The power of twitter

Hola. Hope you are well.

Two weeks ago I set out to promote a 3Prong Attack video. For the few people in the world who are unsure, 3Prong Attack is a radio show I do with Prong2 and occasionally we record humorous video clips.

One of these videos is our spin on reviewing the newspapers. So with this in mind I thought it would be a good idea to send a link of this video via Twitter to TV programmes and presenters that have a feature where they review newspapers. Those I sent it to included Sky’s Press Preview, This Morning, The Wright Stuff, Eamonn Holmes, Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby and others.

A couple of days later I decided to see how many hits the video had. It’d had gone up by a whopping 1 hit and I think that was me when I originally found the video, as it started playing when I clicked on it.

I was contemplating this when I flicked on to the Friday edition on This Morning, where the stand in presenters, for the usual stand in presenters were Jeff Brazier and Jenni Falconer. It did cross my mind to send them the link. I decided however against this, mainly on the grounds that if I’m relying on Jeff Brazier for impetus in my career then I probably need to reassess a few things in my life. No offence to Jeff, I’m sure he’s a good guy etc etc… but still.

Til next time, stay safe! 

@anunknowncomic

Prongcasts

Put your nuts in a modesty bag

Hola. Hope you are well.

I’ve been thinking about breasts again (see the last time).

This time it’s been stimulated by a couple of issues. Firstly in Ireland, The Irish Sun newspaper has decided to remove nude models from their page 3. This did make me imagine a sudden surge of larger breasted women joining the dole queue in Ireland. The paper will still have scantily clad women on that page but have a strict no nipple policy.

Then there was the debate as to whether ‘Lads’ Mags’ should be put in modesty bags/behind a screen as has been suggested by the Co-op supermarket. I happened to hear a spokesman for Nuts magazine say one of the reasons he was against the modesty bags was because their customers like to browse before they buy.

As a compromise I thought they could tone down their front covers. It’s not like their customers wouldn’t know what Nuts did if they didn’t have a string of busty ladies on the front cover. The breasts they don’t put on the front of the magazine could be put aside for the inside pages.

It does seem odd that in 2013 the biggest selling newspaper in this country still has pics of bare breasted women. It’s odd because ‘women have breasts’ is not news. At least Nuts and other magazines of their ilk can justify using these models as that’s what they specialise in, breasts, sport and popular culture (so I’ve heard).

There is an argument that women being portrayed in this way, give young males an unrealistic expectation of women. I’d like to think the boys/men realise the women in these mags aren’t true to life. For example, they are 2 dimensional, often have staples in their navel and they are also mute.

There is probably more of an argument to say that it puts an unrealistic pressure on young girls/women, after all for the models it is their job to look good. They are also pictured tanned, often given a helping hand digitally and via a surgeon. The average woman doesn’t have the time nor the way with all to look like this.

There has been a lot of negative talk regarding page 3 and lads’ mags, but you never hear what the glamour models have to say on the issues. So, if you are a glamour model, feel free to contact me, it’s probably best if you do so via the comments button.

Til next time, stay safe!

@anunknowncomic

Prongcasts

There’s always people worse off than you

Hola. Hope you are well.

I read that Johnny Borrell had only sold 594 albums in the first week of his debut solo album coming out. It shouldn’t take me to point out that this is pretty bad, especially when you consider that he was in Razorlight. who were getting big hits as recently as the mid noughties. Not only that but he was the main writer in the band, so he has pedigree in the song writing area. All in all it’s surprising for a musician of his calibre, backed by a record label to sell so few records.

Having said that, if this blog got anywhere near 500 hits in a week, I would be shocked and delighted in equal measure. In fact, I’m currently involved in 3 creative projects, this blog, a football blog and a radio show and collectively they get no where near 594 hits/plays in one week.

So although I’m not saying Johnny Borrell, shouldn’t be worried by his low weekly sales, things could be a lot worse.

Til next time, stay safe!

@anunknowncomic

How far have we come?

Hola. Hope you are well.

In the 1950’s and 60’s there were signs in shops and bed & breakfasts that read, ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs’ fast forward to July 2013 and we have 2 vans issued by our government going round parts of London telling people to ‘Go home’. Is this progress?

These things don’t just happen, at some point the government must have sat down and had a meeting about how they could deal with illegal immigration and the best idea they could come up with was these two vans. I can’t help imagining that after they agreed on this as a course of action, they said, ‘By Jove, I think we’ve got it’, patted each other on the back and then moved onto the next thing on the agenda, probably the economy.

If the government are sending out vans asking illegal immigrants to hand themselves in, it makes me feel like they haven’t really got a handle on the matter. They may as well just send out another van saying, ‘If you’ve ever committed a crime, ring 999’.

If you have come to this country, maybe to escape torture and/or death, travelling here in awful conditions then you’re probably not going to turn yourself in just because a van drives by saying you should.

Til next time, stay safe!

@anunknowncomic

Prongcasts