0:00

Hey Bookchooks, Dave here letting you know that

0:03

the 2023 Melbourne International Comedy Festival

0:05

starts so soon and I am doing

0:07

a stand-up show called Even Hotter

0:10

in Real Life. I'm on every night for two

0:12

weeks starting Monday, March 27 at

0:15

the very specific time of 6.35pm at Campari House. I'd

0:20

love to see some Bookchooks in the crowd and you can

0:22

get tickets at comedyfestival.com.au

0:25

use the code HOTHOT for cheap $18 tickets.

0:30

That's just for the book chooks. Alright let's

0:32

start this episode.

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1:31

Hello and welcome to BookT. The

1:33

Book Club Podcast where I've read the book so

1:35

you don't have to. My name is Dave

1:37

Wornicke and on each episode of this show we look

1:40

at one of the classics and joining me to look

1:42

at such a classic this week. It's my podcast

1:45

mates, Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart.

1:47

I'm a book chook. The

1:49

book chooks are here. So good to be back in

1:51

the old chook house with

1:53

you booking it up, book-a-la, book-a-boo-boo-boo.

1:57

Correct.

1:58

Can I just confirm? I mean,

2:00

you call this podcast mates there, which accurate.

2:03

Yes. Real life mates as well, or are

2:05

we just work mates? Interesting.

2:07

Sorry to put you on the spot and on the record,

2:10

but I'm afraid I will not continue

2:13

if I don't like the answer.

2:14

You know you are my real busy

2:17

mates. Some

2:19

of the very few people, we had a very small wedding and both of you

2:21

made the cut. That's true. So

2:23

nothing else. Why don't you do the photos?

2:26

And fair, because we looked hot. Gosh, you

2:28

looked hot. Was it that one of those classic,

2:31

I'm inviting Jess, it

2:33

would be rude if I didn't invite

2:36

Matt scenarios. It was more like several other

2:38

people pulled out and there was one spot for Jess and

2:40

I said, okay, fine, I'll have to invite Matt as well. That's

2:42

why I was on a fold out chair. Yeah. Fold

2:45

out chair. Matt

2:48

slept on a deck chair at my wedding. And

2:50

he looked great. Thank you so much. And comfortable.

2:52

A pleasure to be here, Dave. I haven't been on Booksheep

2:55

for ages. Well, thanks for coming back. I

2:57

really appreciate having you both here. And

2:59

before we get to the book, we've got to say, it's the most wonderful

3:01

time of year in Melbourne. We're in April,

3:04

it's the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

3:06

has taken hold once again. And

3:09

we're all doing shows this year. For the first time

3:11

since we've been doing our podcast, do go on,

3:13

we're all doing solo

3:14

shows. Somebody asked me the other day if that was a coordinated

3:18

attack in a way of like, okay, well Jess

3:20

and Dave in particular haven't done shows for

3:22

quite a while. This is my first solo show. Someone

3:25

was like, was that sort of, did you plan to all do something?

3:27

I was like, nah, just what happened?

3:29

We planned to clash. Yeah. We

3:32

planned to

3:33

compete with each other for ticket

3:36

sales. Exactly, compete with the same

3:38

audience that we share. Absolutely, that

3:40

was a very smart choice. But

3:42

ideally what we should have done is all been in the same

3:44

venue, smack bang after each other.

3:47

That would have been great. That's so long, that's so

3:49

much company. I reckon next year we've got to do

3:51

the do-go-won venue. Yeah, I like

3:53

that. We buy a building.

3:55

Yeah, I think we should buy a building. Should we buy a theater?

3:58

I think we go back to back each night. and then

4:00

a fourth show every night as a podcast we do

4:02

a do-go-on a book sheet who knew it a prime

4:04

age yes So each each night goes

4:07

for 18 hours And

4:10

it's awesome and it's awesome tickets only $200

4:12

a night. That's great just for us

4:14

to break even on buying a building We

4:16

cannot stress it's not If

4:18

you know about building a

4:20

building I've bought is the MCG okay 200,000 sell that out 200 a pop Yeah,

4:25

now we're Now

4:27

we can afford the MCG.

4:30

Maybe, still only maybe.

4:32

We've taken a risk and it's paid off in detail. It's

4:34

absolutely paid off. So we're also getting together

4:36

for our Do Go On quiz show, which is very, very

4:38

exciting. When this comes out, we've just

4:41

done the first one

4:42

and what a show it was. Oh, my God. Geraldine Hickey,

4:44

Kirsty Waybeck crushed it. These are the

4:47

calibre of guests we're getting. So basically,

4:49

I picked a topic from history, Jess and Matt don't

4:51

know what it's going to be. Then I quizzed them about it. It's

4:53

something that we all know a lot about. a lot about a

4:55

big topic like last year we did um the

4:58

Olympics or Albert

5:00

Einstein one of the most famous people ever but how much do

5:02

you know about them? The first week

5:04

with Kirsty and Geraldine we did toothpicks

5:07

I didn't think you'd get that much out of it but somehow

5:09

you did. I actually was scrolling I was going

5:11

there's too much here there's too much on toothpicks. What

5:14

a fascinating history it was. We've got two

5:17

shows left to go with great guests on Monday nights

5:19

at the town I'll hope to see you there Jess is doing her

5:21

show almost maybe at the comedy festival.

5:23

That's right It's at the Improv Conspiracy Swansden.

5:26

It's called Almost Maybe. It's really fun and

5:30

you can you should come along.

5:32

And Matt you are rocking and rolling

5:34

your shows already started. Ding! Yeah,

5:36

well firstly I'd say do yourself a favor, go

5:38

see Jess Perkins show and if you

5:40

have any spare time and

5:42

laughs left to give please come and see

5:45

me doing ding

5:47

at the Chinese Museum 6.30 all

5:50

nights but Sundays at 5.30 and

5:53

I'm also doing my podcast

5:56

who knew it with Matt Stewart

5:57

and I'm doing that a lot. There

6:00

were some great guests and book cheat favorites actually. Nick

6:03

Mason, Woof! Cass Page, Woof! And

6:06

Ben Russell. Double Woof!

6:07

Man, that is a great lineup. That's

6:09

at European beer cafe, but it's now called something

6:11

else. Morris House. Morris House. At

6:14

Morris House on Sunday the 9th of April

6:16

at 2pm. I'm also doing it in Brisbane

6:18

actually, at the Brisbane Comedy Festival, 7pm

6:21

on Sunday, May 14th.

6:22

So much fun to be had. Get tickets via mattstewecomedy.com.

