Climate denier as Borat: what if Christopher Monckton was really a long-running Sacha Baron Cohen character?

Australian comedy-news program The Hamster Wheel covers archconservative British politician Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, a Thatcherite climate denier, and former editor for The Sunday Telegraph and other right-wing papers. The Hamster Wheel decides that Monckton (who once advocated confining people with AIDS to lifetime quarantine) must actually be a long-running Sacha Baron Cohen ("Bruno," "Borat") character and makes a compelling case that this must be so.

The Hamster Wheel: Lord Monckton (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

• [LordBlagger]

  Glad to see you quoted the ‘Lord’ bit. 

  After all, one wouldn’t want to be associated with the corruption and fraud there.

  e.g. Imagine claiming for attendance allowances and at the same time managing to get into one of the most secure buildings in the UK, without your pass being registered?

  Try Baroness Uddin for that little trick and several hundred others. 

• [Craig Forshaw]

  “Climate denier” is a term used to refer to a subculture of individuals with strongly held beliefs, and is not a description, but a label. When saying someone is a “climate denier”, you don’t mean things literally, anymore than the majority of “tree-hugging hippies” aren’t being described as people who try and build up the self-esteem of trees by gathering them in their arms. Stop being so pedantic as to make your entire argument about word-choice when the real issue is about something much more complex. All it does is expose you as the kind of person who is more obsessed with scoring points over other people rather than engaging in genuine discourse on the topic. Oh, and before you even try it, “climate denier” is not a discriminatory term, given that those it refers to are often amongst the most powerful and priveleged in the world.

• [shadowfirebird]

  Given that it’s clearly silly to deny the climate* I think maybe the meaning of the phrase is “climate CHANGE denier”.  

  I don’t see why someone who disagrees with the conventional thinking on
  climate change would find that pejorative.  It’s a literal truth.

  Unless you object to the idea that the existence of climate change IS
  the conventional thinking.  Which is just silly.  Right or wrong, it’s
  what most scientists agree on.

  Of course, I’m now refuting the points on two posts that appear to have been retconned…   More Disqus problems?

  ( *unless Cory meant that he went outside without an umbrella, which seems unlikely….)

  • [GeorgeStanton]

    Actually, I think those who disagree with theories of anthropogenic “climate change” like being called Deniers. It gives proponents of climate change an air of religiosity, which opens them to criticisms of being dogmatic rather than having opinions that are based on facts.

    • [Sebastian Spinczyk]

      Maybe, but that term is far more accurate than “climate skeptic”. So untill a term has been found that’s more fitting – something along the lines of “creationist” of “flat-earther”, I reckon – it’ll have to do.

      • [shadowfirebird]

        ‘denier’ is pejorative.   ‘skeptic’ is perfectly honourable.  Although I suppose you could argue that many “climate skeptics” are not rigorous enough to earn the term.

        I think they are wrong, but I’m all for them coming up with their own name.  Those of us who have the majority of science behind us can afford to take the moral high-ground.

        Like this particular looney — Monckton, I mean. I don’t think that anyone in the UK really takes him seriously. He’s certainly not on *our* TV shows. But he should be allowed to say his piece. If not, how would we ever know how ridiculous his views were?

        • [dragonfrog]

          But he should be allowed to say his piece. If not, how would we ever know how ridiculous his views were?

          He’s hardly being denied an opportunity to say his piece.  He gets to say his piece in Parliament, which is rather more than most of us get.

        • [cegev]

          As has been said elsewhere here, Monckton is not a Member of Parliament, and never has been. He’s crazy enough that he goes around saying he is, much to the annoyance of Parliament, and the House of Lords has sent him numerous letters to that effect, even eventually posting them publicly after Monckton kept ignoring them (http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-information-office/2011/letter-to-viscount-monckton-20110715.pdf).

          Meanwhile, he also claims to have developed a drug that cures AIDS, MS, and the flu, amongst other diseases.

          Calling Lord Monckton a “Climate Denier” suggests that he’s an otherwise sane person who denies climate change. He isn’t.

