Watching the notoriously humor impaired former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on The Daily Show was an out of body experience for me. He’s on a book tour plugging his tomeBeyond The Crash and had a moderately interesting chat with Jon Stewart. But when Stewart asked if “we’re all Socialists now,” Gordon dropped the ball and didn’t say “I was a Labour PM and what’s wrong with a bit of socialism?”
The Labour Party *used* to be a Social Democratic party until Blair and Brown fell in the love with “the markets.” That dalliance led to an economic boom from 1997 to 2008 but then came the crash. Brown performed better than most national leaders during the crisis but ended up taking the fall anyway. It was primarily due to the strange uncharm of the man.
Watching him feebly banter with Jon Stewart made me think of the slogan for Ernst Lubitsch’s great 1939 film Ninotchka: Garbo Laughs. Greta, however, was much funnier than her fellow diva Gordon Brown. Perhaps prima donna is a better phrase. I noticed that TDS had Brown’s good side facing the camera: he lost one of his eyes as a wee lad in Scotland, which many UK pundits believe is the cause of his extreme awkwardness and insecurities. I’m not sure if I buy it but what’s a bit of psycho-biography among friends.
Anyway, here’s the clip. Notice how Gordon laughs whenever he *thinks* Stewart is trying to be funny.