Here Comes The Sun

As I said the other day, when LB sent me his CD from the ST Shuffleathon, he also included some reading material from Blighty. There was an NME which I haven’t read for ages and it seems to have gone all weekly and glossy. It featured lots of bands I’ve never heard of.

The other thing he sent me was a copy of The Sun. I’ve long wondered whether The Sun is serious, or whether it’s social satire. I was very entertained by it, but it seems to be becoming more and more like Viz than ever. Either that or it’s a parody of itself. Whatever that means. Anyway, two “articles” particularly caught my eye.

One article was about the newspaper's search for members of the public with the same name as members of the England football squad. Michael Owen is the most popular name: they found 1006 of them. John Terry is next, with 358. There are even 18 David Beckhams. The headline, though, was “There’s only one Theo Walcott” because they couldn’t find any. He seemed to be rather elusive on the sub’s bench in Germany, too.

What I particularly liked about the article, though, were the sometimes asinine, sometimes inane comments from the members of the public who had the same name as the England football squad. For example, Gary Neville, 54, from Croydon, said, “I’m more of a Formula 1 fan. I wish I was on Gary’s money, though.” Joe Cole, 19, from Loughborough, said, “I don’t exactly look like Joe.” Why would you, Joe? You only have the same name. Sol Campbell is a 75 year old Grandad from Sheffield. Rather unnecessarily, he said, “there’s no chance of me replacing him in the World Cup – my legs are past it.”

There was also a name-a-like Wayne Rooney, 32, from Sutton Coldfield. He said, “He’s got a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp. The wife thinks I’m much better looking.” He added, “My dad’s name is Mickey, so you can imagine the stick we get.”

Theo Walcott wasn't quoted, but probably would have said, "If only I'd been picked in the Sun's squad instead."

The other article that caught my eye was headlined “Adolf Kitler”. This “news item” revealed that there’s a website devoted to cats that look like Hitler. That’s right, cats that look like Hitler. The Sun takes advantage of the situation to create some puns: “Doubtless Hitler’s old cronies Hermann Purring and Joseph Furballs would approve.” Finally, the article ends with an appeal for photos, which is worded, astonishingly: “does your pet look like a tyrant?”

People are writing in to the site to express their views. Some people find it funny and a bit of gentle fun, while others are outraged or find it insensitive, disgraceful or disrespectful. I don’t really know what I think, other than that it’s a very strange idea. Some of the photos on the site are extraordinary.

Anyway, thanks again to LB for a very entertaining read.