Boldly to go
The BBC’s obsession with drag queens continues.
Strictly to feature first drag queen competitor
Notice the weird chummy insiderism of the title. Wtf does it even mean? It looks like an uncompleted thought rather than a title. It’s a cozy reference to a tv program that everyone who matters knows all about so no need to spell out the program’s actual title; it’s so much cuter to use just the first word of the title, and let everyone who isn’t in on the joke puzzle over the meaning.
Does the Beeb always do that, or only when the subject is drag queens? Does it refer to “Call” instead of “Call the Midwife”?
No. The BBC doesn’t do that.
Strictly’s Christmas Special will see the show mark another first in its 20th year – its first drag queen competitor.
Ooooooh really? Let’s all piss ourselves with excitement. A drag queen!!! Eeeek!!!
And next week, a blackface minstrel will read the 9 o’clock news, right? And the BBC will squee about a minstrel reading the 9? Yes?
Tayce said she was proud to be the first drag artist to take part on the series and was taking a stand against those who might criticise the move.
Oh good. What a noble cause. Let’s have more and more and more men mocking women on the BBC so that we can have more and more cozy insidery BBC stories about them.
Tayce said: “It’s such an honour and a privilege to be pushing the boundaries as the first drag queen on the show because it’s been on for so many years.
Yeah push those boundaries that indicate let’s not mock the underlings. MOCK ALL THE UNDERLINGS. Well not all. Not absolutely all. Not immigrants or people of color or “queer” people, but women, hell yes, women exist to be mocked.
Now, now, Ophelia! By the power of Kirk you must know the correct form is “to boldly go”. Seriously, the aversion to the split infinitive is nonsensical and in this case “to boldly go” sounds so much better.
On topic: It seems to me that the BBC are somehow trying to re-enact the spam sketch with its insistence that everything must come with drag queens. “Well, there’s drag queens, politics, sport, and drag queens, that’s not got much drag queens in it.” Truly, the BBC is an organisation long past its best.
Apologies for the levity. Normal service will (possibly) be resumed in the new year.
*See this post by the great Geoffrey Pullam, co-author of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language and like our host ostracised for the mildest of refusals to show obeisance to the trans agenda.
Ask any random Brit for the name of that celebrity dancing show and you’ll be told “Strictly”. It’s very rare to hear the programme referred to by its full name. So that aspect of the headline is fine, given that it’s directed at a British audience. The rest of it, however, is sadly indicative of the depths to which the BBC has plummeted.
#1 In other languages, infinitives are single words, so they can’t be split.
I’m unconvinced, in both cases. I think news media should avoid being that kind of cozy casual sloppy. It’s very NPR-ish, and that’s not a compliment. Yes, “boldly to go” sounds awkward, so find another way to say it. Say the full name the first time even if all the locals already know it, because like it or not the Beeb is very international and so is the internet. Comb the hair, check the bra straps, straighten the tie, sit up straight.
But also the spam sketch comparison is very apt and funny.
The BBC is deep with gender magic and trans, be it drag or anything connected.They even did a story on how one school forced boys to dress in drag for their GCSE Drama (the boys were either embarrassed or visibly uncomfortable).
The dumbing down of Beeb began around twenty five years ago: chasing ratings and viewers was the goal, and it did not matter how they achieved it. Coming up with copies of commercial channels’ ideas (phone ins, phone votes and infantile nonsense). Even credible documentaries have suffered, with repetition and technical terms omitted. Claiming lack of funding, many flagship programmes have gone, some not renewed, or repeats filling in too many hours.
The Beeb is supposed to be neutral, but simply cannot allow itself to be criticised when it very clearly crosses from the Neutral Zone (sorry, had to get a Trek reference in there) into a political stance. Just this week, a R4 programme was discussing the Cass Review, as if it was some lethal WMD, and how badly it affects those on the gender identity path. Any attempt at neutrality was missing, the interviewer questioning everything reasonable, but allowing gender woo a free ride, (The only reason I heard it all was due it being on a friends Radio),
As for Strictly Come Dancing, it is yet another example of ratings and dumbing down. The original Come Dancing featured amateur dancers from across the country, competing for the pleasure of it. But, oh dear, that is not cool anymore and does not have sex appeal to current BBC execs. So in came the ‘Celeb’ version. (I had distant relatives who appeared on the original series, winning several rounds. They never watched the current one).
The BBC has done this to many series: Ski Sunday stopped being about skiing championships and focused on human interest or the clothing. One Man and His Dog (sheepdog training) got the same treatment. And so many others, ruined. And the less said about Doctor Who….
Like many people I know, I cancelled my TV Licence (or TV Tax in reality). Goodbye BBC, it was fun whilst it lasted.
From the great Australian poet Ern Malley. (The perfect surrealist poet, since he never existed.)
I have split the infinitive. Beyond is anything
Words to live by,. I contend.
Also Doctor Who somehow manages to still be good. You just have to activate your perception filter and turn it to anti-drag-queen-mode!
(Last one, I promise. I need to sleep!)
@Colin Day
Only in synthetic languages such as Latin. Analytic languages like English and the various Chinese languages (for example – there are many others) can do as they damn well please.
The drag guy won, by the way.
IMO, the non-clumsy way to unsplit the infinitive is “to go boldly”, but the split infinitive is the least of the English language’s worries
I once read a persuasive suggestion that the BBC’s golden age to which everyone harks back was really a one-off product of the adoption curve for colour television. The licence fee regime meant that that the relative cost of black-and-white and colour licenses needed to be set at a significant disparity to avoid the stigma of being regressive, while the overall revenue from aggregate licenses had to match the anticipated BBC budget. That meant that the government, in setting the license fee, needed to predict the update of colour television which was. in turn, dependent on the technical progress in the manufacture of (largely imported) televisions. When technical progress made colour televisions cheaper (in real terms) faster than anticipated, the then professionalism and esprit de corps of the BBC at least saw that the surplus was well spent.