Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
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Ouch…
In case you missed it, here’s Jeremy Paxman getting his ass handed to him on live television by Eurfyl ap Gwilym of Plaid Cymru. (Really gets going at about the 2:15 mark…) You’d almost feel sorry for the guy, were it not for the incredibly patronising introduction he had just given the Welsh politician.
“I’m joined now by Eurfyl ap Gwilym, who is Deputy Chairman of the Principality Building Society, in which august position he is also Plaid Cymru’s senior economic adviser…”
April 27th, 2010.
April 28th, 2010 at 6:42 am
I’ve noticed Paxman off the boil recently. Seems to be having increasing trouble reading autocues and (apparently in this case) stats in front of him.
April 28th, 2010 at 7:35 am
Paxman choking on his own outrage as tables turned on him by a politician — worst of all a provincial politician with an unpronounceable name — is going to be one of my TV highlights of the year!
April 28th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Brilliant. He really should have quit while he was ahead instead of evading and fudging things so obviously – the sort of behaviour he calls people out on the whole time.
April 28th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Maybe it’s just my laptop, but there seems to be some sort of visual glitch at the start of the video that makes Paxman look as though he’s presenting Newsnight in total darkness while wearing a black balaclava and bomber jacket. This is the very substance of my troubled dreams.
April 28th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Haha… yes I’m getting the same effect here. I suppose Paxman’s failure here is only surprising because he’s usually on top of his game.
But a few more performances like that and they’ll have to bust him down to daytime television, interrogating children about their school projects etc.
April 28th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
School Around the Corner with Jeremy Paxman:
“What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s a very simple question, and I don’t see why you can’t give me a straightforward answer. Tinker? Tailer? Soldier? Spy? Are you telling me you want to be a spy? You’ve just admitted to treason, young man.”
April 28th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
“Oh, you’re going to be a fireman, are you? So you’re going to marry Jenny, live in a huge mansion by the sea and drive a racing car – all on a fireman’s salary? Have you taken leave of your senses, boy!?”
April 28th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
I used to like Paxman’s knee-em-in-the-balls approach, but he uses it so relentlessly and indiscriminately that I suspect he’s actually just a douche. And the way he reads the questions on University Challenge, as if the answers are the most obvious facts in the world, you cretin, is an extension of that persona too far, I think. So fair play to the guy with the Lord of the Rings name for handing him his hiney.
April 28th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Fantastic. He ends up letting the Welsh guy take complete control, and can only manage a petulant ‘ugh God’ as he checks his notes. He even protests at one point “I have done my homework!”
May 4th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
That was great. Nice to see the tables turned on Jeremy.