6:26

Fantastic. And finally, I should tell you that I'm still

6:28

doing much. So we've got a week left to go of Even

6:30

Hotter in Real Life, which is my stand-up

6:33

show. Had a lot of fun doing it. Hope to see

6:35

you there. Can I just say Matt and I have both

6:37

seen the show and we think he's

6:40

bloody done it. Yeah, I've seen it now four

6:42

times. Yeah, it's a great show. I

6:44

apologize, but thank you. I've also sat

6:47

through one on one, sat through it and sound that

6:49

glowing. No,

6:50

it never is just a one on one read

6:52

through. It's very beneficial. Matt sat on a business

6:54

chair while I stood there and just said it to him. Oh, it

6:56

sucks, doesn't it? very nice of you.

6:59

But the following day I returned the favor.

7:01

Yeah so

7:04

it's a great time of year there's loads of ex-book

7:06

cheat guests former book

7:09

cheat faves that you can go and see at comedyfestival.com.au.

7:12

Great time get out there it's only it goes so quick.

7:15

Oh it does. Only three weeks ago which sounds like a

7:17

long time but really it goes so fast. I

7:20

like what you have to often tell your listeners get

7:22

out there touch some grass.

7:24

Yeah. Am I using that term right? Yeah. Yeah,

7:27

yeah, touch some grass. I heard Dave say it the other week and

7:29

I'm like, huh, I might try and use that one

7:31

day. See if I can get it in

7:33

the right context. It doesn't quite

7:34

work for going and seeing shows because

7:36

you're not touching grass and you are like sitting quietly

7:39

in a dark room. But at

7:41

the MCG? Of course. If

7:43

you pay $400 for the on grass seats. Yeah.

7:48

That's right, we can fit more in. Yeah, that's a good one.

7:52

All right, let's talk about a book. I've been reading

7:55

a classic lately and I am gonna tell

7:57

you today all about

7:59

Animal Farm. which

8:02

is a very requested, in a second I'm gonna

8:04

read you all the people that have requested this book. It's very

8:06

popular, very

8:07

popular, or one that's not

8:09

popular and people can't be bothered reading it, that's

8:12

the other possibility. I believe it's often

8:15

studied in many schools. I did it at my school

8:17

and Jess, I think you told me that you've covered

8:19

this in high school. I think year 11. I

8:22

think it was year 10 or year 11 that we did. Yeah, it was

8:24

one of those too. Annabelle Farm, do you remember much about it? I remember

8:27

that that's where I learned what an allegory is.

8:30

Oh, I thought you were gonna say alligator and I was thinking,

8:32

that is a different animal. And it's

8:34

about piggies. Yes, lots of piggies. And

8:36

I remember one is called Napoleon. That's right. And

8:39

it's an allegory.

8:41

Right, yep. Which we'll talk about. Beautiful name

8:43

for a little girl. Don't fully remember what for. Oh,

8:46

well, I'll tell you that. Kinda.

8:48

Okay, great. Yeah. I remember

8:51

enjoying it, I think. Yeah,

8:53

fantastic. I think I found it a bit funny.

8:56

Is it funny? Not

8:58

really. No, it's kind of, it's kind

9:00

of, it is satire. It's disturbing

9:02

if you know what it all alludes to. Even

9:05

more disturbing actually. I should say even the stuff.

9:07

It's not alludes, it's an allegory.

9:10

Yeah. What did alludes

9:12

do? The allugulation of this novel. And

9:15

Matt, do you have any knowledge of Animal Farm? What

9:17

do you bring to the table? No, I, we never- We bring to

9:19

the kitchen table. We never studied

9:21

at school, but I did around high school

9:23

time watch Babe,

9:25

Which is also about

9:27

a pig and it's an animal

9:29

farm talking pig. I think similar

9:32

stuff.

9:32

What year was Animal Farm written? So

9:37

Matt wasn't even in school yet. Sorry, it

9:39

was written...wait. It

9:44

was written after Matt had finished school. You

9:47

missed it. You'd graduate it. I'm

9:49

very old if book cheat listeners don't

9:51

realise that. Canonically Matt is 400

9:53

years old. And

9:56

that's rounding down. Yeah, I'm being generous there.

9:58

No, well... He's had some work.

10:00

Prehistoric. There were

10:02

no written records at the time. So we're

10:04

not entirely sure how old it is. Certainly no books. As

10:06

old as The Wind, we generally say. That's

10:08

why I love Chicago. The windy city. When

10:12

I go there, it feels like home. Let

10:15

it blow.

10:17

Now, this book's been suggested, like I said, by a bunch

10:19

of people. And thank you to Nicholas

10:22

Stefano, Jessica Villarreal,

10:25

Mary

10:26

from Reading, or possibly Mary Reading, Jeff

10:29

Slagle, Robin Rzyska.

10:31

Oh my God, these names are all so good.

10:34

Eric Waldorf, Sammy

10:36

Frank,

10:37

David Thompson, also from Reading,

10:40

Tegan Longman, Luke Morgan,

10:43

Oliver Petter Platt. Luke Morgan.

10:45

Add a Luke Morgan to you too. There's

10:48

not a dud name amongst them. Kel Stevens,

10:50

Tyrone Devon. Oh my God.

10:54

Eli? Okay. It's

10:57

always one. It's a great first name. It's probably holding

10:59

something back. I just don't know what the surname is. Yeah, it's really strong. Julius

11:02

V. Bourne. Another

11:04

couple of single names. Bill

11:07

from Manchester. It's not a rock solid name.

11:09

Tasha from England. Tasha, a beautiful name.

11:11

We've got Abby from Sydney. Abby, rock

11:14

solid, beautiful

11:14

name. Keely Ludford. Oh

11:17

my god, that is a beautiful name. And finally, thank you

11:19

to Eric Weatherhead. Oh

11:22

my god, the most beautiful name yet. I

11:24

love him. Eric Weatherhead. Holy shit.

11:27

If you've got a book or a play or a poem or something you

11:29

want me to cover on the show There's a link in the show

11:31

notes like if they've written one Dave

11:35

please review my poem self-published

11:37

well not published. I give very critical thing Yeah,

11:40

I wrote it put it in my drawer, but now I'm giving

11:42

it to you Animal farm

11:44

let's

11:44

talk about it's a novel by English author George

11:47

Orwell first published in 1945 I've

11:50

seen it described in many ways an anti-utopian

11:53

satire a

11:55

a beast fable?

