Is the rpi a political joke?

[mung]

I was watching 'charlie brooker's election wipe' on bbc tv this evening and part of it seemed to show philomena cunk in a virtual reality political matrix inside a raspberry pi which charlie brooker threw onto his desk followed by barry shitpeas repeating Nicola Sturgeons name.

I am not sure what it meant and did not really understand the joke, was the foundation involved in this product placement?

[liz]

No, total surprise to us (very pleased though - I'm a HUGE Charlie Brooker fan). My guess is it's a reference to BBC News' habit of putting Rory Cellan Jones on a giant Raspberry Pi every time there's a news story about us.



The BBC is VERY strict about product placement; when we've done segments on kids' TV with the fart detector, for example, we've had to cover up the brand name of the deodorant we use to set it off; and last time Dave Akerman was on the BBC talking about Pis in the stratosphere, he wasn't allowed to mention the name of the product.

[DougieLawson]

The BBC is horrifically anal about "political correctness" and "product placement" to the point of annoyance of the average viewer. It's always been that way even back when Blue Peter renamed "Fablon" to "sticky backed plastic", we all knew it was "Fablon".

That's a product like "Hoover" where the trademark has now lost its capital letter and become the generic term.

[clive]

Made me laugh. Brooker's always been into games and tech, first came across him when he wrote for PC Zone. "Cruelty Zoo" anyone

[morphy_richards]

The BBC is horrifically anal about "political correctness" and "product placement" to the point of annoyance of the average viewer. It's always been that way even back when Blue Peter renamed "Fablon" to "sticky backed plastic", we all knew it was "Fablon".

That's a product like "Hoover" where the trademark has now lost its capital letter and become the generic term.

What the flipping gory heck is fablon?

Do you mean selleotape?

[DougieLawson]

The BBC is horrifically anal about "political correctness" and "product placement" to the point of annoyance of the average viewer. It's always been that way even back when Blue Peter renamed "Fablon" to "sticky backed plastic", we all knew it was "Fablon".

That's a product like "Hoover" where the trademark has now lost its capital letter and become the generic term.

What the flipping gory heck is fablon?

Do you mean selleotape [sic]?

Poor young thing. If you've never heard of Fablon you've never lived. We used to have to wrap our school text books in Fablon to stop them being shredded by the end of the school year. Exercise books got wrapped in paper because they filled and were replaced long before the end of term.

Sellotape is another thing entirely. That name comes from cellophane which is a plastic made from cellulose.

[liz]

Oh my god - I'd forgotten all about the text book/Fablon ritual. The bubbles used to drive me nuts.

[AndyD]

Oh my god - I'd forgotten all about the text book/Fablon ritual. The bubbles used to drive me nuts.

It is funny how products like these have different names all over the world. When I was a child here in Australia, this was always known as Contact (which from a quick search appears to be a US brand). I found a tutorial for you Liz ... How to cover books in contact without bubbles.

While off the topic. I was amused when I recently received a Raspberry Pi Universal Power Supply and put the Australian put the Australian plug-plate on that the Raspberry Pi logo sits upside-down when plugged into the wall socket. Is the Raspberry Pi logo always required to point North?

[DougieLawson]

Your sockets are upside down compared to ours. (I'll have to mention that to my daughter who's emigrating to Outer Pomgolia, Western Austrialia when her partner joins the Perth police.)

[Douglas6]

Ooooohhhh. Contact paper. Why didn't you say that in the first place?

[DougieLawson]

Ooooohhhh. Contact paper. Why didn't you say that in the first place?

Because it's called "sticky backed plastic" or "Fablon" here in Rightpondia.

[ame]

Your sockets are upside down compared to ours. (I'll have to mention that to my daughter who's emigrating to Outer Pomgolia, Western Austrialia when her partner joins the Perth police.)

China uses the same pin pattern as Aus/NZ, but it's the other way up (right way up?). Maybe the logo was installed for the Chinese market.

[adlambert]

My Blue Peter viewing goes back to Noakes/Purves/Singleton and I heard the brand name Fablon for the first time in this thread.

BBC seem OK for people to mention brand names now if they follow up with "other xxx products are available". Does seem a bit pointless but I guess not doing so will have a corporation lawyer opening up one eager eye.

"open up one eager eye" ref: The Killers, Mr Brightside; and Nena, 99 Red Balloons. Other popular beat combos are available.

[ame]

The problem with political jokes is that they often get elected.

[morphy_richards]

The problem with political jokes is that they often get elected.

Apparently the monster raving loony party is still alive and well.

Reminds me of my parents joking on election days in the 80s. Oh such happy days when cartoons were real cartoons, toys came out of cereal packets and political protests were real political protests.

[BMS Doug]

I've never heard of Fablon before today and yes, it was a ritual to cover all school books in sticky back plastic (a process I later repeated with softback RPG books, which saved my WFRP book from so many beer spillages (but not from cigarette burns (darn you Corver ))).

[scotty101]

political protests were real political protests.

They've made real political protests illegal these days.

[DougieLawson]

My Blue Peter viewing goes back to Noakes/Purves/Singleton and I heard the brand name Fablon for the first time in this thread.

They used to sell Fablon in FW Woolworth's (dec'd).

[mung]

Yeah I was not sure it actually was a rpi so checked the iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... ction-wipe

I think the footage starts about 14:00, and I now think maybe I was wrong, it looks more like a beaglebone on second viewing.
Also there is definitely no mention of fablon in the program but lots of sticky fingered backhanded plastic politicians.

[gordon77]

It looks like a Pi2 in a clear box he throws on the table

[DougieLawson]

It looks like a Pi2 in a clear box he throws on the table

Definitely looks like a 2B to me.

[hk1963]

It looks like a Pi2 in a clear box he throws on the table

Definitely looks like a 2B to me.

2B or not 2B: That is the question!

[BMS Doug]

It was nice to see my workplace used as an example of London buildings being abandoned (at about 48 minutes).

[andrum99]

BBC seem OK for people to mention brand names now if they follow up with "other xxx products are available".

That's actually a little in joke that comes from when the BBC used to advertise the Radio Times on their TV channels. There were some complaints so the "compromise" that was reached was to say "other listings magazines are available" at the end of the advert.

[Mandrewpi]

Your sockets are upside down compared to ours. (I'll have to mention that to my daughter who's emigrating to Outer Pomgolia, Western Austrialia when her partner joins the Perth police.)

The top plugins are like ours only in the us the top part is parallel