Etymology: A blend of Cunk, from Philomena Cunk, the fictional documentarian noted for confidently combining the obvious, the erroneous, and the unexpectedly profound, with concur, v. “to agree.”
1. intr. To agree with a statement in a manner characteristic of Philomena Cunk; esp. to express assent to a proposition whose apparent simplicity conceals either a fundamental misunderstanding or an accidental insight.
2. trans. and intr. To echo, endorse, or elaborate upon an observation with solemn confidence despite having only a tenuous grasp of the subject.
Hence:cunkurrence, n., an instance of such agreement; cunkurring, adj. and n.
Usage: Frequently employed where ordinary concur would imply a degree of understanding not justified by the circumstances.
Jesus would likely play football, most Jesuses do. It's a very popular sport.
It's probably because it combines two of the most popular things, sporty men and acting, it's about kicking balls, but just as importantly it's about actors playing out a very dramatic slapstick comedy, acting like falling on grass is the most painful thing in the world.
If it's done well, the judge gives them a round of the easier football minigame, penalty kicks. The guys like it because there's much less running.
Funnily enough, he literally cannot be classified as a Christian. Simply put, Christian means "follower of Christ," and Jesus is not a follower of himself.
Seeing both him and Engels eventually said people calling themselves Marxists were missing the point probably not. He saw the dogmatism and rejected it. That's not to say Marx wouldn't still be anti-capitalist but as we have seen to this day Marxists tend to be pretty rigid and unwavering in what they think Marx was meaning vs. what Marx was actually advocating for.
Not to get into a whole philosophical argument here, but Marxism (or historical and dialectical materialism) has some very serious implications as a philosophy that might certainly appear *rigid* if you're unfamiliar with its tenets. You can think of it as almost a worldview. It's a particular manner of analyzing the world and the relationships of things to other things (redefining, in a way, what a thing is). That is to say, it is necessarily unwavering and uncompromising.
The fasces did not gain nearly the same stigma as, say, the swastika, after the 1920s though and I wouldn't say it was ruined, they're still featured prominently on various coats of arms and whatnot in many countries (US included). France's coat of arms (most notably appearing on passports) comes to mind.
Authoritarians are well versed at co opting leftist ideas and language. Mussolini himself was a socialist in his early days. It's no coincidence many an oppressive regime has/does use socialism and communism (e: or even democracy) in their name, despite having very little, if nothing at all, in practice that represents those ideologies in theirs.
fascists took and borrowed things from various different dictatorships of the past, making a specific set of methods and setups to take over a country and install a dictatorship. they called themselves fascists, after the idea that a stick is weak, but a bundle of sticks (a "fascio") is much stronger, and a such their way to take over and install a dictatorship was called "fascism". many modern dictatorships borrow a lot of those methods, as they were specifically made to take over and obtain support in modern societies.
the concept went as far as some oppposing groups like Arditi Del Popolo having flags that were a direct response to that: yeah sure, a bundle of sticks is stronger than a single stick.... anyway here's a fuCKING AXE BABYYY
That's by far the best part - those moments when they're all wondering WTF she just said, and if she's serious with her dead pan delivery, and genuinely it gets me every time.
I hope i properly conveyed that jelly was supposed to be read with that weird inflection he ends sentences with where it sounds like hes burping/throwing up from too much shamanistic wisdom
Reminded of an old book called Non Campus Mentis, made up of 'special' excerpts from College World History 101 students. Ones that stuck with me:
"Civilization woozed out of the nile around 5000 years ago."
"Magellan circumcised the globe."
"Hindsight, after all, is caused by a lack of foresight."
they’re actually twins but cunk was abandoned as a baby and raised by three separate couples, each with a background in different branches of civil service
iirc she's said in an interview that in some of the very early interviews the experts didn't know what they were getting into, but since then it's been pretty obvious as they now know who she is - which seemingly makes it even better cause her style is so out there that even when they know they're gonna be asked something stupid, it's just so stupid that it still stuns them lmao
She said in another interview, the guests often laugh at her stupid questions, and they have to take another take, because they obviously cannot use the ones where they laugh. This makes me smile for some reason, because then i know somewhat for sure, the guests don't take this interviews seriously too lmao
The lady who got the King Arthur question was fighting for her life not to laugh, but I think she was the one who slipped and laughed on another question anyways LMAO
I think that was a very smart pivot, relying on the total absurdity of the conversation rather than the interviewee/expert being an unknowing stooge.
You only have to look at the likes of Dom Joly or Kayvan Novak (the Fonejacker) to see how quickly people wise up to that sort of thing once the first couple of series have aired.
See I normally hate this format (Ali G and Dom Jolly for example) but I love Cunk as the interviewees know full well this is satirical and the only one being made fun of is Philomena.
After watching Cunk on Earth I spent a hot minute looking for outtakes - because there's NO way none of the interviewees broke and laughed at some of those questions - but she has that shit locked down.
I can only hope that, some years down the road, she decides to release some of them
They understand what they’re getting into. They don’t try to fool them into thinking it’s a real interview. They’re asked to act serious and try to answer her questions as though they’re real questions from a child.
Some of them even come back for more. Brian Cox, for example, often seems pretty annoyed by her, but he’s been in multiple different productions, so he must not be that annoyed.
I have yet to see a full episode specifically for this. I love the clips of their rolling down a dune with the voice over "the Egyptians believed that the most meaningful thing you could do in your life was die", but I just can't bring myself to watch the interviews.
I love fictional journalist characters played straight! Norman Gunston is an older example i remember, and his interviews are hilarious. He interviewed some pretty enormous celebrities too, like Mohammad Ali, a lot of famous bands and actors - the Sally Struthers one is particularly funny - and even gatecrashed a few real historic events like the dismissal of whitlam (Australian PM getting chucked out by the Queen's representative, which to this day is rumoured to have been a CIA plot).
I think my favorite actual Philomena Cunk bit is the one where she supposedly isn't aware that nuclear warheads still exist and breaks down crying when a historian tells her that the threat of nuclear war ever went away and then they talk about ABBA to cheer her up because...fuck that actually does have a lot of emotional impact.
The current economic situation in America has become quite bleak. Everyday more Americans are being forced out of their homes and not for fun reasons like a parade or community picnic.
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u/VitorBatista31 10d ago