some
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  distinctives. It's how they're seen, it's
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  perception, isn't it? So there's been as part of the
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  old guard, the thing to be kicked to touch Labour and
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  Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, they're all,
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  they're all the old guy. We don't want them anymore.
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  What they did has failed. They all lumped together.
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  And I think that that you're right, that's probably the main
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  thing actually that's dragging them down.
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  We see Labour and Conservatives going to new lows and they're
• 14:59
  just seen as part of that whole package.
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  Afraid so? Well, let's just change the mood
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  music. A Swift catching if you're
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  breaking lots of records with all your pop smash hits.
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  The sound of cash comes in a flash from the noises it
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  transmits. Yes, indeed, Here once again,
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  yes, somebody we all know and love Taylor Swift.
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  Yes, Taylor Swift's latest album, The Life of a Showgirl
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  has once again secured tremendous numbers of volumes of
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  sales, but also new literally records in the pop industry.
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  What's right? Quite remarkable that this
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  particular her album is really gathering pace.
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  Mr. Pete, we know that we've talked about Taylor Swift in the
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  past, but it's still continues. This is a pop machine.
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  This is somebody who really knows her game.
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  Let me ask you, first of all, why do you think Taylor Swift is
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  so popular today after many, many years of success?
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  Well, this, I mean, the short answer would be she's got a good
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  agent, but I think it's, it's a bit more than that.
• 16:09
  It's what we, if you're going to be successful to the extent that
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  she has been in today's market, I think what you've got to be is
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  you've got to be able to appeal to as broader base of people as
• 16:22
  possible. And I just think she's very,
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  very bland. You can, you know, she's
• 16:28
  listenable to, but very, very blunt.
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  And that's my take on it. I'm not an expert on pop music.
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  I don't listen to pop music much at all.
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  So what she seems like to me is I had someone looking in from
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  the outside. I don't see the attraction of
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  her music or of her. I don't find her that
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  interesting other than she seems to sell lots and lots of music.
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  So what I think is if something is, it's a bit like, you know
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  what, what is the best selling food?
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  Is it delicious caviar or is it, you know, McDonald's burgers or,
• 17:04
  you know, it's something that's bland.
• 17:07
  It's OK and it's but it's not offensive in any way.
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  And that's, that's that's my take anyway.
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  Perhaps it's too cynical or. They say he's a popular expert.
• 17:19
  Well, here's my take on. It so do do do feel free to
• 17:25
  write it because I actually in this case really, really don't
• 17:28
  know what I'm talking about. I think we've, we've, you've
• 17:32
  demonstrated very clearly. Here's my take on this.
• 17:35
  I think that one of the things that's happened in her career is
• 17:38
  she's transitioned very well from sort of country music into
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  pop music. And one of the things that she's
• 17:44
  also talked about in her career where she's drawn upon her own
• 17:48
  sort of of life experiences where originally she was perhaps
• 17:52
  sort of reflecting more on some of the break UPS, some of the
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  more tragic areas of her life, albeit that commercially it's
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  done very well. But what I think that she's been
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  quite pleased about, particularly with this album,
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  that's the life of a showgirl is what she's described as almost
• 18:09
  like the happy side of her life. Thinking this could be a risk.
• 18:12
  Because if if you look at some of the albums that she's had in
• 18:15
  the past, like the 2020 fours, the Tortured Dead, Tortured
• 18:19
  Poets Department and the 2022's Midnights, what you see here is
• 18:24
  is a little bit more of a change of mood.
• 18:27
  And I think that in some ways, this is where maybe her romance
• 18:33
  with the footballer Travis Kelsey and he and he's
• 18:37
  obviously, you know, really made a difference to her in terms of
• 18:40
  her outlook. And, and I think that like a lot
• 18:42
  of pop stars, what they do is that they they call upon their
• 18:45
  personal lives and that's reflected in their music and
• 18:48
  also in the shows that they produce.
• 18:51
  I would say what's interesting, if you look at her performances,
• 18:55
  if you look back, you know, many, many years ago, she was
• 18:58
  quite demure. She was quite sort of sober in
• 19:01
  the way that she performed. Look at what she's doing today.
• 19:04
  She's very sort of outgoing. She's very almost provocative.
• 19:08
  I would say that, I dare say, and I'm going to be slightly
• 19:11
  controversial, but for anyone who's seen some of her latest
• 19:15
  album, particularly on the front cover and even some of the
• 19:18
  videos, they're slightly provocative in the way that
• 19:21
  she's dressed. I'm surprised she hasn't been
• 19:23
  criticized. But what it does say is this is
• 19:25
  a person who's enjoying life and why not?
