I'll tell you what Fowler's trouble is. It is making jokes. It is falling foul of the global conspiracy of the humourless. Jokes humanise, jokes civilise, jokes deflect wrath. Jokes give perspective, insight, clarity. Jokes give complexity. Jokes add life-giving layers of possibility. Jokes do not compromise the seriousness: jokes add to a serious intention and make deeper the meaning. Ask Shakespeare if you don't believe me, or Donne, or Joyce.
But so much of daily life is organised by the conspiracies of the jokeless: the dehumanisers, those who dread perspective, balance, thought. Lord deliver us from the humourless - I fear Fowler has fallen into their clutches. Moral: don't make jokes. Ever. The humourless always win.- Simon Barnes, The Times, April 7 1999 - (written after Fowler landed in hot water for sniffing the touchline as if it was a line of coke)
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