11:57

Oh, a beast fable. or most commonly an allegorical

12:00

tale of allegory yes

12:03

in his essay here are some words that

12:05

rhyme with Cory story

12:07

Montessori allegory

12:09

that's where I learn allegory I think from

12:12

the Cory hotline earlier episode

12:14

the Simpsons yeah yeah Lisa gets addicted

12:16

to calling the Cory hotline for 95 a minute that's

12:18

right

12:19

yeah I hope you and I can get married someday

12:24

in his essay published in 1946 just after

12:26

this called why I I write Orwell wrote

12:28

that Animal Farm was the first book in which he

12:30

tried with full consciousness of what

12:33

he was

12:34

Trying to do which was quote to fuse

12:36

political purpose and artistic purpose

12:39

into one whole I've got that

12:41

book why I write I was given to me as a

12:43

president

12:44

years back interesting Yeah,

12:46

in the wrapping or no

12:49

unwrapped it Would

12:51

be pretty rude not done. I'm wrapped it looked at

12:53

it went huh Oh, right back up. No,

12:56

I went, hmm. They

12:58

gave me that. It was my cousin, very supportive

13:00

cousin gave me that. And a Moleskin

13:02

book said, I know you're

13:04

doing comedy, you're writing. And this is before

13:07

I done

13:08

standup and stuff. And

13:10

she's like, this is a place

13:12

to put your ideas in. That's

13:14

so lovely. That's fricking legend. That is really

13:16

nice. Shout out Claire. Shout out

13:18

Claire. She's not

13:19

listening. What? Not that supportive an issue.

13:21

Yeah.

13:22

You know what? I hate Claire.

13:24

What if she is listening? I love you, Claire. I

13:27

still think you could do better, Claire. I'm like a moleskine. It's

13:29

quite nice. Yeah, it's really nice. The problem

13:32

was it was so nice that I never felt there was

13:34

an idea worthy of it. I don't think I ever

13:36

put a word in it. I should, I

13:38

still have it somewhere. Still pristine. And also

13:41

the same with the book. You didn't feel worthy enough to read

13:43

it. Yeah, 100%. Haven't

13:45

read a single word. No, I did read it. It's a very

13:47

small book. Read it. Big

13:50

letters. Read it in like probably a couple of

13:52

hours. Well, good work. Not even a big

13:54

deal.

13:55

Well at first with Animal Farm Orwell found

13:57

it difficult to find a publisher because

13:59

as soon discover the story is set on a farm

14:01

where animals take over and start to govern

14:04

for themselves after kicking out their

14:06

farmer.

14:07

The story is an allegory for the

14:09

Russian Revolution of 1917

14:12

where the animals

14:14

and events on the farm stand in for what happened

14:16

during this part of history. Right.

14:19

Which to anyone unfamiliar to briefly

14:22

summarize and give a tiny bit of background is very

14:24

complicated. Lots Lots of stuff happened

14:26

in a short period of time. But

14:28

from 1917, Russia abolished

14:30

its oppressive monarchy,

14:32

kicked out the Czar, and after two

14:34

successive revolutions and a bloody civil

14:37

war, the country adopted a socialist

14:39

form of government.

14:42

Initially, it was supposed to be all about the workers

14:44

and improving life for everyone with a man called

14:47

Vladimir Lenin in charge,

14:49

who is a very controversial figure in history.

14:52

Some people very much fan of him.

14:54

other people think that he is awful.

14:57

But what

14:58

we do know for sure is he died when when

15:00

in charge, Lenin died and Joseph

15:03

Stalin betrayed the cause and

15:05

maneuvered to eliminate all of his opponents

15:08

and tighten his own grip on power on

15:10

by that time what was known as the Soviet

15:12

Union. Right.

15:13

So and the animals stand

15:16

in for these these people, Lenin and

15:19

Stalin. Gotcha. Stalin then inaugurated

15:21

a period of rapid industrialisation

15:24

and forced collectivisation that led to

15:26

significant economic growth, but also

15:28

contributed to a famine in 1930 through to 1933 that

15:31

killed millions of people. He

15:35

also sent millions of his perceived enemies

15:37

to prisons or simply murdered them

15:39

through what is known as the Great

15:41

Purges. So all of this is covered

15:43

but with animals. Yeah, isn't

15:46

it funny? I could write heaps

15:48

of books if I could just take an existing story

15:50

go but he's not a man he's a

15:52

dog so why don't you I'm

15:54

going to get out

15:56

that book that Claire gave you? Finally,

15:59

an idea worthy. Just get started. Pick

16:02

an event in history. $9.877, drawn grand

16:04

final. Okay, great. And

16:07

what

16:07

are they? Played by dogs. Played by dogs. Fantastic.

16:11

Dogs in Little Jumpers? Yeah. That's

16:13

going to sell very well. People love dogs in Little Jumpers. They love

16:15

them. What kind

16:16

of dogs? All different? Yeah, different kinds

16:18

of dogs. That's a beautiful. Especially

16:20

back then. It was a game for all shapes and sizes.

16:22

That's a beautiful, a beautiful image,

16:24

isn't it? And that's a metaphor. Yeah. That's

16:27

nice. I think that's beautiful. Yes. White

16:30

dogs. Yep. Yappy dogs.

16:33

Round dogs. Fast dogs. Slow

16:35

dogs. Tall dogs. Snow dogs.

16:39

I think it's a hit. I think the problem with having

16:41

us on the podcast is we immediately fall into

16:44

a do-go-on setting where we just take

16:46

over. So you just need to

16:48

keep

16:50

interrupting us. You need to keep editing these

16:52

bits out. Yeah. Well,

16:54

I'll tell you when I or he wrote it in 1943 during

16:58

the Second World War and the British intelligentsia

17:01

at the time held Stalin in high regard

17:03

and He had trouble

17:06

finding a publisher for Animal Farm When

17:08

it was published in 1945 Perceptions

17:10

had changed partly because of the start of the Cold

17:12

War and it became a huge hit and was critically

17:15

lauded Wow So it

17:17

was massive for him Then

17:19

he followed it up with another famous book

17:21

you might know in 1946 he published an essay called

17:23

A Nice Cup of Tea Which

17:26

was a discussion of the craft of the making

17:28

of a cup of tea and included the line Here

17:31

are my own 11 rules, every one

17:33

of which I regard as golden Golden

17:36

rules of making a cup of tea Jesus

17:38

Christ you really didn't run out of ideas didn't you? God

17:41

was able to get all of his rules down to 10 Yeah,

17:43

why they're 11 for a cup of tea a cup

17:45

of tea. I mean that just shows how important

17:48

they are. I think this essay is a good like writing

17:51

exercise for somebody with like writer's block,

17:53

but I don't think

17:55

I think he's taken this too far. Yeah to publish

17:57

it. Yeah And this wasn't even the first one he'd written

17:59

in 19-

20:00

Island that one no the one that you

20:02

talked about on do go on dr. Moreau Yeah, yeah

20:04

the island of dr. Moreau so actually Wells wrote

20:06

that thank you that starred Marlon Brando. Thank you

20:08

There's the connection and they were

20:10

they lived in the 20th century Three

20:14

titans of the 20th

20:16

century much like us. Yes 21st

20:19

now

20:20

so George Orwell let's Not

20:24

Marlon not a sheet but George Orwell

20:26

is on a hot streak but sadly he died soon

20:28

after in 1950 at the age of just 46. Oh!

