"The Best Thing That Anybody Could Do" (TLIAP)

If there were 6 contestants, and 5 pulled out, what were the two bids that weren't bids?

Obviously Birmingham was the 'bid so laughable it wasn't bid', but what was the non-bid?

I'm missing something.


BTW, thank you for everyone explaining the in jokes.
 
A paltry offering to replace the operatic masterpiece; but I shall accept your tribute anyway. Very 1980s Britain.

It is a bit crap isn't it? I have a strong impression the strangely hyperbolic lyric of "the best thing that anybody can do" was chosen mainly to rhyme with "1992".

Then again, maybe FM & MC could've written an Alt-"Barcelona" about Birmingham. Wolverhampton would fit the syllable structure better mind.

If there were 6 contestants, and 5 pulled out, what were the two bids that weren't bids?

Obviously Birmingham was the 'bid so laughable it wasn't bid', but what was the non-bid?

I'm missing something.


BTW, thank you for everyone explaining the in jokes.

Heh, an overwrought linguistic joke on my part. The "two options" are Birmingham (not a serious option) and to not nominate (literally not an option). I'm probably very much over-egging the anti-Birmingham sentiment of TTL's IOC, but then most of this mini-timeline is played for laughs.

Re: In-jokes: I've been rather drawn to obscure topics lately. A combination of "write what you know", trying to be original, and wariness about exposing my wider ignorance. That this little bit of fun has had a small but warm response is thus very satisfying. In-jokes must be my way of compensating with more familiar reference points (that is, familiar to an AH.com audience). I don't know if there are any in-jokes in this as such (references to Spitting Image aside), but there are certainly a few peppered through my other works. "The Loud Blast That Tears The Skies" has had a few lately, though my signature aside they've hopefully been subtle enough as not to be too distracting.

So far I've had two children of Lloyd George premierships (different timelines), and two extinctions of the Liberal Party (electoral and cosmological). Funny thing is, this personal typecasting was entirely unintentional.

*Scurries off to write timeline where Dan Snow, last of the Lloyd Georges, returns the Liberals to greatness*
 
Hey man, don't dis Denis Howell.

Wilson made him Minister for Sport and we won the World Cup.

Then in the long hot summer of 1976 he was made Minister for Drought and within days it pissed down.

Most successful politician ever :D:D:D
 
This is marvellous, Boot. :cool:

"Wolverhampton! Such a beautiful horizon..."

Nah. Doesn't quite pull it off as well, does it?


I'm glad you lampshaded the old canal fact. I heard it sent up a few years back on I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue, when Humphrey Lyttleton delivered it, paused, then muttered "which is presumably why everybody calls Venice the Birmingham of the Adriatic."

Brilliant stuff. It made me laugh out loud.
 
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