Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

[EIM]

...but shouldn't.

So we've got James Bond, who I've banged on about at length before.

Batman, who wants to prop up a failing society in order to protect his status as billionaire playboy. Plus his general patronising attitude to the poor and crime - tackle it at root, don't just throw money/bat gadgets at it. Also, you're a billionaire, pay for some fucking therapy to get over your grief issues rather than this ludicrous batman bollocks. Anyone who wasn't backing Bane in the Dark Knight Rises is defo a Tory.

Willy Wonka, as suggested by someone on Twitter. " Willie Wonka. indentured labour, lamentable accident record and indifference to kids in his care getting mutilated."

Any more for any more? I'm thinking of putting these up on a website. Because I'm really bored.

[EIM]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

The Scarlet Pimpernel, I suppose, but I'm not sure we're supposed to like him, so obviously villainous is he.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Derek Trotter. Invests in property, does everything he can to avoid paying either his staff (Rodney) or any taxes, sets up a succession of "get rich quick" schemes that are basically frauds with no regard for public health and safety.

[Keyzer]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Judge Dredd. Right-wing 'satire', so they tell us. Scumbag cop who 'satirically' beats the shit out of criminals and/or anyone who even slightly bends the law. We're supposed to laugh at his persona when in truth Dredd is acting as a vicarious means of enacting some gratuitous, righteous vengeance for readers who were picked on in school but like to maintain a liberal facade.

Dirty Harry. No matter that they tried to rehabilitate him for the masses with Magnum Force.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

I don't think there's any confusion that the Judges (like Dredd) are the very epitome of a totalitarian regime, is there?

[Keyzer]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

I don't know what you mean but you're definitely supposed to love Dredd in spite of the fact he's a one-note joke of a character who's punchline stopped being funny years ago.

[beak]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

History has been pretty kind to Guy Fawkes (kinder, at least, than the contemporary period was to the man himself..)

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

the cast of the kings speech, you've been working with this cunt for twenty fucking years, have you really been trying? And the rest of you are just a bunch of simpering enabling cunts.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

The Fat Controller,for all the reasons listedhere

[beak]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Which reminds me of the disillusion I felt when (I think) EIM went to the trouble of pointing out that Robocop is a fucking scab.

[Bored Of Education]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Let's not get into Downton bloody Abbey

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

you're supposed to like the people in downton abbey? I thought it was like a funnier version of seinfeld.

[Gangster Octopus]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

So this thread isn't about Boris Johnson?

[Edie St Pierre]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Keyzer wrote: I don't know what you mean but you're definitely supposed to love Dredd in spite of the fact he's a one-note joke of a character who's punchline stopped being funny years ago.

Eh? It's deliberately nightmarish dysutopian stuff. How funny that is made is entirely dependant on the quality of the individual writer surely? And he's not supposed to be entirely humerous, he's mainly a narrative device surely.

[Keyzer]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Come on, Dredd is shot through with humour and even the guys behind it said they were openly attempting to satirise what Britain was like at the time under the beginning of Thatcherism.
And if he's not supposed to be entirely humourous then that brings us back to the topic, doesn't it? He blows people away or locks them up for minor transgressions and he never gets his comeuppance. He's the main character and you're supposed to be rooting for him.

[Edie St Pierre]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

jim w wrote: History has been pretty kind to Guy Fawkes (kinder, at least, than the contemporary period was to the man himself..)

Well he was a very hardcore Roman Catholic obviously. Who believed that ruling without the pope was essentially leading a population into league with the actual (rather than a metephorical) devil and all his demons and imps and what-have-you and believed that wiping out the entire ruling class of Britain was the best way to save everyone from damnation. I think branding that as right-wing dickishness is a bit simplistic really. He was prepared to commit mass murder and immolate himself to bring about what he saw as the idealised and divine state of mankind. He wasn't exactly Richard Littlejohn was he?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Of course, Dredd - while the unmerciful representation of the rule of law in a police state - is not necessarily "right-wing". If anything, he could well represent more the totalinarianism of a communist state, seeing as MegaCity One was originally dreamt up in the 1970s when precisely that fear seems to pervade a lot of science fiction thinking (see also Blake's Seven). George Lucas's galactic empire was apparently more inspired by the Nazis, but there's more of the Orwellian nightmare about the dystopias from British science fiction, and I always thought Orwell's were a parody of Stalinism.