20:32

Tuberculosis complications. Would there be

20:34

anything else we'd know? Because there are two of

20:36

those are super iconic. Were they the only

20:38

two that really cut through? He's

20:39

got a couple other ones. Travels in

20:42

Catalonia, which is like more autobiographical.

20:44

But these are better than that. But 1984 and

20:48

Animal Farm are definitely a cut above the other set

20:50

considered like 20 20th century absolute

20:52

classics. So there he's two most famous

20:55

but who knows he was only 46 he may have written more

20:58

and here's a fact I learned no recorded

21:00

copy of his voice exists. Whoa!

21:03

So there's no interviews or anything like that so I can't

21:05

tell you what he sounded like. Hello it's

21:07

me JoJo!

21:09

I wanted to be

21:11

a radio presenter and they said no!

21:14

So I write me little books and

21:17

I look at me little pictures.

21:19

It turns out he sounds like Marlon Brando so maybe

21:22

that's That's the confusion. I

21:24

could have made a contender. Ah! You

21:29

come here on a day of my daughter's wedding.

21:31

Stella!

21:33

Hi Stella!

21:39

Bit of fun. Let's crack in.

21:41

I always start with the opening line of

21:43

the book and here it is. Let's see if I remember it.

21:45

Animal Farm. Oink, oink, oink. Oink,

21:48

oink. You really

21:50

dumped it. It's all in the subtext. It's

21:53

totally live.

21:55

Mr. Jones of the Manor Farm

21:58

had locked the henhouses for the night. but

22:00

was too drunk to remember to shut

22:02

the pop holes. Pop holes?

22:04

Pop holes. Oh, we're off and away. And we're

22:07

off, we're absolutely off. We've briefly

22:09

met Mr. Jones there, the drunken owner of

22:11

Manor Farm. And as soon as he goes

22:13

upstairs to bed and turns the light out, the animals

22:16

all gather in the barn for a meeting.

22:19

In the book, they can speak English to each other.

22:21

Right. Hmm. Surely

22:23

they'd be speaking Russian. Hmm.

22:27

Hmm. I mean,

22:29

I guess they picked it up from the people in

22:31

England, maybe. There's a story going around

22:33

that old major, an elderly and very

22:35

respected 12 year old pig has

22:37

had a dream that he wants to share. So

22:40

they all gather around to hear it. And these are some of the

22:42

animals. There's horses, boxer,

22:45

clover and Molly. There's

22:47

a few dogs, Jesse, bluebell

22:49

and Pincher.

22:51

There's a white goat

22:53

called Muriel. A

22:55

cynical donkey named Benjamin. Some

22:58

of these names don't match. A

23:00

dog is not Bluebell. That's a cow. No,

23:02

that's a horse or a cow. That's a cow. Jesse, that's

23:04

absolutely a dog. Sorry

23:06

to say. It's okay. And there's also many chickens,

23:08

hens, ducks, and other pigs,

23:11

which we will talk about later.

23:13

Oink, oink. So old

23:15

major is up there on the podium, but before he shares

23:17

the dream he's had, he shares a rousing

23:20

observation he's made about all of

23:22

their lives.

23:23

He's realized that the

23:25

animals are basically slaves for the humans

23:28

who treat them poorly, work them incessantly

23:30

and then throw them on the scrap heap or slaughter

23:32

them when they're no longer useful. He

23:35

describes their lives as miserable, laborious

23:37

and short.

23:39

The big three. But he's realized

23:41

it doesn't have to be this way. The land

23:43

they live on could support much more than it currently

23:46

does and they could all live in harmony and

23:48

in much nicer conditions. He

23:50

says, quote, man is the only creature that consumes

23:52

without producing. He does not give milk.

23:55

He does not lay eggs. He is too weak to

23:57

pull the plow. You cannot run fast

23:59

enough to ca-

24:00

rabbits yet he is Lord

24:02

of all the animals and that makes

24:04

you feel pretty embarrassed to be

24:06

a human. I'm with him old

24:09

major yeah let's take down the humans. We don't do

24:11

anything. We've got no talents.

24:14

No. And

24:16

all this leads to his dream he's had a dream

24:18

about a world without humans and it

24:20

was beautiful they're free

24:22

and the animals all live a life of dignity

24:25

he

24:25

He refers to them as comrades and

24:27

encourages them to rise up together and overthrow

24:30

their oppressors. The rule should

24:33

be, quote, whatever goes upon

24:35

two legs is an enemy.

24:37

Whatever goes upon four legs or has wings

24:39

is a friend. So apologies to all

24:41

kangaroos. Oh no. They're

24:44

out.

24:45

Emus are okay because of the wings even though they don't

24:47

really work. Thankfully, yes, they've got the wings. Oh, but like, but

24:49

these are like, these are British

24:52

animals, you know? They don't know about

24:54

kangaroos.

24:54

They don't know they're excluding kangaroos and

24:57

rock wallabies. No, no in the 40s They definitely

24:59

had some touring boxing kangaroos back

25:01

then. Yeah,

25:02

that's true. So they just hated

25:04

them I guess yeah, this this was a choice

25:06

same with the rangtangs and Yeah,

25:10

I mean other I guess sometimes they

25:12

can go on awful Yeah,

25:17

fantastic you just need to get them to do that a couple

25:20

of times and you go all right You're off. Yeah, so do I. Yeah.

25:22

Well, you're fine. Yeah, I can do that every

25:25

now and then Like once a day

25:27

I could just go Yeah, when they're babies

25:31

Thankfully babies are fine, but

25:33

who's gonna have the babies? What

25:36

about like worms

25:39

They're just one leg. There's one

25:42

big leg. Yeah, let us roll around. Oh,

25:44

that's tough They don't have wings. They've

25:47

said two legs but they've said nothing about one leg.

25:50

One leg or millipedes? Many legs.

25:52

Right. Should they be the new rulers? Yes,

25:55

they've got the most legs.

25:56

Should it be number of legs? Yeah, I think

25:58

it should be. mold like the maria.

26:00

Yeah, I got to, you

26:02

know, it's food for thought, isn't it? Makes you

26:04

think. Right, but finally, finally, old man, Joe,

26:06

he's roused on me, he said, we've got to rise up, we've got to take down

26:08

our oppressors. And he finally says, even when

26:10

you have conquered him, do not adopt

26:12

his vices. No animal must ever

26:14

live in a house or sleep in a bed or

26:16

wear clothes or drink alcohol or smoke

26:19

tobacco or touch money or engage

26:21

in trade. All the habits of men

26:23

are evil. Above all,

26:26

no animal must ever tyrannize

26:28

over his own kind. Weak

26:31

or strong,

26:32

clever or simple, we are all brothers.

