Stephen Fry - Hay Sessions 2009 6/6

Part 6 of 6

Stephen Fry talks to Peter Florence at the Hay Festival (in Hay-On-Wye) in May 2009 about life, politics, America and culture.

Question continued from part 5

2nd question:

'Obama was really popular in America mostly because his rhetoric and his message was able to go across part lines. But do you think that abroad, if he'd been the same guy with the same rhetoric would his message have not have been as well received had his politics been different, if Obama had been Republican do you think international perception would have been different?'

Fry's answer leads to a discussion about General Colin Powell, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.


3rd question:

'You talk about the American sense of humour but you haven't talked so much about the British sense of humour but do you think they differ hugely and if so what accounts for that difference?'

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[CMalburn]

I think he was saying that neither country is inherently better than the other, and that while America has many faults, they are all problems that can be found in the UK to a certain extent.

Also, I agree that, absolutely, UK, USA and every other country is bloody minded, deluded and flawed in some aspect.

[hannahsahappychappy]

I'm liking the lime green socks.

[johnjosmith42]

wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful. Repeat till the page is full, Printer.

[batmanofni]

I'd say that the first few seasons of Friends was about failure, untill they all got decent jobs and stable relationships. I certainly know people who could be classified as Ross or Chandler or Monica or Rachel.

[PianoWizzy]

Only Stephen could be so instantaneously articulate. "...on whom life craps at a terrible height..."

[owenhunt]

@HTHAMMACK1 I know he's been to all 50 states, but the documentation he produced of it was barely more than travelogue and advertisement. I listened very well indeed, which is why I saw him to have had "very little" to say against America - unlike yourself, who seems to believe I failed to recognise any of his points about American ignorance of Socialism - a mere concept.

[255ad]

@uncled39 it's what his career was built on

[uncled39]

Not everyone on here agreed with Mr Fry, but people seemed to like his bright socks.

[255ad]

@HTHAMMACK1 sorry it's been like 8 weeks I honestly can't remember what I was getting at

[HTHAMMACK1]

@owenhunt LOL! Yeah, France is bereft of these problems. Not! As for his gushing over America, he's actually been to every one of the 50 states. He knows what he's talking about. But you obviously didn't listen very well, because there were a number of areas of America that he criticized.