Alternative Comedy Was the Key Weapon of the Eighties

The politicians of the Eighties, by their lack of respect for long standing organizations, gave free license to the comics of the afternoon to exhibit the same lack of respect back. Satire has always been around, in the Eighties its lock-tugging, deferential nature, was cast down once and for all. Ben Elton and Harry Enfield, together with a of others, started to snipe at the current political tyranny with a callous precision that left the holders of office no time to react.Perhaps minus the sharp wit of men like Enfield and Elton, the culture of greed might have never been cowed or delivered to book. It never has been entirely routed, but as the darker aspect of the shenanigans, which saw unemployment as an effective way of managing inflation, was brought to the limelight via humor at least social mind was raised among ordinary men and women. Privately we nurtured dislike and waited for as soon as of our vengeance, while we laughed. This was the impetus, bubbling and growing, Tony and New Labour was swept by which onto the scene and which trounced the Thatcher dragon for good.So fully was the Conservative government of the afternoon tarred by Friday Night Live comedy that as a breed they'd never recover. The names of Heseltine, Joseph and Tebbit provoke sniggers among the satirical cognoscenti, even now, and so that you can stand any chance of a rebirth.There the modern Tories had to renounce any reference to their policies were other individuals who fought the great fight visit. We liked Arthur Daley's witty rendering of Eighties'values in Minder, therefore brilliantly evoked by George Cole, and, even funnier, David Jason's Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses. Whilst the politicians saw and laughed at Yes, Minister, an even more menacing revolution was going on under their noses. "No income tax, no VAT" was the rallying cry of an expanding black market version of Thatcher's Britain, and fundamentally its undoing. If you to produce viper, do not be surprised it it turns round and bites you on the bum!It has often been stated that the pen is mightier than the sword, and never much more was this true than during the alternative comedy surge of the Eighties. While our political leaders sneaked in policies that ruined a complete manufacturing base and impoverished thousands, the small man, the Baldrick, if you prefer, of our inner selves, was secretly planning their overthrow in such a subtle and funny way, that none of them also saw it coming.