For nearly 18 months now, the increasingly frustrated European liberal fat-cat elite has been asking for some clues as to what we brave British Brexiters imagine Brexit will be, the pastry edifice of Theresa May’s monumental “Brexit means Brexit” statement having already crumbled last year, when a moth’s tear fell near it.
Unable to say what Brexit is, a strategically and heroically vague David Davis last week chose instead to tell Brussels what Brexit isn’t, promising, definitively, that Brexit will not be “a Mad Max-style world”, despite evidence to the contrary commissioned by his own department.
Andrea Leadsom, meanwhile, has clarified that Brexit will also not be “some ham”, Jacob Rees-Mogg has stated categorically that Brexit will not be “a drawing of Alain Delon”, while Dan Hananananan has further elucidated that Brexit will also not be “a kind of thing with all stuff on it, and brown stripes, going up and down, like humbug mints on an escalator or some hot bees”.
In the light of Davis’s assurances that we will not be “plunged into a Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction”, I wonder how much worse the post-Brexit dystopia could be anyway? Would the air of the capital remain technically toxic? Would there be nuclear power stations abandoned in dangerous disrepair? Would the oceans choke on plastic? Would secure housing be a pipe dream for millions? Would Boris Johnson still be free to scatter his lies at midnight into sleeping children’s eyes?
For many of the disenfranchised and disenchanted Britons who voted for Brexit, being plunged into a Mad Max-style dystopia would represent an improvement in their living conditions! Perhaps being plunged into a Mad Max-style dystopia is one of the few tangible benefits of Brexit!! Especially if it was sunny and featured Tina Turner as an Amazon cyberpunk!!! And anyway, better to live one day free in a Mad Max-style dystopia than a thousand years as a slave in the world’s largest single market area.
I worry that the idea that we will be “plunged” into a Mad Max-style dystopia is a little optimistic. The word “plunged” suggests events would unfold with a speed and decisiveness so far absent from the Brexit process. After a few years of sliding slowly and painfully into a Mad Max-style dystopia, with no clear end to the plunging in sight, Leave voters will look back at the suggestion that we were to be plunged into anything at all as just another example of the lying betrayals of their feckless and apparently unaccountable Brexit cheerleaders. Where was the plunge into a Mad Max-style dystopia we were promised?
But what do I know? I have not even seen any of the Mad Max movies, though last year Brendan McCarthy, co-writer of the recent reboot Mad Max: Fury Road, described me as “an archaic leftwing relic”, adding: “Milo Yiannopoulos is more on the zeitgeist.” But where is the discredited alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos now? Nowhere. And where am I? I am in a three-star hotel room in Stratford-upon-Avon, eating a bag of humbug mints, which are what gave me the idea for the closing sentence of the third paragraph. I win.
And anyway, the best dystopian sci-fi film is not Mad Max, but the straight-to-video Mad Max rip-off World Gone Wild (Lee H Katzin, 1987), which I bought on VHS from a shop called Rimpy’s Fags, Foods and Non-Foods on Horn Lane in Acton for 50p in 1989. (World Gone Wild was, of course, filed in the non-foods section of the store, along with the wood, a fossilised coelacanth and Terence Trent D’Arby.)
The reason World Gone Wild is a better dystopian sci-fi movie than Brendan McCarthy’s stupid Mad Max: Fury Road, for example, is because it doesn’t have a colon in the middle of its title like what a idiot would do; and because it stars Adam Ant as a man called Derek Abernathy who, in a plot copied off Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, harries a plucky village of survivors in a Mad Max-style dystopia; and because it co-stars the bewildering actor Alan Autry, who played a gay footballer in the controversial gay Cheers episode The Boys in the Bar, but went on to become the anti-gay mayor of Fresno California; and because I’ve seen it and you never will. I win. Again.
David Davis rightly became the immediate target of the high-speed satire sausage machines of social media’s infinite monkey treadmill for his foolish Mad Max metaphor, but imagine if he had been just a little more pop-culturally literate in the way that Tories just never are.
Imagine if, instead of saying Britain would not be “plunged into a Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction”, David Davis had said Britain would not be “plunged into a Derek Abernathy-style world. You know? Derek Abernathy? The Adam Ant character in World Gone Wild? Haven’t you seen it? Steve Jones from the Sex Pistol’s forgotten 80s hair metal band Chequered Past do the theme tune.”
The confused corrupt Eurocrat fat-cats of Brussels would immediately have sent their researchers off to score copies of World Gone Wild to decode Davis’s latest opaque clue as to what Britain imagined Brexit was, thus buying Davis more time to invoke ever more obscure dystopian sci-fi movies in his quest to hide the dispiriting truth.
