AIBU to think that Giles Coren's column about Ukraine is disgusting?

[chipbutties4ever]

I know that it is supposed to be satire, but I can't find any humour in Giles Coren's article about Ukraine today. It makes me want to cancel my Times subscription. A few days ago a maternity hospital was bombed and terrified families are being shelled while they try to escape! The whole world could be dragged into a nuclear conflict.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/giles-coren-in-a-cage-fight-ill-take-mad-vlad-over-truss-cp9vgrl6h

(It is behind a paywall, but the general gist is that he's bored of people talking about the war, no one cares about Ukraine because it's far away, and maybe the Russians aren't so bad, and what if the Ukranians really are Nazis. I've also attached some screengrabs). Maybe I'm not clever enough to appreciate Giles' sophisticated brand of satire. I didn't go to public school or Oxford University like he did, but even The Times' readers who tend to applaud his sneering restaurant reviews in the comments seem to be appalled.

Not shocked about this tbh. He's an irksome, loathsome, grim, infuriating toad of a man.

@SheldonesqueTheBstard

Must be hard when the sister got the brains and the looks.

Take the shame instead mate.

I do like Victoria. Not Giles though. Bleh!

I am all for laughing at tragedy on the whole but this is not funny at all. People are dying, their homes destroyed and mums trying to escape with their kids in freezing conditions. He might find it boring but could easily come to a street near us at any moment.

Must be fun when Giles gets together with his sister and BIL.

I wonder if they just try to steer clear of anything likely to promote an argument?

You nicked those screenshots off Twitter so very clearly didn't read the full article. If you do it's much more clearly satire.

I know we shouldn't give him the oxygen of publicity but he is a twat.

He's apologised in the comments.

Nobody ever starts a thread when he writes a good column. He did one about Alexander Mosley that was really humane and compassionate, and clearly from the heart. And his one on the London property market last week was absolutely spot on.

.

Victoria Coren who was defending Lebdev on The Last Leg? She also found time to defend the racist “rape joking” Jimmy Carr.

Whole family are toxic. They are entitled, got famous because of their dad, and don’t take criticism well.

You nicked those screenshots off Twitter so very clearly didn't read the full article. If you do it's much more clearly satire.

^This

@LittleGwyneth

You nicked those screenshots off Twitter so very clearly didn't read the full article. If you do it's much more clearly satire.

I did read the whole article. I have a subscription to The Times. I know it was supposed to be satire, but I think it went too far and I'm confused and disappointed that The Times published it. My post actually begins "I know that it is supposed to be satire, but ..." I did take the screenshots off Twitter but couldn't post the whole article because of copyright infringement. I posted a link to The Times though so people with subscriptions can read it.

@chipbutties4ever Oh come on, you posted the most inflammatory parts, as did the person who put them on Twitter. It's not my favourite work of journalism by any stretch of the imagination but it is fairly unhelpful to cherry pick the worst parts.

What a shrivel-cocked sad little man.

[quote LittleGwyneth]@chipbutties4ever Oh come on, you posted the most inflammatory parts, as did the person who put them on Twitter. It's not my favourite work of journalism by any stretch of the imagination but it is fairly unhelpful to cherry pick the worst parts.[/quote]
Pavel, is it you?

www.indy100.com/news/giles-coren-twitter-alternative-account-pavel-pilnik-jonathan-nunn-wife-antisemitism-8703366

[quote LittleGwyneth]@chipbutties4ever Oh come on, you posted the most inflammatory parts, as did the person who put them on Twitter. It's not my favourite work of journalism by any stretch of the imagination but it is fairly unhelpful to cherry pick the worst parts.[/quote]
"fairly unhelpful" to whom exactly?

Yeah he's a knob and judging by his apology in the comments he lacks the intelligence to judge the difference between a biting satire on the current events aimed squarely and devastatingly at the perpetrators and the offensive rubbish he wrote. He's one of those insufferable snob types who thinks he's ever so clever, nope Giles you are not you got your job because of your father's talent, you didn't earn it by your own talent.

Appallingly bad taste.

He’s his own biggest fan.

@chipbutties4ever Unhelpful in the sense that you're deliberately trying to make people upset about something by representing it in the worst possible light, presumably because you don't like him as a person. Absolute classic chronically online 2022 internet behaviour.

If you do really think that I'm secretly GC I would suggest taking a look at my extensive posting history.

Jeez that line in his apology it's not easy writing when the world is in flames - I am sure the citizens of Ukraine will get out their violins and set up a fundraiser for you Giles.

The problem is that in order for satire to work it has to be properly amusing at the very least. No doubt if this was spoken satire the way it was delivered might make it funnier but in writing it's flat and just seems to be a posh boy trying a bit too hard to be edgy and funny.

There are so many places to go with this situation and satire. The fact that the government have very close Oligarch mates. The fact that Oligarchs seem to own half of London property. All of those yachts that are sailing around trying not to be confiscated. Hours of stuff on Putin himself ... it's possible to be funny about this. The News Quiz managed it last Friday. Mark Steel's podcast (What the fuck is going on) is managing it too. It's a case of taking the piss out of those who aren't suffering - because there's fuck all funny about that - and taking a breath to acknowledge that this is a shit show.

I really like the Giles Coren who does hotel stuff on telly and has done the going back in time shows as well. He's a nice chap and I just pretend that he and the other Giles Coren, the one who writes shite and is an entitled prick, are different people. I'm totally down with cognitive dissonance.

What an idiot.

@LargeInCharge

He’s his own biggest fan.

I think his wife Esther Walker is actually Giles' biggest fan. I love Times Radio but their self-congratulatory Mr and Mrs Coren podcast on which they pondered whether or not to spend lock down at their London or Cotswolds residence made me switch right off. I think Giles probably has a personality disorder and I feel sorry for her, as it can't be easy being married to such a massive wanker.

Wasn’t his God-awful smug sister on The Last Leg defending Lebdev and telling us he threw a great party. The whole family seem like tone deaf cunts.