Yesterday (well, Friday night), I went to see Cakes and Ale, a
comedy performance by visiting English comedian Chris Addison. The theme
of Cakes and Ale was the English national character, and particularly
the middle-class one. Addison wrote a number of words associated with all
things English (such as "Royal Family", "Whinging" and "Sport (bad)") on
a blackboard and proceeded to go through the topics, recounting anecdotes
and all the while going off on tangents (sometimes four deep). Among topics
he covered were the British Army's ban on dwarves, inescapable middle-class
values, and how, had the speech synthesizer been invented in Birmingham,
few people would have taken Stephen Hawking seriously. He ran out of time
without finishing the board, though what he got through was quite amusing.