Of course it’s bite has gone. Its a titter sheet for public school boys who never grew up, who snigger at the poor or the illierate. The bite of Paul Foot has never been replaced, the ethos of Christopher Booker and Willie Rushton long gone. If Capn Bob were alive today he wouldn’t take it seriously. The current editor is now a minor celebrity giggling, smirking and lolling in his seat at his own cleverness, at least Paul Merton manages to maintain a veneer of discomfort. The humour is boneless and aimed mainly at those who cannot reply. See the egregious Dumb Britain column, laughing at the horribly wrong answers by contestants on TV quiz shows. Trying to get a laugh out of the uneducated is not satire, its just taking the piss out of the ill informed. There is no anger, edge or crusade left in the Eye. The silence from Richard Ingrams is deafening.
Andrew Morrey
3 years ago
I stopped subscribing several years ago – you simply can’t have a satirical magazine that is so in step with establishment opinion. The sad thing is that it’s a target rich environment out there but those targets are all off limits. Perhaps a new editor is the answer but they will need to be an outsider themselves.
Andrew Russell
3 years ago
Good article – it’s true that the best part of the Eye is the reportage in the back pages. As the legacy media fades away, the pages devoted to contemporary journalism look very tired now. As for the satire, it often relies on ancient tropes from its heyday – which aren’t very funny. The Christmas advert section is another idea that looks incredibly stale. I used to read it from cover to cover, but now I’ll just glance through it and forget about it. The funniest thing it has are the cartoons by Robert Thompson – maybe they should make him editor so Hislop can spend more time with his television career.
Of course it’s bite has gone. Its a titter sheet for public school boys who never grew up, who snigger at the poor or the illierate. The bite of Paul Foot has never been replaced, the ethos of Christopher Booker and Willie Rushton long gone. If Capn Bob were alive today he wouldn’t take it seriously. The current editor is now a minor celebrity giggling, smirking and lolling in his seat at his own cleverness, at least Paul Merton manages to maintain a veneer of discomfort. The humour is boneless and aimed mainly at those who cannot reply. See the egregious Dumb Britain column, laughing at the horribly wrong answers by contestants on TV quiz shows. Trying to get a laugh out of the uneducated is not satire, its just taking the piss out of the ill informed. There is no anger, edge or crusade left in the Eye. The silence from Richard Ingrams is deafening.
I stopped subscribing several years ago – you simply can’t have a satirical magazine that is so in step with establishment opinion. The sad thing is that it’s a target rich environment out there but those targets are all off limits. Perhaps a new editor is the answer but they will need to be an outsider themselves.
Good article – it’s true that the best part of the Eye is the reportage in the back pages. As the legacy media fades away, the pages devoted to contemporary journalism look very tired now. As for the satire, it often relies on ancient tropes from its heyday – which aren’t very funny. The Christmas advert section is another idea that looks incredibly stale. I used to read it from cover to cover, but now I’ll just glance through it and forget about it. The funniest thing it has are the cartoons by Robert Thompson –
maybe they should make him editor so Hislop can spend more time with his television career.