        • [Petzl]

          ‘denier’ is pejorative.   ‘skeptic’ is perfectly honourable.
          The problem is, skeptic is too honourable.  We use skeptics for people who actually look into the facts, actually do the research, or actually respect people who actually do the research.  These “skeptics” do none of this.  Hey that’s it– what about calling them climate “skeptics” (and always keep the quotation marks).  It’s meta- and it’s ironic and it’s accurate.

• [bumpngrindcore]

  Holy crap, this dude needs to be the villain in the next James bond movie!

• [Kimmo]

  I fucking love the Chaser boys; they’re larrikins par excellence.

  Their APEC stunt is almost certainly their best work to date, and what a high-water mark : D

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdnAaQ0n5-8

  • [Jim Saul]

    The trojan horse one was hysterically funny.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs3SfNANtig

    For those who didn’t see it, they constructed the full-scale horse, packed it with guys in greek warrior costume, and delivered it to various high-security embassies and government compounds. The “delivery men” would then usually be directed to take it right through the gates inside, where the fiends would come boiling out.

    (edited to add link)

• [daneyul]

  Wow, that video was like Poe’s Law come to life!

  To bad Sarah Palin and Tina Fey have been on stage together…otherwise I’d have my hopes.

• [Brooklyn Imbecile]

  Why do some BB readers insist that this site have a “neutral” or dare I say, “fair & balanced” outlook?  BB never claimed to be the unoffensive, unbiased news networks that nobody is anyways, so why do people still get upset over this?

• [Karnuvap]

  My motto…

  “Life is too short to humour mad people.”

  Was written for people like lord Monckton

  Unfortunately, despite being clearly bonkers, some people do believe his ravings.

• [Jim Smith]

  He doesn’t get his say in Parliament (thank FSM). Although he is a hereditary peer, they are no longer automatically members of the House of Lords.  (Britain moves into the 18th century at last) He claims to be a member but has been told by the relevant authorities to stop claiming and to stop using the Portcullis logo on his stationery.

• [TooGoodToCheck]

  If one proclaims “skepticism”, but then acts as though the science is settled and anthropogenic global warming is a hoax, then skepticism is just a beard to cover denial.

• [R A]

  Australia has passed a carbon tax bill today.

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15632160

  That will make his eyes pop out.

• [Brainspore]

  Has anyone actually seen Sarah Palin and Tina Fey in the same place at the same time?

  • [Warren_Terra]

    Yes – but then, I’ve also seen Bob Hoskins and Roger Rabbit in the same place at the same time.

    • [Brainspore]

      Maybe she uses another lookalike for those special occasions, like what Andy Kaufman did with his “Tony Clifton” character.

    • [eviladrian]

      You’re not suggesting that Bob Hoskins is really Roger Rabbit?
      Everyone knows that Bob Hoskins was played by Phil Collins!

• [Nagurski]

  This cannot be Cohen. He is currently doing an extended piece with a character called “Herman Cain.”

  • [ocker3]

    Has anyone seen Cain and Monckton in the same room? Perhaps he just spends a Lot of time on a plane!

• [bnschlz]

  I think you will find one can happily both critique the message and ridicule the person.

  Especially when the person is a ‘Lord’.

• [greebo]

  (in response to a post that has since been removed, by someone who was arguing that climate change is a myth but that didn’t make him a denier…)
  Well, you’re either a denier (in the same sense that alcoholics can be in denial), or you’re entirely ignorant of the science. When you’ve read and understood the numerous national and international assessments of the science produced over the last forty years (all of which confirm pretty much the same thing about how the climate changes in response to changes in radiative forcing), then maybe you’ll understand enough to talk rationally about it. Unless you’re willing to actually learn some basic physics, you’re indistinguishable from a denier.

• [Ryan_T_H]

  From a June 2010 study from PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States) 97%-98% of climate researchers agree with the the theory of anthropomorphic climate change.

  So, basically everyone with the training to make an educated opinion.