Elements of Wit by Benjamin Errett
Author:Benjamin Errett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2014-09-09T16:00:00+00:00
Both Johnson and British prime minister Cameron are upper-crust conservative British politicians, both went to Oxford and, perhaps most amusingly, both belonged to that university’s notorious Bullingdon Club. This not-so-secret society blends casual wealth with destructive mischief in such a way that reflects poorly on all involved. Most infamously, members will conclude an opulent dinner by savagely trashing the restaurant or club, smashing plates, glasses and windows—and then immediately paying for all the damage and then some in cash. It’s hard to imagine a more disgusting display of snobbish entitlement—the alliterative appeal of the phrase “Bullingdon bully” has not been lost on Fleet Street—and the prime minister’s opponents have missed no opportunity to hang the name Bullingdon Club around his neck.
To some degree it has stuck to Cameron, but not in any appreciable sense to Johnson. Why is that? In a word, charm. For while at first glance the prime minister is the more Cary Grantish of the two, it’s Boris Johnson who appears eminently more comfortable in his own skin. Only his most ardent foe—and more on them in a minute—would accuse him of being anything other than what he is.
Or as Johnson once told the BBC, “As a general tactic in life, it is often useful to give the slight impression that you are deliberately pretending not to know what’s going on—because the reality may be that you don’t know what’s going on, but people won’t be able to tell the difference.”
And herein lies the key to Johnson’s charm, wit and enormous popularity with the voting public: He is tremendously, astonishingly well spoken. It’s difficult to think of another public figure in modern times who can compare. Now, when it comes to sweeping rhetoric, yes, Barack Obama is the one who can send shivers up the legs of admiring journalists. But when it comes to actually talking, without a teleprompter and on a subject not of his choosing—in other words, the way you and I have to talk every single day—the U.S. president tends to sound more like the law professor he is by training. He thinks aloud, evaluates various positions, uses plenty of pauses and measured “ahs,” and always comes down on the side of nuance.
But when Boris Johnson talks, it’s like an expert jazz musician riffing. He finds fully formed epigrams, historical references, comedic intonations, drive-by zingers and verbal jabs in the driest of subjects. He gets himself into trouble much more often than any political consultant would advise, but he either talks his way out of it or simply wins over the public because he is so obviously just being himself.
It must be said that Boris Johnson’s charm is just as much a gift from his chromosomes as Cary Grant’s: The latter got chiseled features while the inherited a sharp tongue. But there is still much to learn from what the two men share. In both, their charm resides in the obvious fact that they’re having fun. Both had the ambition to rise to the heights of their chosen professions; Neither confused ambition with dull earnestness.
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