299: Do You Like The Atmosphere On The Moon?

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Simon returns from holiday with a question rather than the usual content: should there be a limit on turning your own trauma into comedy, prompted by Amanda Knox's new Edinburgh Fringe show about her wrongful imprisonment for Meredith Kercher's murder. Lee takes it somewhere more personal, tracing his low tolerance for comedy that punches down through a brutal old episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks and an admission that even David Sedaris can be too cruel for him. It ends, unexpectedly, on two flat viewings: an estate agent he clicked with instantly through jokes, and one who won by actually listening.

Mentioned

• Amanda Knox – wrongly convicted, later exonerated, of Meredith Kercher's murder in Perugia; now has a comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe about the experience, prompting the episode's central question about the ethics of turning trauma into material
• Meredith Kercher – the murdered student at the centre of the Knox case; her family's objection to being invoked in Knox's show is discussed
• Edinburgh Fringe – festival where Knox's show is currently running
• Never Mind the Buzzcocks (BBC2) – music quiz show; a stretch of episodes hosted by a young Simon Amstell recalled as brutally punching down at guests
• Simon Amstell – Buzzcocks host; remembered for harsh treatment of Amy Winehouse and for reading a Celebrity Big Brother contestant's memoir aloud on air to embarrass her boyfriend
• Amy Winehouse – an episode featuring her on Buzzcocks recalled as especially shocking
• Celebrity Big Brother – recalled for a series in which an ordinary person was planted in the house disguised as a minor celebrity
• Chantelle Houghton – won that series posing as a celebrity, later mocked on Buzzcocks over lines from her memoir; name uncertain from the transcript
• Preston – musician and Chantelle's boyfriend at the time, remembered walking off during the on-air mockery
• The Daily Mail – newspaper behind the mocked photoshoot line from Chantelle's memoir
• David Sedaris – essayist; his writing about his family, including his sister's suicide, discussed as sometimes tipping from painful into cruel

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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