A Don's Life: Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, "Britain Got Talent" Voter

Mary Beard, possibly the smartest person in Britain, watches "Britain Got Talent", aka, The "We'll Abuse Small Children For Your Amusement & We'll Mix You A Martini With Their Tears" Show, possibly the dumbest TV show in Britain -- and reports back:

I had a pretty clear view of the whole process, Not so very different from the display of 'cripples', 'freaks' or 'exotic foreigners' in nineteenth-century spectacles (or from gladiatorial shows, for that matter), this was another version of mass-market exploitation of the disadvantaged. How could people -- or a parent -- subject a 10 year old child to that?

So it was with the intention of enjoying some righteous indignation that I switched on.

By the end of the show, I decided I would vote.

Still, ταυρομαχία sounds more fun than that -- Opera Chic would have voted for Mithras.

Comments

[Constantine A. Papas]

OC,

You're a genius, but I never expected you to know Greek!

[Manou]

Cruelty to bulls is in a different league.

[Reep]

"By the end of the show, I decided I would vote."

Academics are all under the impression that they are personally engaged in a Darwinian struggle for survival. So it is no surprise she got suckered in like that.

[R.A.D. Stainforth]

Britain’s Got Talent runner up Susan Boyle was admitted to The Priory clinic last night suffering with exhaustion.

She kept me awake all night screaming abuse.

Some people are so selfish.