Well If Art Gets Funding, Why Shouldn't Football? | Yes Minister | BBC Comedy Greats

we spoke to the curator they get an average of 11 visitors a day anyway it's a constituency matter it's nothing to do with you or whitehall why are you so interested in it there is a question of principle principle you know what you used to tell me politics was about what principle the principle of taking money away from the arts and putting it into things like football a football club is a commercial operation there is no cause for subsidizing if it runs out of money why not why not yes why not there's no difference between subsidizing football and subsidizing art except that a lot more people are interested in football our cultural heritage has to be preserved for whom for people like you you mean for the educated middle classes why should the rest of the country subsidize the pleasures of the middle class few theater opera ballet subsidizing art in this country is nothing more than a middle-class rip-off oh minister how can you say such a thing subsidy is about education preserving the pinnacles of our civilization or haven't you noticed don't patronize me humphrey i believe in education too i'm a graduate of the london school of economics may i remind you well i'm um glad to learn that even the lse is not totally opposed to education nothing wrong with subsidizing sport sport is educational we have sex education too should we subsidize sex perhaps oh could we let us choose what we substitute by the extent of popular demand there's nothing wrong with that it's democratic but minister this is the thin end of the wedge what would happen to the royal opera house on such a basis the very summit of our cultural achievement royal opera house very good case in point and what do they do mozart wagner verdi puccini germans and italians not our culture why should we subsidize the culture of the axis powers our european partners minister the royal opera house gets about nine and a half million pounds of public money every year and for what the public can't afford thirty pound seats and if it could they can't get them there aren't enough of them the vast majority of the audience consists almost entirely of big business executives block booked by the banks and the oil companies and the multinationals and people like you royal opera house is the establishment to play why should the working man on the terraces foot the bill for the gentry in the stalls you could perfectly well afford to pay for their own seats i'm quite frankly appalled this is savagery barbarism but a minister of the crown should say these things it it's it's the end of civilization as we know it as well as being a gross distortion of the truth distortion man art cannot survive without public subsidy did shakespeare get a public subsidy and what about films films are art films are educational why does the establishment ignore the subsidizing of films because people like you prefer opera we should be subsidizing modern relevant art like films that the men in the street season enjoy precisely they are commercial and now if you will excuse me i have to go early tonight i can no longer continue with this appalling discussion why where are you going nowhere in particular i'm sorry we must talk this through i can't i have to dress up grace where are you going seems to insist i am going to the royal opera house oh you're really carla knight is it yes it is since you asked that's the permanent secret is going to be there something no doubt or if you get then nope i don't know make you late for your works outing you

Channel: BBC Comedy Greats

Views: 164,026

Keywords: bbc, bbc comedy greats, bbc comedy, comedy greats, british comedy, stand up, Comedian, Comic, Sketch show, yes minister, yes prime minister, yes minister season 3, yes minister jim hacker, jim hacker, paul eddington, nigel hawthorne, sir humphrey appleby, derek fowlds, bernard woolley, weisel, yes minister A Quality of Life, A Quality of Life, classic comedy, James Hacker, The Middle Class Rip-Off Yes Minister, Jim Wants To Fund Football Yes Minister

Id: Zl0aEz34A4o

Length: 4min 14sec (254 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/DickMasterson]

Cocteau!!!

[u/MastermindX]

Except we're not even subsidizing theater, opera, and ballet. We're subsidizing crazy lesbians rubbing their period blood on a canvas and selling it for a million dollars.

[u/gEtOuTofDoDgE_]

If only you knew how bad this stuff really is.... I see it on a daily basis, corrupt companies paying themselves 100% of grant funding as salaries..... all over 100k while these companies make nothing. Saw 1.5m go through to a green company the other day, for no reason just to keep being green and presumably kill their competitors...... makes me wonder why I bother working

[u/Leprenomicon]

40 years old, and still on point.