How America Learned to Laugh Again
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2021
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Twenty years ago - in the mind-numbing aftermath of the terrorist attacks on America - the immediate, mind-numbing response of the media was to ban laughter. All laughter, including jokes, chuckles and guffaws. This is the story of what happened next. With contributions from Private Eye to The Onion, via David Letterman, the News Quiz and Have I Got News for You. As well as 9/11 and the death of Bin Laden, Joe Queenan explores the pandemic and the US retreat from Afghanistan.
"What a year 2021 has been – from the storming of the capitol in Washington to the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, this has not been a good time in the US. Probably not so great in the UK either. Throw in some riots, add in the climate crisis and the plague – none of this is worth the slightest lame joke. But is it worth a good joke?"
With contributions from three US presidents, plus Ian Hislop and Adam MacQueen from Private Eye, Armando Iannuci (creator of The Death of Stalin), Susan Morrison of the New Yorker, and Robert Siegal editor of The Onion in 2001 - the first US publication to break the laughter ban with the headline, US Vows To Defeat Whoever It Is We Are At War With. A copy of that magazine is now in the Library of Congress.
Also includes archive from David Letterman, Linda Grant, Michael Rosen, Rich Hall on Have I Got News for You, plus the News Quiz from September 2001.
Joe Queenan is an Emmy Award-winning US broadcaster. His previous contributions to Archive on Four include Brief Histories on Blame, Shame and Failure.
The producer for BBC Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Welcome to Seriously from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:42.0 | I'm Vanessa Kasule. If you love unique documentaries, this is the |
| 0:47.0 | podcast for you. Each week you'll find two new episodes to discover. Next up, something captivating, enlightening and seriously good. |
| 0:57.0 | Now there has been a lot of coverage recently about how young people are a bunch of weak |
| 1:02.2 | entitled Snowflakes. |
| 1:04.0 | Good evening everybody and welcome to the news. |
| 1:08.0 | E, you'll never guess who's dead. |
| 1:10.0 | Tonight we'll be asking what happens. dead. |
| 1:16.0 | Tonight, we'll be asking what happens after a crisis. How soon is it safe to crack a joke? |
| 1:20.0 | The latest research suggests about 36 days. |
| 1:25.0 | Laughter is like a muscle, right? |
... |
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