Thursday 17 November 2011

Looking at Things the Kim Jong Il Way

I'm not quite sure why, but I find this pictorial blog very funny. Ever since Team America demonstrated his comedy potential, it's been hard to keep a straight face whenever the Dear Leader hoves into view (despite the fact that he is one of the world's prime murderous bastards). Back in the days when Kim Il Sung was the Dear Leader and I was a librarian, I used to enjoy the North Korean propaganda magazines that were sent, I believe, to every library in the land. Badly printed, written in often impenetrable 'English' and illustrated with grey photos of the Dear Leader amid rapturously smiling citizens, they looked forward confidently to the day when the rest of the world would come round to the North Korean way of creating an Earthly Paradise. Funny that never happened.

11 comments:

  1. Couldn't this work for the royal family as well?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I dunno - I think it's a Kim Jong Il thing...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think Ron's right, it could work well with dear old Phil the Greek - Phil disinterested in meeting plumbers, disinterested in meeting bakers, disinterested in meeting peasants. Got legs?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Its true though Nige. Many of the worlds most murderous bastards can seem amusing with the benefit of distance. Think back to the merry crocodile pranks of Idi Amin, Imelda Marcos and her shoe fetish. The phrase 'funny little man' seems to crop up often when reading English writers of the early 1930s.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, it almost seems to go with the territory, doesn't it, though I supposed Pol Pot was an exception (and Mao and Stalin more jolly and avuncular than funny). Mugabe's not too funny either - he should work on it (or, preferably, die)...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gaddafi was increasingly funny, wasn't he? Though none have ever matched Hitler because as a comic look it cannot be improved upon.

    It's to do woth nobody being able to tell them they look like a total dick.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pol Pot was probably a little too 'low key'. We prefer our tyrants to have a certain degree of flamboyance. Mugabe needs a nice uniform...with epaulettes. Those busuness suits are a downer.

    And you might have noticed I did manage omit the name Hitler from the last sentence in my original comment. Apologies, but then I suspect you knew what I was getting at.

    ReplyDelete
  8. YouTube is a fine source of North Korean propaganda films, which are also amusing in a very bad taste way... and the Vice Guide to North Korea is a fascinating watch (suffice to say the presenter and cameraman have nerves of steel!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Crikey! I must have a look...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Time for him to get a new anorak, surely?

    ReplyDelete