The Wardman Wire

I saw Guido Fawkes on Newsnight last week. The image of Guido hunched mysteriously behind a darkened screen, being assaulted by the ravening mob of Jeremy Paxman and Michael White, brought back happy memories of Saturday mornings in front of the television. So I present: Guido Fawkes and Zorro .

They share the same gleam in the eye, toothsome grin and dodgy hat. Guido has a naff beard. Zorro has a naff moustache. “Zorro-ness” is traditionally handed from from generation to generation - could Guido be the latest inheritor of the “Z” carved into bulging silk shirts?

There are also certain differences:

“Zorro is an extremely agile athlete and acrobat, using his bullwhip as a gymnastic accoutrement to swing through gaps between the city’s roofs, is very capable of landing from great heights and taking a fall, and, although he is an expert swordsman, has more than once demonstrated his more than able prowess in unarmed combat, even against as many as twenty armed opponents.” (Wikipedia)

My imagination failed and rebooted itself when thinking of Guido Fawkes swinging his way from the Gherkin to Tower 42 using a bullwhip, and howling like Tarzan. That WOULD put the denizens of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development off their Brie and Avocado Ciabattas of a morning.

The Man with the Flashing … Blade

And alas! The flashing blade and the man-in-the-shadows-technique may be effective at removing the bloomers from Spanish-Californian noblewomen, but Guido was pushing it a bit trying the same technique with Jeremy Paxman on the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme.

Paxo had his own flashing blade, and he promptly subjected Guido to a ritual disembowelling. History - metaphorically - repeated itself.

From Elsewhere

Other people have the story in more detail: Sunny (good summary), Chicken Yoghurt (YouTube of the Newsnight Reports), and Tim at Bloggerheads (”doctored” version) have various videos and things to say, and Guido is licking his wounds. The original report was thought-provoking - the whole item is on the BBC website here.

I have not seen anyone linking to Peter Baron’s reaction on the Newsnight Editor’s blog, which adds a reflective note to the glee of all the Guido-bashers. Newsnight were impressed with the film, and seem to put Guido’s embarrassment mainly down to inexperience in a foreign medium.

“The result, as many of the comments on his site quickly pointed out, was a bit of car crash. Guido’s keyboard-orientated pyrotechnics were no match for Michael White of the Guardian’s verbal swordsmanship.

But hats off to Guido for entering our world. He’ll be back.”

Tags: Guido Fawkes, Zorro, Pickled Politics, Chicken Yoghurt, Lookalikes, Bloggerheads

[tags]Guido Fawkes, Zorro, Pickled Politics, Chicken Yoghurt, Lookalikes, Bloggerheads[/tags]