Bradley Cooper meets a Christmas Cracker

I’ve not posted in a while and this is due to John Lennon. Not that he was responsible in any way for this, this, but more that his quip “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” rather neatly sums up the last few weeks for me.

One of the things that has vexed me over the last few days has been the perplexing outrage surrounding Bradley Cooper and his decision to wear a prosthetic nose when playing Leonard Bernstein in a film about the composer. I’m perplexed because the outrage didn’t come from his family, because they issued a statement to the effect they were fine with it. I’m also perplexed because if he hadn’t worn a prosthetic nose to play Bernstein, the professionally outraged would’ve been outraged by that. But mostly I’m perplexed by the idea which permeates modern culture that has it that is more important that you share either ethic or cultural similarities with the character you are playing, than any other factor. That it is the actors perceived appropriateness for the role, as determined by an ever changing cadre voices seemingly beholden to an equally ever changing criteria, rather than talent which is all important.

But of course, this being the modern world in which we live, exceptions and contradictions apply. The entire MCU for example. That gets a free pass. So to do the ‘Batman’ films and the ‘Harry Potter’ films. Anything with either ghosts, vampires, zombies or aliens as well. Why aren’t those subjected to a similar level of opprobrium? Because we know that Iron Man and Batman aren’t real, that wizards don’t exists, and that the only zombies you’ll ever see will be if you happen to near a club at 5am on a Saturday morning.

No-one picks up the cultural cudgels to beat an actor with when they play a serial killer. No-one is suggesting only serial killers can play serial killers. But why aren’t they? Why can’t Lucy Letby be allowed on day release so she can have another career? When exactly does a demand for appropriateness become inappropriate?

What some people conveniently overlook when it suits them to do so is the fact that actors act. They have a job, which is to utter words others have written, to utter those words as directed by someone else. Their purpose is to entertain.

And how entertaining or not Cooper is as Bernstein, nobody knows. The film premieres in Venice next month. The professionally outraged are outraged by a trailer of a film that they haven’t seen. It seems that the willing suspension of disbelief, which an audience needs to make most creative endeavours succeed, has been suspended all too willing by them.

Equally perplexing and equally unfunny, the 10 best one liners at the Edinburgh Fringe were announced today. Here they are

  1. I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah – Lorna Rose Treen 
  2. The most British thing I’ve ever heard? A lady who said ‘Well I’m sorry, but I don’t apologise.’ – Liz Guterbock 
  3. Last year I had a great joke about inflation. But it’s hardly worth it now – Amos Gill 
  4. When women gossip we get called bitchy; but when men do it’s called a podcast – Sikisa 
  5. I thought I’d start off with a joke about The Titanic – just to break the ice – Masai Graham
  6. How do coeliac Germans greet each other? Gluten tag – Frank Lavender
  7. My friend got locked in a coffee place overnight. Now he only ever goes into Starbucks, not the rivals. He’s Costa-phobic – Roger Swift
  8. I entered the ‘How not to surrender’ competition and I won hands down – Bennett Arron
  9. Nationwide must have looked pretty silly when they opened their first branch – William Stone 
  10. My grandma describes herself as being in her “twilight years” which I love because they’re great films – Daniel Foxx 

To me, a one liner should be wholly separate from the rest of the comics set, be a self-contained burst of hilarity. You wouldn’t even get these in a Christmas cracker. They’re about as funny as a kick in the bollocks