QotD: Knighthood

Maybe this nonsense still impresses foreigners, but to the British "knight" simply means "famous dickhead in his fifties" or "fat crook who donates to the Labour Party".

Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Jimmy Saville, Sir Elton John, Sir Bono . . . I could go on. Giving one to someone with talent and brains, rather than yet another ignorant blatherskite of the Ian Botham type, is most unusual, even if it wasn't a deliberate slight.

"Everybody has a summer holiday.
Doin' things they always wanted to.
So we're goin' on a summer holiday
To make our dreams come true . . ."

It seems to me that if you award knighthoods for that sort of thing, the bar has been set pretty low. Unless you want to try and argue that Sir Cliff embodies the knightly virtues of wysedom, verite, humylite and swiftness.

Harry Hutton, "The Order of the Fat Dickhead", Chase me ladies, I'm in the cavalry, 2007-06-23