[Edie St Pierre]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Keyzer wrote: Come on, Dredd is shot through with humour and even the guys behind it said they were openly attempting to satirise what Britain was like at the time under the beginning of Thatcherism.
And if he's not supposed to be entirely humourous then that brings us back to the topic, doesn't it? He blows people away or locks them up for minor transgressions and he never gets his comeuppance. He's the main character and you're supposed to be rooting for him.

I don't think you're supposed to be rooting for him, no. He's just interesting as a narrative device. We're all interested in the mechanics of the legal system and the miscarriages of justice it occasionally throws up aren't we? Dredd is the embodiment of that implacable fear that maybe it isn't and never will work in our interests, maybe even hates and despises us. Him dying would completely destroy the point of the character - he's a force of nature, our inner dread.

[beak]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Mat wrote: I think branding that as right-wing dickishness is a bit simplistic really.

I wanted to caveat my post on the "right-wing" thing, but ended up doing such a mealy-mouthed job of it that I didn't bother in the end.

[Edie St Pierre]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Sorry for jumping down your throat, dude. I'm being a right argumentative twat this morning. First day back at work innit.

[beak]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Naah, no worries.

Put it another way: thanks to V for Vendetta, his visage has become representative for a loose-band of hacktivist goons working in the interests of anti-censorship/anti-surveillance and various other reasonable (or reasonablish) causes. Makes me wonder how many of them know much at all about the chap.

Also, I just found out that Time Warner get royalties every time one of those masks is sold. I will confess my opinion of Anonymous isn't particularly high, but that has given me a small ironic chuckle.

[Keyzer]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Mat wrote: I don't think you're supposed to be rooting for him, no. He's just interesting as a narrative device. We're all interested in the mechanics of the legal system and the miscarriages of justice it occasionally throws up aren't we? Dredd is the embodiment of that implacable fear that maybe it isn't and never will work in our interests, maybe even hates and despises us. Him dying would completely destroy the point of the character - he's a force of nature, our inner dread.

No, I don't agree with that. The intention might be to satirise or criticise totalitarian tendencies in law enforcement via the narrative but in the comics medium it's too simplistic to separate the visual from the textual. Think of how many splash pages, prog covers or action panels have featured Dredd doling out his particular brand of justice to all and sundry. The message of the images in the comic isn't 'How horrible would it be if a guy like this existed', the message is 'Dredd is fucking cool'. He does what he wants, kills who he wants and there's no consequences that force him to reassess his philosophy. He's an unapologetic fascist, fair enough as a character, but the creators of the comic are woefully misguided if they think he functions as satire.

[Edie St Pierre]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

jim w wrote: Naah, no worries.

Put it another way: thanks to V for Vendetta, his visage has become representative for a loose-band of hacktivist goons working in the interests of anti-censorship/anti-surveillance and various other reasonable (or reasonablish) causes. Makes me wonder how many of them know much at all about the chap.

Also, I just found out that Time Warner get royalties every time one of those masks is sold. I will confess my opinion of Anonymous isn't particularly high, but that has given me a small ironic chuckle.

Oh, gawd yeah. That Anonymous fucker gets on my wick too. I like the original Alan Moore comic though. Still haven't seen the film yet.

[Edie St Pierre]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Keyzer wrote: No, I don't agree with that. The intention might be to satirise or criticise totalitarian tendencies in law enforcement via the narrative but in the comics medium it's too simplistic to separate the visual from the textual. Think of how many splash pages, prog covers or action panels have featured Dredd doling out his particular brand of justice to all and sundry. The message of the images in the comic isn't 'How horrible would it be if a guy like this existed', the message is 'Dredd is fucking cool'. He does what he wants, kills who he wants and there's no consequences that force him to reassess his philosophy. He's an unapologetic fascist, fair enough as a character, but the creators of the comic are woefully misguided if they think he functions as satire.

I'm not sure he's supposed to be satire though. I've always seen him as a creature of nightmare. The scripts - for me - have always been at their weakest when you're supposed to be rooting for Dredd, like that fucking awful film, and strongest when he's this cold, inhuman fucker punishing humanity for it's frailty.

He became the face of 2000AD for sure, but in a similar sort of way to how Hookjaw the Shark was the face of 'Action' (which i'm just about old enough to recall) a cool looking monster, not a cool looking hero.

[sw2borshch]

Right-wing dicks we're supposed to like

Dredd's like Alf Garnett, though, surely? You're not meant to like him, he's a grotesque, and it's how you respond to him that tells the tale.

And Batman's an old school One Nation-accepting High Tory. The type who was right wing in the 70s, became a wet in the 80s and would be in the centre now, even though his views had never changed.