26:35

No animal must ever kill any

26:37

other animal. All animals

26:40

are equal. I think this is

26:42

a beautiful message. And they all

26:44

erupt, they're like, yes! When he

26:46

was like, hey, even if you're dumb, he like looked

26:48

at Box of the Horse, and he's like, hey?

26:51

I'll think you're over here. you're still alright and Boxer's

26:53

like, huh? Boxer's an idiot.

26:56

Huh? I

26:59

think he's talking to me.

27:03

Old Major then teaches

27:05

them a rousing song called Beasts of England,

27:07

which is a patriotic song that he knew

27:09

as a boy and only has recently remembered. The

27:12

animals love it and sing the song over and over again

27:14

until Mr. Jones, the farmer,

27:16

is woken up by the sound and thinking

27:18

there must be a fox in the barn. He fires

27:21

his gun. All the animals run quickly

27:23

into their beds,

27:25

but the seeds of rebellion

27:27

have been sowed. So,

27:31

sowed, sowed seeds. Hey,

27:33

you sow seeds. Yeah. Right. And soon rebellion

27:35

flowers will grow. Perfect.

27:38

Beautiful allegory. Thank you. Speaking of which,

27:41

so farmer Jones here represents

27:43

the Czar and the Royal

27:45

family of Russia

27:47

who were living in luxury whilst

27:50

all the peasants and worker people were shooting

27:52

into the air, scaring off boxes. Yeah, scaring

27:54

them off.

27:55

And there's debate as to whether Old Major

27:58

represents Carl Mar... Marx, the

28:01

namesake of Marxism whose theories inspired

28:03

Russian revolutionaries, or he

28:05

could represent Vladimir Lenin, who

28:07

played an integral role in the Russian revolution

28:10

and was the first and founding head

28:12

of government of Soviet Russia. So

28:15

two options there. Choose your own old

28:18

major. I'm going to say Lenin. I'm

28:21

going to say Lenin as

28:23

well. Okay. Well done. Because

28:26

I forgot the other option. They remember

28:27

being that there was a picture of Lennon

28:30

on one of the classroom walls in high

28:32

school, probably where they was doing

28:34

history. John Lennon? Yeah, and

28:37

then right next to that, this other Lennon.

28:39

Yeah. And I remember- Julian

28:42

Lennon?

28:42

I just remember- I just remember- I just remember-

28:45

Sean Lennon? Sean Lennon? Surely

28:48

not. Couldn't be Sean Lennon. Someone written

28:50

something next to

28:50

it. No, no, no, I just remember, I'll always remember

28:53

Lennon because one of my friends was just like, Look

28:55

at that glorious head of hair. Oh.

28:58

She just thought Lennon was kinda hot. Okay.

29:00

That's a Lennon? You think you have Karl Marx? No,

29:03

no, no, it was Lennon. Or Joseph Stalin. In a particular

29:05

photo, it wasn't Stalin.

29:06

Stalin had a thick row. I was pictured.

29:09

Lennon is usually pictured as a bald

29:11

man. Yeah, I'm gonna be thinking of somebody else.

29:13

Famously, he did have to wear a wig to go undercover

29:15

once. Okay, that's the photo we're talking about. Maybe there's a photo of the

29:17

wig. Who had good hair then? Joseph

29:19

Stalin did. I reckon Stalin had

29:22

a thick head. Joseph Stalin

29:24

was quite attractive when

29:26

he was younger. Dave, you know what? That's

29:28

not who I'm thinking of. You know the- Oh, it is. It

29:30

absolutely is. It was this exact picture. Yes. That's

29:33

the photo I'm thinking of too. I remember there was a viral tweet once that said,

29:36

I really want to take this to my hairdresser because

29:38

I love this hair and he looks great, but I feel embarrassed

29:40

taking a photo of Joseph Stalin.

29:42

But if you look at that, just at a glance, that's

29:44

Sam Taunton. Yeah, that's Taunton's hair. Yeah,

29:46

that's another handsome man. Do you think Taunton goes in and asks

29:48

for the Stalin? I think at this point he goes in

29:50

and asks for the Taunton. Yeah, sure. He's

29:53

a little Stalin.

29:54

I'm sorry, I thought it was Lenin this whole time. I've

29:56

had Lenin in my head. There you go, Lenin. Yeah, he's bald.

29:58

We need a kill for that hair. The new Tism

30:01

guitarist, they all take a

30:03

pseudonym. He's called Vladimir

30:06

Lenin McCartney. Bit

30:08

of fun. That's funny. That's

30:11

good stuff.

30:12

So back to the book, old major who's roused everyone

30:15

up soon dies in his sleep. And later on in

30:17

the book, his skull is put on display

30:19

as a reminder of the revolution, which

30:22

makes me think he actually represents Lenin because Vladimir

30:24

Lenin's body is still on display in Moscow

30:27

almost a hundred years later. Oh,

30:29

past him.

30:30

His body is on display? Yeah. That

30:32

feels pretty disrespectful. Yeah, they're

30:34

so- Walking past him, I'd stop and- Okay.

30:37

Give him a nod. Is he not just bones

30:40

at this point? Like you can actually see him or it's

30:42

like- No, they've like pumped in full of like formaldehyde

30:45

and stuff like that. Yeah, now you can see his- Really?

30:47

Oh, skin and all. Yeah. They've mummified

30:49

him sort of, or whatever. His face, yeah. Ew. They've

30:52

probably packed his ass with cotton. Oh, yeah. He's

30:55

fully packed. They're packed that way. Packed to the body of

30:57

eyeballs. Yuck, I hate that. Don't ever

30:59

do that to me when I die. Please. No, don't

31:02

put me on display for a hundred years.

31:03

Fine, 80 years. We'll cap it at that and then you'll be gone

31:06

in the ground. No,

31:08

Dave said 80. Well, I'm

31:10

compromising with Dave. Yeah, halfway. I'll agree. I'll

31:13

take it. That's not halfway at all. Well, all right.

31:15

Agree to disagree. 97 and a half years.

31:18

Fantastic. Halfway between. We'll meet

31:20

you halfway. So old mate

31:22

is gone, but he's well and truly inspired the animals who plan

31:24

an uprising, which is put together by

31:26

the smartest animals, the smartest of whom are

31:28

the pigs, including three key

31:31

pigs, Napoleon.

31:32

Yes. Snowball.

31:34

Oh, yes, Snowball. And Squealer.

31:38

We'll talk about it. Not Snowball too. No. I

31:41

thought, so it's interesting they've gone

31:43

with Napoleon, a famous political

31:46

leader and

31:48

army leader, and then

31:51

Snowball. Are they

31:53

all meaning something? Do they all have sort of... No,

31:56

not that I have put together. Napoleon

31:58

seems to stand out from

32:00

the rest a little bit. Well let's see what he does.