“I tell you what Brexit won’t be. It won’t be like that one set two years from now where Christian Bale and a group of bedraggled survivors hide in a desolate English wasteland attacked by giant dragons. Rain of Fire, wasn’t it? No, Reign of Fire.
“Well, whatever, it won’t be like that. Or Enzo Castellari’s The New Barbarians, where the American footballer Fred Williamson is a kind of Jedi-ninja in a desert ruled by lawless bikers. Brexit won’t be like that. Or a drawing of Alain Delon.”
Content Provider continues to tour until April, when it resolves with three dates at the Royal Festival Hall. stewartlee.co.uk
Stuart, Chortle
Stuart, Chortle
Lee Mack, Mack The Life, 2012
Lee Mack, Mack The Life, 2012
Gmanthedemon, bbc.co.uk
Gmanthedemon, bbc.co.uk
Peter Fears, Twitter
Peter Fears, Twitter
Rudeness, Youtube
Rudeness, Youtube
Peter Ould, Youtube
Peter Ould, Youtube
Slothy Matt, Twitter
Slothy Matt, Twitter
Anon, dontstartmeoff.com
Anon, dontstartmeoff.com
Foxfoxton, Youtube
Foxfoxton, Youtube
Frankie Boyle, Comedian
Frankie Boyle, Comedian
Peter Ould, Twitter
Peter Ould, Twitter
Horatio Melvin, Twitter
Horatio Melvin, Twitter
Mini-x2, readytogo.net
Mini-x2, readytogo.net
Liam Travitt, Twitter
Liam Travitt, Twitter
Karen Laidlaw, Edfringe. com.
Karen Laidlaw, Edfringe. com.
NevW47479, UKTV.co.uk
NevW47479, UKTV.co.uk
Bobby Bhoy, Twitter
Bobby Bhoy, Twitter
Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph
Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph
Genghis McKahn, Guardian.co.uk
Genghis McKahn, Guardian.co.uk
Tweeterkiryakou, Twitter
Tweeterkiryakou, Twitter
Anonymous, don'tstartmeoff.com
Anonymous, don'tstartmeoff.com
Mearecate, Youtube
Mearecate, Youtube
Maninabananasuit, Guardian.co.uk
Maninabananasuit, Guardian.co.uk
Borathigh5, Youtube
Borathigh5, Youtube
FBC, finalgear.com
FBC, finalgear.com
DVDhth's grandparents, Twitter
DVDhth's grandparents, Twitter
GRTak, finalgear.com
GRTak, finalgear.com
World Without End, Twitter
World Without End, Twitter
Whoiscuriousgeorge, Youtube
Whoiscuriousgeorge, Youtube
Clampdown59, Twitter.
Clampdown59, Twitter.
Lenny Darksphere, Twitter
Lenny Darksphere, Twitter
Pudabaya, beexcellenttoeachother.com
Pudabaya, beexcellenttoeachother.com
Anamatronix, Youtube
Anamatronix, Youtube
Sweeping Curves, Twitter
Sweeping Curves, Twitter
Pnethor, pne-online.com
Pnethor, pne-online.com
Joe, Independent.co.uk
Joe, Independent.co.uk
Chez, Chortle.com
Chez, Chortle.com
Alwyn, Digiguide.tv
Alwyn, Digiguide.tv
Pudabaya, Twitter
Pudabaya, Twitter
Al Murray, Comedian
Al Murray, Comedian
Shit Crit, Twitter
Shit Crit, Twitter
Lucinda Locketts, Twitter
Lucinda Locketts, Twitter
Shane, Beverley, Dailymail.co.uk
Shane, Beverley, Dailymail.co.uk
12dgdgdgdgdgdg, Youtube
12dgdgdgdgdgdg, Youtube
Zombie Hamster, Twitter
Zombie Hamster, Twitter
Alex Quarmby, Edfringe.com
Alex Quarmby, Edfringe.com
Aaron, comedy.co.uk
Aaron, comedy.co.uk
Aiden Hearn, Twitter
Aiden Hearn, Twitter
Ishamayura Byrd, Twitter
Ishamayura Byrd, Twitter
Cabluigi, Guardian.co.uk
Cabluigi, Guardian.co.uk
Robert Gavin, Twitter
Robert Gavin, Twitter
Funday’schild, youtube.
Funday’schild, youtube.
Gabrielle, Chortle.com
Gabrielle, Chortle.com
Z-factor, Twitter.
Z-factor, Twitter.
