A bewildered boomer on the ridiculousness of modern life
Ben Elton: Authentic Stupidity Milton Keynes theatre ★★★★☆
Part of Ben Elton’s new show addresses euthanasia, with the 65-year-old strongly asserting the right to die for those who have run out of steam. Reader, that point has not yet arrived for Elton, who packs into his Authentic Stupidity set a volume of material to shame comics half his age.
The thesis is that our times are defined – and threatened – less by artificial intelligence than by “authentic stupidity”: our status as “Homo halfwit”, a species squandering what little intelligence we ever had. Our movies are stupid; there’s a great riff on Daniel Craig’s aspiration to make “honest, gritty” Bond films. Our language is getting stupider – cue our withering host on therapy-speak. Our dining experience grows ever more stupid – witness Elton taking granny to her last meal before Dignitas does its business, a situation when life and death meet “how would you rate your restaurant experience?”
“I know I’m sounding like an old curmudgeon,” says Elton, and he really doesn’t want to. One of the charms of late-period Elton is his dogged openness to new developments. That’s a principle at war now and then with his dismay at how things are panning out. But the resulting curiosity and even-handedness yield some great set-pieces, like an inventory of the generations from boomer to Z.
But the usual target is old Elton himself. Yes, the state of things is bewildering for boomers like Elton. But his fun-poking is thoughtthrough, never mean-spirited, and should find a sympathetic audience not only among his fellow bewildered, but maybe even among those doing the bewildering.
Touring until 10 December