Title: Sport 21: Spring 1998

Publication details: Fergus Barrowman, October 1998, Wellington

Part of: Sport

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[8] The Entertainers

For all we know most people in the world would prefer a small, crisp, delicious apple to a big, shiny, floury one, a good belly laugh to a cool twitter, a tui singing to a broadcaster barking. Entertainment can be fun, light and a distraction, and it can be silly, superficial and an avoidance. But there is too much of it. Call me puritanical and I call it sloth. Cheap & easy, there is no protein in it, no punch. It swoons us mindless just when we need our wits about us. Watch us going witless, easier to manipulate, getting thinner & thinner, dressed like a dog's dinner, or fatter & fatter, as compliant as cushions. Watch us.

The Proliferation of Lap-dogs and Pussycats
I put the silly-entertainer-with-a-trivia-up-her-tail
right at the end so tail would rhyme with fail.

You silly-entertainer-with-a-trivia-up-your-tail,
look entertainment's fine, hearty and hale

but we're sick of the hype, there's too much to lose
— not just the cricket, your shares, or your booze—

there's clean air & truthfulness, the ability to choose.
Between you and the ads we get saggy — we snooze

while the corporates get slicker & re-arrange our views.
Get your smug and hazy brains away from our news!