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Tony Blair: Difference between revisions
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Not afraid of media, Blair played himself in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' and a sketch with [[Catherine Tate]]. Likely the only Prime Minister to have said ''"Am I bovvered?"''.
In British Media he tends to get portrayed either as a lapdog of [[George W. Bush]] or as an insincere spin master. He had a habit, especially towards the end of his tenure, of pausing at the end of every sentence as if trying to make it easier to cut out sound bites. The apex/nadir of his talking in slogans surely came in Northern Ireland, where he said "This is not the time for soundbites, but [[Hypocritical Humor|I feel the hand of history on my shoulder.]]" It got so pronounced that ''[[Have I Got News for You]]'' once played a minute long speech by Tony, then played it again with "The extraneous material" removed, that is to say they played 25 seconds of silence.
Early on in his premiership, Blair was noted for the election catchphrases "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" and "we have three priorities: education, education and education". These were widely parodied, [[Mad Libs Catchphrase|madlibs-style]], in the media and to some extent have entered the British lexicon.
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{{quote| '''Homer''': I can't ''believe'' we met '''[[Mr. Bean|Mister Bean]]'''!}}
* He acted in a sketch for [[Comic Relief]] with [[Catherine Tate]].
* He had a brief appearance in ''[[Spooks]]'', where footage of him and [[George W. Bush]] was used in the context of the Prime Minister meeting the US President.
* The unnamed Prime Minister whose dessicated corpse is found in a cupboard in the ''[[
* Tony Blair is also made fun of as the predecessor of the fictional Prime Minister in ''[[Love Actually]]''.
* Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher come in for some ribbing in ''[[Coupling]]''.
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* Played by [[Michael Sheen]] in 2006's ''[[The Queen]]'', who previously played him in 2003's ''[[The Deal]]'' and again in 2010's ''The Special Relationship''. Screenwriter Peter Morgan seems to have a [[Author Appeal|strong interest]] in what Blair is like behind closed doors.
* Blair was one of Jon Culshaw's most popular impersonations in ''[[Dead Ringers (TV)|Dead Ringers]]'': in another Comic Relief sketch, the real Blair appeared alongside Culshaw's version and played along, notably accepting Culshaw's use of his catchphrase ''"...in a very real sense..."''
* ''[[Private Eye]]'' started out with two Blair parodies: ''Blairzone'', referencing his "Cool Britannia" attempts to be hip and with it, and "The Vicar of St. Albion's", referencing how some had compared his speech-giving style to that of a sanctimonious parish [[The Vicar|vicar]] preaching a sermon. Perhaps unexpectedly, it was the second one that lasted and became very popular, with Cabinet members fulfilling corresponding roles (for instance, [[Gordon Brown]] as the church treasurer) and foreign leaders being slotted into appropriate roles (e.g. American Presidents [[Bill Clinton]] and [[George W. Bush]] were made into the leaders of odd evangelical sects the Church of the Seventh-Day Fornicators and the Church of the Latter Day Morons--or Morbombs during the Iraq War--respectively).
** "The Vicar of St. Albion's" [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|got weird]] when Blair very publicly converted to Catholicism shortly after resigning as Prime Minister...
*** And then immediately started offering the Pope unsolicited advice about modernizing his outlook...
** Actually, ''[[Private Eye]]'' adapted pretty well: he now makes occasional appearances as the Rev. Imam Rabbi Sri Tony Blair, Chief Executive of super-ecumenical organization [[Fun With Acronyms|Drawing All Faiths Together]].
* The [[Pet Shop Boys]] [[Affectionate Parody]] of [[George W. Bush]] and Tony Blair - "I'm with stupid" - reached number eight as a single on the UK charts.
** They also wrote "I get along" about his second firing of [[Peter Mandelson]] (according to [[Word of God]])
*** They also made the extremely creepy [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kx05kU5gZg "Integral"] about New Labour's increasing tendency to introduce a surveillance society; the fandom sometimes count these three together as the [[Pet Shop Boys]]' "Blair Trilogy".
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[[Category:The Men of Downing Street]]
[[Category:Tony Blair]]
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