Robert Newman: History of Oil - a comedy show

frood · Coal Joined: Jun 22, 2005 Posts: 11 Location: Brighton, UK

This is a brilliant show. What better way of getting a serious point across than to lampoon widely held beliefs. If anyone tried to do this seriously on a live stage they would find a slumbering audience. Good to see Newman back on the map doing a hilarious turn on this subject.

Hope he goes on tour and I can see this live.

nemo

I just stubled upon this brilliant performance from a different source. Watching the video comfirms my beliefs that humor may well be the most effective way to confront and educate. Robert Newman doesn't come across as a shrill conspiracy nut, but rather an extremely well informed funny with a solid foundation for his position.

I really enjoyed the whole WWI imperial background (much neglected) and his geopolitics-as-a-street brawl analogy: "Therefore I believe we may begin to imagine the war in Iraq as a very public punishment beating. You have to imagine the world is a Bronx housing project..."
Oh, his Tony Blair impression was great too Laughing

He comes across as rather doomerish at the end, but unfortunately I can't say I disagree with him...

matt21811 · Heavy Crude Joined: May 21, 2005 Posts: 173

I've seen it before. It is funny and clever. Some of his political jokes feel spot on. He idid have one arguement that seemed a bit thin.

His arguement as to why we can't switch to nuclear.

It produces less polution than coal.

JustinFrankl · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 22, 2005 Posts: 657

matt21811 · Heavy Crude Joined: May 21, 2005 Posts: 173

The 75% figure is miles above what other people are saying.
A more realistice figure is 3%.
I think you can come up the 75% figure if you use very ineffecient methods (that havent been used since 1950) to enrich your uranium and you use coal power to to it.

He did a good job of making a dry subject funny though.

MacG · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 1178

Kaj · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 06, 2006 Posts: 378

Hey guys, still loving your forum.

I'm just back from the Camp for Climate Change 2007. Whatever the media says, it was a resounding sucess - we managed to blockade the BAA offices for over 24 hours.

Many of you would have, I'm sure found the camp itself absolutely fascinating. It was a wonderful example of alternative lifestyle, and brilliantly organised. Even though there were 2000- so people, the camp was handled extremely sustainably and tidily. It was also a wonderful example of community living, everyone helping each other out, enjoying the simple pleasures of eatign around bonfires, music, dance etc.

Anyway -

Many of the environmental activists there were highly aware of Peak Oil. Many of them had a hopeful spin on it as a possible new epoch, built on a more local and sustainable basis. 'Peak Oil' is a term that most of the 2000 people used quite fluidly in their discussions.

One of the people there was a comedian called Robert Newman. He is very funny, and his most recent material is almost entirely focused on Peak Oil. Here are a couple of links I've found for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy! Smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o-G_s_uKlo

http://www.robnewman.com/video.html (check out the bottom right).

This is the way to get the message out, eh?

His serious message:
'Change is coming. Whether we become agents of that change or passive victims, is our choice...'

NEOPO

Excellent.

I know you are new here so please try the search feature before posting as you could have simply added to the following threads:

Robert Newman: History of Oil - a comedy show

and yes I made the same mistake Here

Mod's please merge? thanks. (your wish is our command *waves a magic wand* Threadicus Mergific!* azreal60)
_________________
It is easier to enslave a people that wish to remain free then it is to free a people who wish to remain enslaved.

Kaj · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 06, 2006 Posts: 378

Aha, not much of a discovery on my part then. Still, he's worth pointing out again. And I recommend him live - he's a lot more polished and funny now than in those videos. He does some good songs too - he's like an energy aware Bill Bailey.

(For anyone here who isn't British and may not know what I was talking about - the Climate Change Camp which I spoke about was a demonstration primarily against airport expansion at Britain's largest airport. The expansion will demolish local villages and will massively increase Britain's CO2 output).

Keep up the excellent posts Neopo.