32:02

Okay. Together. Put

32:04

his hand in his shirt. Where's

32:07

a large hat? They're not allowed to wear clothes. Oh

32:10

that's right. So the smart

32:12

animals come up with the ideology

32:14

of animalism and several nights a week

32:16

after Mr. Jones falls asleep they have

32:19

secret meetings where they teach the others about

32:21

the principles of animalism. The

32:23

animals don't fully get it at first but after

32:25

several meetings they begin to accept and understand

32:27

that they'd be better off without Farmer Jones.

32:30

So these are the early days

32:32

of the revolution in Russia, where

32:34

they've come up with this idea, this new way

32:36

of living, and they have to convince the people, hey,

32:39

wouldn't it be better if we kicked them out and

32:41

we got to rule ourselves?

32:43

Boxer and Clover, the cart

32:45

horses, are especially on board with

32:47

everything their pig teachers tell them.

32:49

And as Jess has already said, Boxer, especially

32:52

not so smart.

32:53

Oh, wow, I nailed it. Boxer's an idiot. Not so smart.

32:56

And then one day, the revolt starts.

32:59

Mr. Jones had lately taken to drinking after

33:01

losing a bunch of lawsuits. And

33:05

he gets drunk for many days in a row and he forgets

33:07

to feed the animals. And out of hunger,

33:09

they break into their food supplies in the store

33:11

shed. The book says, quote, as

33:14

it turned out, the rebellion was achieved

33:16

much earlier and more easily than anyone

33:19

had expected.

33:21

Hunger will motivate you. Absolutely.

33:23

Survival. Yeah. So

33:25

is that meant to be

33:28

a Len, sorry, as

33:31

allegory? Was he drunk after losing

33:33

some court cases? No,

33:36

but I think that he was having trouble with some

33:38

of his neighboring countries,

33:40

especially because this is all taking

33:43

part at the same time as World War One, which

33:46

Russia was involved with and it was very unpopular.

33:49

And that also led to some

33:51

unrest. And then the people at home were

33:54

being treated badly and they weren't having enough

33:56

food. And then finally, like

33:59

they've been talking about it for years and finally

34:01

it just happened. Yep. The next day,

34:03

Jones and his four workers tried to deter

34:05

the animals with whips, but they all gather

34:07

together, that's the animals, and

34:10

buck and bite

34:12

and kick away the humans so much so that they

34:14

give up and fled and flee the farm.

34:16

Wow. Just completely leave the farm, not even

34:19

just go back into their house. They just

34:21

run away. Now they're like, oh, I gotta go. And just like

34:23

that, the animals are in control. Wow.

34:26

That was quite easy. the humans will come back

34:28

pretty soon with you know guns

34:30

guns and it'll be tranquilizers

34:33

yeah I think this will be a pretty short quite

34:35

a lot of ketamine run thing yeah

34:38

just to get ourselves in the mood exactly all right here

34:40

we go but not too much the

34:43

animals then did a victory lap and burn to all

34:45

the whips and other implements of control

34:47

that the farmers had had their light

34:49

matches with their

34:51

little mouths going got

34:55

it yeah chickens would have been able to do that just

34:57

then natural neck movement is very good

35:00

for

35:01

starting fires and then the pigs

35:03

who had been slowly teaching themselves to read

35:07

first crossed out the sign that said manna farm

35:09

and renamed it animal farm

35:12

and then they wrote out seven

35:14

commandments of animalism in large

35:16

letters on the wall of the shed say This

35:19

is way more efficient. He

35:21

took 11 to write about tea, but when

35:23

he's... Seven for the book? For the

35:25

whole of the animalism? Yeah.

35:26

Come on, mate. You

35:29

know how the British take their tea very seriously.

35:31

No, very seriously. Little tea, seriously, love your house, mate.

35:34

And to write this, the pigs have to balance on

35:36

a ladder and use a paintbrush, which is quite

35:38

cute to imagine. Yeah, that is cute. Let's

35:41

just think about that for a second.

35:42

You were recently up a ladder and got quite scared,

35:44

though. Yeah, but I was using a power sander.

35:46

And it's very cute to imagine. It

35:48

is very cute. It's

35:51

very cute. This

35:53

is quite integral to the book. These are the seven commandments

35:56

of animalism that they write on the wall. Number

35:59

one. Whatever goes upon two legs is

36:01

an enemy.

36:03

Number two, whatever goes upon four legs or has

36:05

wings is a friend.

36:07

Number one. Number three,

36:09

no animal shall wear clothes. Number

36:12

four, no animal shall sleep in a bed. Number

36:14

five, no animal shall drink alcohol. Number

36:18

six, no animal shall kill any

36:20

other animal. Number seven, all

36:23

animals are equal. Right.

36:27

I mean, I would have put that one first, But

36:30

yeah, there's a couple in there that would have me

36:32

saying, I'm out.

36:36

What? What are things?

36:41

I know this is going to make me sound like I'm a

36:43

real pampered top, but I love sleeping

36:46

in a bed. You love a bed. It's my preferred place to sleep.

36:49

I also don't mind a little tipple. Yeah.

36:52

And what else was there? I like laying clothes.

36:55

Yeah. And you also hate anything on four legs

36:57

or that has wings. No problems there.

37:00

I actually hate it when you wear clothes. So

37:03

that's there. I can see you undressing

37:06

me with your eyes. Stop it. Yeah,

37:08

actually, you can have your tipple,

37:10

but you gotta lose the pants. Well,

37:13

after the tipple

37:13

that gets a little easier. The

37:17

pants come off anyway. So

37:20

they have these seven commandments, everyone's happy,

37:22

fantastic. We now rule ourselves. Then the pigs

37:25

milk the cows. who hadn't been milked

37:27

for 24 hours and their udders were bursting.

37:30

And someone says, what is going to happen

37:32

to all that milk? One

37:34

of the hens replies, Jones used to

37:37

sometimes mix some of it into our mash.

37:40

Never mind the milk comrades cried Napoleon,

37:43

placing himself in front of the buckets. This is the pig. That

37:45

will be attended to. The harvest

37:48

is more important. Comrade's snowball

37:50

will lead the way. I shall follow

37:52

in a few minutes. Oh no. No.

37:55

The hey is waiting. Is this day one

37:58

Napoleon's day one?

38:00

saying, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't

38:02

worry about the milk. I think that would have got through a

38:04

little bit longer before it fell apart,

38:06

surely. Don't you think it would feel

38:09

weird? Like, when you think

38:11

about it too much, it's weird that we drink milk

38:13

from cows. Yeah. You

38:16

know, like that's, but they're your fellow animals

38:18

and your friends. It's like if

38:20

Matt had the ability to produce I

38:22

do. cheese from his nipples. And I do. And

38:25

we were just like, Mm, Mattie, could

38:27

I have glass of juice, please? And I said,

38:29

no, no, no, I'll

38:31

take this. Jess, you go

38:33

and do something else.