Someoneyoudon'tknow, Chortle.com
Someoneyoudon'tknow, Chortle.com
Dick Socrates, Twitter
Dick Socrates, Twitter
Kozzy06, Youtube
Kozzy06, Youtube
General Lurko 36, Guardian.co.uk
General Lurko 36, Guardian.co.uk
A D Ward, Twitter
A D Ward, Twitter
Sidsings000, Youtube
Sidsings000, Youtube
Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph
Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph
Contrapuntal, Twitter
Contrapuntal, Twitter
Pirate Crocodile, Twitter
Pirate Crocodile, Twitter
Tin Frog, Twitter
Tin Frog, Twitter
Idrie, Youtube
Idrie, Youtube
Meanstreetelite, Peoplesrepublicofcork
Meanstreetelite, Peoplesrepublicofcork
Tres Ryan, Twitter
Tres Ryan, Twitter
Syhr, breakbeat.co.uk
Syhr, breakbeat.co.uk
Keilloh, Twitter
Keilloh, Twitter
Stokeylitfest, Twitter
Stokeylitfest, Twitter
Iain, eatenbymissionaries
Iain, eatenbymissionaries
Henry Howard Fun, Twitter
Henry Howard Fun, Twitter
Rubyshoes, Twitter
Rubyshoes, Twitter
Hiewy, Youtube
Hiewy, Youtube
Bosco239, youtube
Bosco239, youtube
Neva2busy, dontstartmeoff.com
Neva2busy, dontstartmeoff.com
Visualiser1, Twitter
Visualiser1, Twitter
Yukio Mishima, dontstartmeoff.com
Yukio Mishima, dontstartmeoff.com
Birmingham Sunday Mercury
Birmingham Sunday Mercury
Rowing Rob, Guardian.co.uk
Rowing Rob, Guardian.co.uk
Guest, Dontstartmeoff.com
Guest, Dontstartmeoff.com
Joycey, readytogo.net
Joycey, readytogo.net
Etienne, Chortle.com
Etienne, Chortle.com
Tweeter Kyriakou, Twitter
Tweeter Kyriakou, Twitter
Richard Herring, Comedian
Richard Herring, Comedian
Esme Folley, Actress, cellist, Twitter
Esme Folley, Actress, cellist, Twitter
Patrick Kavanagh, Guardian.co.uk
Patrick Kavanagh, Guardian.co.uk
Nicetime, Guardian.co.uk
Nicetime, Guardian.co.uk
Carcrazychica, Youtube
Carcrazychica, Youtube
Guest1001, Youtube
Guest1001, Youtube
Microcuts 22, Twitter
Microcuts 22, Twitter
Wharto15, Twitter
Wharto15, Twitter
Emilyistrendy, Youtube
Emilyistrendy, Youtube
Lents, redandwhitekop.com
Lents, redandwhitekop.com
Joskins, Leeds Music Forum
Joskins, Leeds Music Forum
Mrdavisn01, Twitter
Mrdavisn01, Twitter
Lancethrustworthy, Youtube
Lancethrustworthy, Youtube
Carla, St Albans, Dailymail.co.uk
Carla, St Albans, Dailymail.co.uk
Leach Juice, Twitter
Leach Juice, Twitter
98rosjon, Twitter
98rosjon, Twitter
Brighton Argus
Brighton Argus
BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
Meninblack, Twitter
Meninblack, Twitter
Gwaites, Digitalspy
Gwaites, Digitalspy
Cyberbloke, Twitter
Cyberbloke, Twitter
Sam Rooney, Youtube
Sam Rooney, Youtube
Deepbass, Guardian.co.uk
Deepbass, Guardian.co.uk
James Dellingpole, Daily Telegraph
James Dellingpole, Daily Telegraph
Jackmumf, Twitter
Jackmumf, Twitter
Danazawa, Youtube
Danazawa, Youtube
Mpf1947, Youtube
Mpf1947, Youtube
Spanner, dontstartmeoff.com
Spanner, dontstartmeoff.com
John Robins, Comedian
John Robins, Comedian
Tokyofist, Youtube
Tokyofist, Youtube
Secretdeveloper, Youtube
Secretdeveloper, Youtube
Anonymous, The Northfield Patriot
Anonymous, The Northfield Patriot
Dahoum, Guardian.co.uk
Dahoum, Guardian.co.uk
Jamespearse, Twitter
Jamespearse, Twitter
Anon, westhamonline.com
Anon, westhamonline.com
Fowkes81, Twitter
Fowkes81, Twitter
Johnny Kitkat, dontstartmeoff.com
Johnny Kitkat, dontstartmeoff.com
Fairy Pingu, Twitter
Fairy Pingu, Twitter
Neolab, Guardian.co.uk
Neolab, Guardian.co.uk
Coxy, Dontstartmeoff.com
Coxy, Dontstartmeoff.com
Dave Wilson, Chortle.com
Dave Wilson, Chortle.com
Len Firewood, Twitter
Len Firewood, Twitter
Brendon, Vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk
Brendon, Vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk
Cojones2, Guardian.co.uk
Cojones2, Guardian.co.uk
Anon, BBC Complaints Log
Anon, BBC Complaints Log