'Satire has had a busy year': how to laugh at the year that was
From Trump to Brexit, 2017 has been both a gift and a curse for comedians. Andy Zaltzman looks back
Barely a year goes by these days without some kind of major news event occurring. Time was, not so long ago in the grand scheme of things, when nothing much would happen for a couple of centuries. Some historians (OK, Wikipedia) note that in the year 1317, there were only four events. It must have been a testing time to be a newsreader or topical panel show comedian; but was the planet happier, unencumbered by things that were happening, and people’s reactions to things that were happening, preoccupied as they were by humble pursuits such as avoiding death? Who knows.
Now, however, news never sleeps (which might explain why it has become so short-tempered and erratic). As the first year in history in which the most powerful person in the world has been an internet troll with access to a Twitter account, 2017 has been even more newsically unrelenting than its predecessor, role model and inspiration, 2016.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2Cac5yM
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