38:35

Yeah, when you come back, don't worry about it. The juice

38:37

will be here for sure. Absolutely. I

38:39

like to picture Napoleon's eyes just sort

38:42

of darting around the room. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

38:44

I walk it, no, no, don't worry about that. I'm

38:46

good. I'll

38:48

catch up, I'll catch up. No reason. You

38:51

guys go, I'll catch up. I hope he

38:53

says it. What's this on my face, not milk? I accidentally knocked

38:55

it over and my mouth fell onto

38:57

it. I've got some on my face. Well

39:01

now free from their oppressors, the animals

39:04

harvest is huge and they complete it

39:06

in a much faster time than the humans ever did. They

39:09

all work extremely hard and over summer eat more

39:11

than they did when Mr. Jones was in

39:13

charge. They do notice

39:16

though that when they get back from the first harvest the buckets

39:18

of milk are empty. But

39:20

squealer the pigs, But

39:23

Squealer the pig explains that the extra

39:25

milk and apples are mixed into the pigs'

39:27

mash, rather than be shared equally

39:29

as the other animals had initially imagined. Squealer

39:32

tells them,

39:33

comrades. You do not imagine,

39:36

I hope, that we pigs are doing this in

39:38

a spirit of selfishness and privilege. Many

39:41

of us actually dislike milk and apples.

39:43

I dislike them myself. Our sole object

39:46

in taking these things is to preserve our health.

39:49

Milk and apples, this has been proven by science

39:51

comrades, contains substances absolutely

39:54

necessary to the well-being of a pig. We

39:56

pigs are brain workers. the whole

39:58

management and organization

40:00

of this farm depend upon us. Day

40:02

and night we are watching over your welfare.

40:05

It is for your sake that we drink

40:07

that milk and eat those apples.

40:09

It's

40:10

a bit gaslight isn't it? Yes.

40:12

I think again I'm gonna have to say I'm

40:14

out. I want

40:16

damn milk and apples. Give

40:20

me the apples. He

40:22

also says hey if we fail Mr

40:25

Jones will come back. You don't want that do you? And they'll go Oh no, no,

40:27

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, just being

40:29

absolutely manipulated by these pigs.

40:32

And Squealer, the pig specifically,

40:34

represents the Soviet press, which

40:36

was used to control the people in the USSR

40:39

with their propaganda and distortion of the truth.

40:42

Often basically

40:44

publishing blatant lies that

40:46

rewrite the past so that it justifies

40:48

the present. It's, it's pretty fun to think

40:51

about these pigs milking the cows as well.

40:53

That would be brutal if it's worse. It's

40:56

got to be their mouth. It's got to be their mouth. Which

40:58

is also kind of weird. And then spitting it into the bucket? No, I

41:00

think like just grabbing the teat. Okay,

41:02

we're talking longish teats I suppose. They are pretty

41:04

long teats and maybe a pig has a

41:06

delicate mouth. So the pig, so

41:09

imagine the teat's going along this way. Yes. It's

41:11

coming out the side of your mouth and the egg

41:13

and the bucket. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's just like

41:15

delicately sort of biting on the teats. Right. Honestly,

41:17

if you're putting that much effort in you probably deserve the milk. Yeah,

41:20

I think so. But also like, how

41:22

are you looking your friend in the eye after that? Yeah.

41:25

to have to nibble on their teeth for a bit. Yeah.

41:27

No, well, yeah. Hey, this is just business. Yeah, just

41:30

it's natural. You know, I'm being a bit of approved, I think.

41:33

I saw a video, Rae,

41:36

when Pickering was doing a show about growing

41:38

up in the country and farm

41:40

stuff, that's exactly what I was just thinking. Just did the

41:42

video. She put up a video. She works on a farm

41:44

in Melbourne and

41:46

she can milk a whole cow in a minute.

41:48

Yeah. Fill up a liter bucket in a minute. In a

41:50

minute. That's incredible. It is very beautiful

41:53

to watch.

41:54

It's a great motion, you're just getting the flow. Yeah.

41:57

Couldn't believe it. It's really impressive. Yeah.

42:01

I want to see her milk a pig. Yeah. Ew.

42:05

Well, the pig milks a cow. Cycle of life. Yeah,

42:07

yeah. So the pigs put themselves in management

42:09

positions whilst the other animals work the farm.

42:12

Boxer the horse proves himself to be an extremely hard

42:14

worker and can pull as much as three horses.

42:17

Whoa. And wakes up 30 minutes early to get more

42:20

work done.

42:20

Oh, Boxer. And despite not being

42:22

very intelligent, he is fully dedicated to

42:24

the cause. His motto is, I will

42:27

work harder.

42:29

Oh Boxer you are a bit dim. Yes,

42:31

that's not a good motto. That is not a good harder

42:33

than what yeah Yesterday,

42:36

it's unattainable. It is

42:38

you can never get there. How about I will

42:41

have work-life balance. You know what I mean? Have

42:44

a day off Boxer. I will have a

42:46

chocolate treat before bed Who's who's

42:48

paying you for this extra half hour you're putting

42:50

in every day? Okay.

42:53

Well just doesn't get it. Just

42:55

get it. This isn't about pay Okay,

42:58

this is about putting in for the pigs.

43:00

Yes This is about helping out the piggy. You're

43:03

a pig all the cream comes up to me the

43:05

pig You're just a big

43:07

old horse doing your job with your strong

43:09

legs.

43:10

Yeah, I guess so and

43:12

keep it up You're doing a great job Making

43:15

all this stuff from a big brain Your big

43:18

old brain that needs a lot of milk and apples you put

43:20

you hate be bravely eat Jess

43:23

Do you want mr. Jones to come? No? Exactly.

43:26

And that's every time anyone says anything out of

43:28

line they're like, oh, sounds like you want Mr. Jones?

43:30

Oh, I guess

43:31

I'm calling Mr. Jones right now. Dr.

43:33

Jones? I mean, Mr. Jones? Every Sunday

43:35

the animals meet and two of the pigs, Snowball

43:38

and Napoleon, debate over things they can't agree

43:41

on.

43:42

Snowball represents Leon

43:44

Trotsky, another

43:46

revolutionary from the period, and he

43:48

forms a number of subcommittees and breaks down

43:51

the seven commandments to the shorter but more memorable,

43:54

Four legs good, two legs bad.

43:57

Hmm. That is nice. Mm-hmm.

44:00

Yeah. Easier to tattoo on oneself.

44:03

Yes. Some of the animals

44:05

learn to read, some better than others. Boxer

44:07

can't imagine more than any four letters of the alphabet

44:09

at a time. He gets A, B,

44:11

C and D and then if he learns the next four he

44:14

represents... He forgets. He forgets

44:16

A, B, C and D.

