This author’s A++ trolling of Elon Musk was already next level but the coup de grace was simply epic
Editor-in-chief, The Poke
Editor-in-chief, The Poke
- John has spent three decades writing about TV, media and popular culture. As broadcasting correspondent of the Guardian he spent many happy years presenting the paper’s MediaTalk podcast, interviewing the likes of Matt Berry, Armando Iannucci and Charlie Brooker.
- A former chairman of the television critics association, the Broadcasting Press Guild, he presented their annual awards ceremony and has a whole bunch of photos of him standing next to A-list celebrities (pictures available on request).
- He has also hosted events for Bafta and the Edinburgh TV Festival, and chaired the press jury prize at the Rose d’Or entertainment festival in Montreux.
Experience
John spent nearly 20 years at the Guardian, first as a freelance and then as a staff member on the Media Guardian team, editing the paper’s Media Monkey diary column. He first started writing about the television business at Broadcast magazine, before joining Heat and (briefly) The Sun. He began his career in local newspapers at the Medway News in Kent and the Norwich Evening News. He has only done stand-up twice and on one of those occasions he was fortunate enough to share the bill with Greg Davies and Rhod Gilbert (before they were famous, obviously).Education
John has an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.A Netflix viewer was furious this moment of its new 19th century drama was unnecessarily diverse – 14 A++ comebacks that all get 5-star reviews
Jonathan Dimbleby’s A++ defence of the BBC is an important, essential listen – but the grim vitriol he prompted shows just what the corporation is up against
Elon Musk pointed men towards Homer’s The Iliad for ‘maximum Alpha’ and it was a self-own for the ages – 13 classic comebacks
Karoline Leavitt told Brits to watch GB News and managed the unlikely feat of uniting the whole of the UK
This author’s devastating critique of Elon Musk was so brutal that he can’t stop trolling her on Twitter
An American shared the idea you can have a few drinks before going out and the whole of Britain bellowed back as one
A ‘Christian nationalist pastor’ said women should lose the right to vote and was kicked right in the ballots – 17 biblical smackdowns
Elon Musk was asked to justify his claim that new NY mayor Zohran Mamdani was a ‘swindler’ and the pause lasted so long we thought our watch had stopped
Donald Trump’s response to a White House visitor fainting was shocking but RFK Jr’s knee-jerk reaction was properly hilarious
This author’s never-bettered description of Donald Trump has just gone viral again and it gets truer with every passing day
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins delivered a scorching hard truth to Donald Trump and his (non) response spoke volumes
An off the scale American pastor wants to control what women wear and this A++ comeback was today’s most satisfying thing
Elon Musk got the hump with someone who pointed out his weird voting track record and the comeback was a proper chef’s kiss
Rupert Lowe blamed Sadiq Khan’s London ‘warzone’ for his wife’s Porsche misfortune and ended up hilariously and magnificently owned
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