I know you are culture, but what am I?
The BBC is to launch a TV campaign promoting the new series of The Culture Show and its 101st episode, featuring personalities including Boris Johnson, Nigel Havers, Carl Barat and Adrian Chiles discussing cultural issues including EastEnders, sex, coffee, football and binge drinking.
BBC Radio 4’s Today presenter John Humphreys says: “[Culture] can be almost everything except politics and I’m a bit uneasy about contemporary art.”
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- stronger takes (0)
Strong Takes has obtained the full transcript of the John Humphreys interview.
The Culture Show: Mr. Humphreys, we are here to get your opinion on what exactly is culture. Some have said –
John Humphreys: I’m going to cut you off right there. Everything but two things is culture: politics and contemporary art.
TCS: I see. What about sex?
JH: Yes. Sex is culture.
TCS: Coffee?
JH: Culture. A bit jittery, which is to say, cultural.
TCS: Binge drinking?
JH: Obviously yes.
TCS: What about a law against binge drinking?
JH: That’s starting to sound an awful lot like politics. I’m going to say not culture.
TCS: What about a painting of some binge drinking?
JH: How old is the painting?
TCS: Pretty old.
JH: Yep, that’s culture. That’s almost definitely culture.
TCS: Are you culture?
JH: Yes.
TCS: Am I?
JH: Yes, you – wait, do you vote?
TCS: Not really.
JH: Yeah, then you’re culture.
TCS: Culture?
JH: Culture.
TCS: What is the least cultural thing you can think of?
JH: An Andy Warhol impersonator running for a position on the local school board.
TCS: And the most cultural?
JH: A poop.