Tuesday, May 10, 2011

"Yes, Prime Minister" and our Government: An uncanny resemblance?


My daughter reading her mom's copy of "Yes, Prime Minister" just showed me this. Doesn't it appeared like it could very well be a template the government had lived by in the Orchard Road flooding? Our hue and cry got them to Stage Five, which is of course not in the script!

Our PM had suggested that his government isn't like this BBC political comedy. You believe him? May be it is the exception now, but if he doesn't tighten up on all of them it will grow to become the norm. Indeed our government is becoming more and more like elsewhere. This is clearly not in our interest. 

A few days ago, we got to Stage Six: "I am sorry". Great, let's see how often you have to get this point going forward.

So my hunch about all these is not that far of after all. I had blogged about this earlier.

As I kid, we never lampooned the government. There were no opportunities or desire. Never imagined we are living down to this now.

2 comments:

  1. Perhaps in this instance. I have the entire 'Yes Minister' and 'Yes PM' collection myself. They used to show lots of Brit comedies in SG in the 70s. Too bad the pursuit of monoculturalism went hand in hand with focus on American (relatively juvenile) comedies. Don't think the singaporeans of today will understand anything that isn't slapstick, like the 'Yes M/PM' series. I'm surprised that a singaporean, assuming you are, mentioned this fantastic series.

    What the series highlights is how government's all of the world operate. Not just singapore or britain. However, given the empathy, multiculturalism and activism of the Brits, not as much can be gotten away with here.

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  2. Yes Minister and later Yes Prime Minister hit the sweet spot where irreverence meets with the light touch of superb timing to create timeless magic.
    http://modernartists.blogspot.com/

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