Picture this... many moons have passed since I snapped my cassette recording of Dead and Alive. It was a common thing then because you had to stop, rewind and replay it over and over while you were writing the lyrics down! For some unknown, cosmic reason last November, I had an urge to dig out my DAAS VHS tapes and reminisce. After stealing my elderly mum and dad's VHS player and purchasing a thing to plug it in to the fucking 'smart' TV, I finally got to watch it. Then my youngest child appeared (19 years old) and watched with me. It was an awful experience. He took a while to start laughing. I was laughing and singing along and he kept looking at me... I think he was worried about my mental health, then he said "this feels really wrong. I feel like we are going to get cancelled!"
He was right! He loved the show. Got most of the political jokes. Both of my boys were raised right. Took them to a Flight of the Conchords show when they were 5 and 8 years old. But yeah, it was a bit sad. I know it was over 30 years since my friends and I would sing "Sailors arms" with harmonies and skip around the Catholic high school grounds in our uniforms singing the lost songs of Gilbert and Sullivan (the teachers only heard the 3 little maids from school are we) but Jesus H Christ on a bike, we (as a society) have gone so soft.
Why can't we make jokes about shit anymore? I'm a primary school teacher and I'm honestly sick of it. I have been teaching Year 6 for the past few years and at the start of each new school year, I have a class full of soft sooky ass kids who all what a ribbon for 'having a go'. We play a game and I give a prize to the winner and the others cry 'that's not fair'. Well, you should see them lose their shit when I tell them 'the winner gets a prize. The rest of you don't because you're all losers!'.
Out in the playground, a 10 year old will come up to me and say 'Billy said a rude word'. I say 'oh no'. Then they stare at me. I stare at them. They stare at me. Then they say 'he said the f word'. I say 'oh no'. They stare again. Then they say "He told me to fuck off". So I say "why didn't you?" You should see the shock on their faces!! Obviously, as a responsible adult and educator, I make it into a teachable moment and we discuss how words can't hurt you and all of that other shit, but seriously.
Thankyou to the good, the bad and the ugly for being brave and giving us what we all need... a good laugh at ourselves. You will always be 'our boys' and we love you for it.
Can we start a Go Fund Me to get Richard to do a gig? Just one?