Not so long ago, I watched my first Owen Benjamin live-stream. His theme for the day: we didn’t go to the moon. This is a recurring theme. Other recurring themes include wizardry, rhetoric, Hollywood, Men In Small Hats, Sodomy, and troubling goings-on in cornfields. An unusual list, for sure. And the guy is, let’s be frank, fucking hilarious. I knew little about the world of stand-up comedy. Bill Hicks and Billy Connelly were funny ... and that was about the extent of my knowledge. The idea that comedy was somehow important, had entirely passed me by. Indeed, I would have argued that comedians were, in the main, unpleasant drunks and profoundly gross women. Perhaps this is because the well-known, promoted, comedians are exactly that? Whilst the genuinely funny are sent to the internet ghetto.
Rhetoric, naturally, is important. It can have a pleasing concision, and comedy in particular is effective in bypassing mental defence mechanisms. Reason enough to send someone to the ghetto. I don’t know if we went to the moon, though Benjamin makes an excellent case, but I do know that right now, in this tiny slice of history, we are living in an interesting moment, and conspiracy queries (© Big Bear) should no longer mocked, rather they should be welcomed as healthy curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat, we may note, is actually a clever piece of rhetoric, or perhaps wizardry. Well, maybe, but it certainly didn’t bother the Bear.