• 19:28
  I mean, she's becoming very, very successful.
• 19:33
  And I don't see it stopping. I think that unless that we see
• 19:37
  pop music changing and maybe ironically, society changing.
• 19:42
  You mentioned about the idea of the bland element and I'm going
• 19:45
  to take this is where I do think that musically I think she's
• 19:50
  good for today. But I don't think that the music
• 19:53
  she's producing is going to have this longevity that you would
• 19:56
  have seen say from. And I'm just going to pick some
• 19:58
  of the. Obvious.
• 19:59
  You know, candidates, you know, The Beatles music or The Rolling
• 20:03
  Stones or U2 or The Beach Boys. I mean, these are these are
• 20:08
  people who've got very, very distinctive music reflective of
• 20:10
  the times. Their music has lasted the
• 20:13
  course of time. I'm not sure that Taylor Swift
• 20:16
  at this moment in time. Can do that, to have that
• 20:19
  longevity over decades to come, but who knows?
• 20:23
  She's still a young woman, she's still very successful and I
• 20:27
  don't see any reason why that she's going to stop in the near
• 20:30
  future. I think she's got the backing
• 20:31
  from her music producers and, and clearly she's got a very
• 20:37
  strong following. So for me, I think commercially,
• 20:41
  I'm going to come from the commercial side, which is, yeah,
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  keep it going. More of it.
• 20:46
  It's she's also having the Halo effect, which is something that
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  often we don't always see. And what I mean by that is if
• 20:53
  you look at any of her concerts that have happened in the recent
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  times, they have contributed to the economy enormously.
• 21:01
  Yes. How many people can say that?
• 21:03
  Yeah, yeah, yes, that's right. And just to show how when it
• 21:08
  comes to pop music, you shouldn't listen to me.
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  I find her very bland. And I just thought that that was
• 21:15
  the main reason because, you know, she wasn't going to offend
• 21:19
  everyone. But as you said, you're pointing
• 21:21
  out, which I wasn't, I was aware that she wrote slightly nudely
• 21:25
  songs saying how terrible it is that a boyfriend had left and
• 21:28
  that sort of thing. And, you know, that didn't
• 21:31
  interest me. But of course it interests other
• 21:33
  people. But it's interesting thing just
• 21:36
  someone send someone sent in this that you could take a line
• 21:43
  from one of the songs from her latest album, the The Fate of
• 21:48
  Ophelia. Keep it 100.
• 21:51
  OK. It says you the line.
• 21:54
  Here's a line from this song. You dug me out of my grave and
• 21:57
  saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia.
• 22:00
  Ophelia, of course, from a Shakespearean play who sadly
• 22:04
  dies and is left drowned, dead but still beautiful in a river.
• 22:09
  And you dug me out of that grave.
• 22:11
  It could almost be from a Christian song.
• 22:13
  So yeah, well, maybe, maybe she has got something to offer.
• 22:17
  Who knows? I just give that sort of
• 22:18
  positive comment at the end. But yes, certainly she's having
• 22:22
  a big impact. But yes, as you point out, Mark,
• 22:27
  does it, does that really mean that she's going to be
• 22:30
  remembered in years to come? Well, if we're still going in
• 22:33
  years to come, we'll post, we'll come back to it.
• 22:36
  Well, here's my final suggestion.
• 22:38
  So Taylor Swift, come on the show.
• 22:39
  But more importantly, how about this?
• 22:41
  Why don't you just right the wrongs?
• 22:43
  Write a song about Paddington Bear, Yes Or maybe.
• 22:48
  About the Liberal Democrats, no, I think featured Ed Davey in
• 22:52
  your next show and. Even better, right off the back
• 22:56
  of the coattails of a showgirl. Well.
• 23:01
  That's, that's really going to be it from a marker beat for
• 23:04
  this. We would remember to go to
• 23:06
  markerbeat.com and make sure you're subscribed.
• 23:09
  It's, it's on the the Spreaker, the podcast network, and you
• 23:13
  just make sure you subscribe to that.
• 23:14
  The thing about doing that is you make you can then make a
• 23:18
  comment on this and in fact on every episode.
• 23:20
  And we just love to hear from you.
• 23:22
  But that's it for Mark and myself for this week.
• 23:24
  Thanks very much for listening. Catch you next time.