Andrew Clay: “After a comedy show, one is often mobbed by the ladies” (Mar. 28, 2013)

28 March 2013 at 5:22 pm

“After a comedy show, one is often mobbed by the ladies”
Angry boyfriends target Tall Poppy Andrew Clay
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Thursday 28 April 2013
Jim Mora, Andrew Clay, Lisa Scott

Andrew Clay is a comedian, who a couple of years ago was paid to go to Afghanistan, ostensibly to entertain New Zealand’s occupation troops, but in fact to ensure he never again uttered a critical word about government policy. His comedic comrade MIKE KING was similarly co-opted, and even made a ridiculous television program about his trip. Clay likes to say he is a liberal, but every time he appears on The Panel he manages to froth and rave against such irritating trivialities as prisoners’ rights, or even human rights in general. Maybe he’s been out drinking with soldiers too often….

JIM MORA: We start with the very sad story of Jesse Ryder, who is in an induced coma after a very bad assault in Christchurch early this morning.

ANDREW CLAY: This is where I STOP being a liberal. I don’t CARE about the human rights of people who do this. Part of me just wants to HURT the people who did this to Jesse Ryder. Now I know I shouldn’t say that, but that’s the way I feel.

MORA: Mmmm, mmmm.

LISA SCOTT: Mmmmm.

ANDREW CLAY: We shouldn’t talk like that about people but….

LISA SCOTT: It’s okay for scum.

JIM MORA: Hmmmmmm…. We have this ugly thing in the New Zealand male psyche that makes us pick fights with sports stars, don’t we.

LISA SCOTT: It’s the Tall Poppy syndrome isn’t it.

ANDREW CLAY: It sure is. I’ve experienced it myself. After a comedy show, one is often mobbed by the ladies, and I have more than once felt the angry looks of male punters. Although I’ve never actually been assaulted, I’ve felt in imminent danger on several occasions and had to walk away. It’s the Tall Poppy syndrome.

JIM MORA: [politely dubious] Hmmmmmm….

LISA SCOTT: [skeptical] Mmmmmmm…

….4:30 News and Weather….

Soapbox……

MORA: Okay, here’s where we find out what our Panelists have been thinking about. Andrew Clay, what’s been on your mind lately?

ANDREW CLAY: I want to talk about Cambodia…. [He speaks for several minutes about how horrified he was to recently learn that the Khmer Rouge had been supported by the United States, Great Britain, and their vassals like Australia and New Zealand.] …. and to think that the Khmer Rouge was SUPPORTED by the United States for political reasons! It just does my head in!

MORA: [thoughtfully] It was ever thus, though, wasn’t it. Lisa, what’s been on YOUR mind?

LISA SCOTT: I’ve been reading about Hugh Hefner. He’s just so horrible. I learned two interesting things about him: he eats chicken noodles every day and he has the world’s largest scrapbook collection.

MORA: He’s a scrap-booker is he?

LISA SCOTT: Yes.

ANDREW CLAY: Look whatever you think of him, Hugh Hefner did an awful lot of GOOD. He was fighting against a hypocritical society. He was a liberal hero.

LISA SCOTT: [politely skeptical] Hmmmmmmmm….

• Murray Olsen18.1

  28 March 2013 at 6:47 pm

  If one incident can stop someone being a liberal, they never were one, not that liberal is a worthwhile status to aspire to anyway.
  • Morrissey18.1.1

    28 March 2013 at 9:16 pm

    Absolutely correct, Murray. To adapt a well-known Maori proverb: The kumara doesn’t say how liberal it is.