"National Anthem" was just a funny idea I'd been knocking about. I initially thought about a beloved celebrity … - Charlie Brooker

Same topic Authors

Quote of the day

I regarded our progress merely as an invitation to do more - as an indication that we had reached a place where we might begin to perform a real service.

Charlie Brooker

"National Anthem" was just a funny idea I'd been knocking about. I initially thought about a beloved celebrity having to do that - and then I watched an episode of 24. In my head, I was writing almost a parody of a 24-style president woken in the middle of the night with a crisis. It seemed more interesting to play it ultrastraight and to have the viewer's initial reaction be one of laughter and disbelief - and just have the whole thing become progressively more uncomfortable.

Crisis, Head, Knocking, Laughter, Night, Writing

Same Author Quotes

Women - why aren't you running the world yet? Frankly I'm disappointed in you. Men are still far too dominant for their own good, and consequently we've made a testosterone-sodden pig's ear of just about everything: politics, the economy, religion, the environment. . . you name it, it's in a gigantic man-wrought mess.

Dominant, Gigantic, Men, Pigs, Politics, Running

When you look at things like social media, that's an immensely powerful tool that I'm all in favor of. I think it's amazing. It's a powerful tool, and it's one that we're, as a species, still grappling with learning to use. It's like we've grown an extra tail and we inadvertently lash out and knock over all of the furniture.

Powerful, Thinking, Media, Grappling, Knock

The difference between smartphones and cigarettes is this: a cigarette robs 10 minutes from your lifespan, but at least has the decency to wait and withdraw all that time in bulk as you near the end of your life - whereas a smartphone steals your time in the present moment, by degrees. Five minutes here. Five minutes there. Then you look up and you're 85 years old.

Bulk, Difference, Differences, Minutes, Smartphones, Years

I'm actually quite pro-technology, but I'm a worrier, so I like to envision worst-case scenarios.

Actually, Cases, Scenarios, Technology, Worrier, Worst Case Scenario

When you're being earnest, people think you're being sarcastic and when you're being sarcastic, they think you're being earnest. The moral in all this, of course, is that people should never attempt to communicate.

Earnest, Moral, People, Sarcastic, Thinking