44:16

Oh, Boxer. I think I'm Boxer. Just

44:20

a word cause. Yeah, just a bit of an idiot. Meanwhile,

44:24

Napoleon the other pig who

44:26

debates Snowball and

44:29

who represents Joseph Stalin. So Napoleon

44:31

is Stalin, Snowball is

44:34

Trotsky. Yes, Squealer

44:36

is the press. Napoleon

44:39

says there is nothing more integral than educating

44:41

the youth and when nine young puppies

44:44

are born, he takes

44:46

the young dogs away to be privately educated

44:49

in a secluded loft and soon the other

44:51

animals forget that they even exist. So he

44:53

takes these dogs away and he says, I'll take care

44:55

of these dogs. I'll teach

44:57

them. Don't want to keep them with mum for the six

45:00

to eight weeks. They're supposed to be kept with mum. This

45:03

guy doesn't know anything about breeding pups.

45:07

Meanwhile, the evicted Mr. Jones,

45:09

who represents the Czar,

45:12

complains to other humans at the pub after

45:14

his exile. The two farmers

45:17

are either side of Animal Farm. There's Foxwood,

45:20

owned by Mr. Pilkington,

45:22

and Pinchfield owned by Mr. Frederick

45:24

and they hate each other. And

45:27

even though they are very worried about the uprising

45:29

of the animals and fear their own animals

45:32

could do the same, they can't agree

45:34

with each other

45:35

how they can help. Mr.

45:38

Pilkington represents the Allies in World War Two

45:40

and Mr. Frederick represents Adolf Hitler.

45:42

Oh, wow. You don't want to be

45:45

Hitler, do you? Even before this time when the Russian

45:47

revolution was going on, a lot of other kingdoms

45:49

with monarchies were watching on worried being

45:51

like, oh, what did they rise up against

45:54

us? We don't support this. We

45:56

don't want our own people to do this here.

45:59

So that's of represents that sort of thing and also

46:01

parts of World War II where the

46:04

Soviet Union was in between Germany and

46:07

the Allies.

46:08

Mr Jones does appear one day with

46:10

a gun,

46:11

as Matt predicted, and a group of

46:13

other humans, but Snowball the pig has

46:15

planned for this and leads the defense. Snowball

46:18

himself is very brave and is grazed by a

46:21

bullet and a sheep is killed in

46:23

the crossfire, but the animals are able to fight

46:25

back and force the humans to retreat.

46:28

This from here on is known

46:30

as the Battle of the Cow Shed. Afterwards

46:34

medals are given in honour of the battle. First snowball

46:37

is awarded Animal Hero First

46:39

Class and the

46:41

killed animal is named Animal Hero Second

46:44

Class. They

46:45

also find Mr Jones's gun

46:48

which they decide will be fired ceremonially

46:50

twice a year, First on the anniversary

46:52

of the rebellion and also on the anniversary

46:54

of the battle of the cow shed.

46:56

Wow. So

46:59

yeah, the humans have tried to fight back but

47:01

the animals are very much held on to

47:03

power. Pretty, I

47:05

believe that that's exactly how it would have gone down. Yeah,

47:08

yeah, yeah, the animals will definitely win. You

47:10

can kick a gun. Yeah, you can kick a gun. Much

47:12

like you can milk a cow with your mouth,

47:15

you can shoot a gun with your mouth. Yeah.

47:18

You

47:18

can kick a gun with your mouth. You

47:21

can do anything with your mouth when you're a pig. Yeah.

47:23

Got beautiful mouth. Big beautiful mouths.

47:26

What they're famous for. Yeah, pigs in their

47:29

mouths. Yeah, that's the most

47:32

sort after cut of pig

47:34

meat is the mouth. Oh,

47:38

give me the mouth. Do

47:41

you have any of that mouth bacon?

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48:21

So Napoleon, remember Stalin, Snowball,

48:24

who is Totsuki, still continue to go

48:26

toe to toe with their speeches. Snowball

48:29

is more charismatic and better at rousing support,

48:31

but Napoleon is good at maneuvering between

48:33

meetings to get other animals on his side,

48:36

including the sheep

48:37

that constantly bleep for minutes at a time, four

48:40

legs good, two legs bad.

48:44

Especially when Snowball is speaking and this interrupts his

48:46

flow and stifles his influence, because he's a great

48:48

public speaker, but he gets basically

48:51

the sheep to heckle him until he can't

48:53

speak anymore.

48:54

has lots of plans and ideas

48:57

whilst Napoleon doesn't seem to offer any

48:59

of his own. He does however

49:01

tell the animals that Snowball's ideas

49:03

aren't very good. So he's like, I've got none

49:05

of my ideas, but his ideas suck.

49:09

One big example is a windmill which Snowball

49:12

proposes they work together

49:14

to build. How are these animals going to build

49:16

a windmill? With

49:18

lots and lots of effort

49:21

and putting shit in their mouths. Yeah. He

49:23

says that the electricity and water produced

49:25

by the windmill would mean they would only have to work three days

49:27

a week and they'll have luxury, like

49:30

heated stalls to sleep in. What?

49:32

Who's running these? Who's running the pipes? The

49:35

mouths of the pigs. The wires. The

49:37

mouths of the pigs do great electrical

49:39

work with their mouths. And

49:42

their qualified electricians? Their mouths are,

49:44

yes. They've gone

49:46

to TAFE. Their mouth has? Mouth

49:49

TAFE. Mouth TAFE. Hmm. Okay,

49:51

never heard of it, but I guess I'm not a pig. I'm

49:54

a horse. It's different in the pig world. Horses

49:56

don't go to mouth tap. So

49:58

Snowball's like, let's build the windmill.

50:00

It'll make our lives easier. We won't have to

50:02

work as hard or we'll be able to be living

50:04

in luxury It'd be great and the animals are on board But then Napoleon

50:07

however disagrees with the plan and tells the others

50:09

that they must focus on farming and that if

50:11

they go through with Snowballs windmill they'll all

50:13

starve to death. Oh geez This

50:16

is this is a real shame. Snowball

50:19

seems like it's got a tart in

50:21

the right place Yeah, snowball

50:23

is a another pig another pig. Yeah,

50:25

so the pigs are the They're

50:27

the big dogs. There's leaders. Yeah. There's

50:30

also dogs who are smaller dogs. Right. And so the dogs

50:33

are playing a small part. Yeah.

50:36

Whereas the horses, what they represent the working class

50:38

or something? Working class people. Yeah.

50:41

Right.

50:41

And when the sheep heckled, did they

50:43

ever say it? Barram you. Barram

50:46

you. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

50:49

See, this is what you... Because I did, because I remember,

50:51

I think Babe was based on this book. Babe's an

50:53

allegory. Yeah.

50:56

That'll do Jess. Hahahaha

50:59

Hahahaha Hahahaha

51:04

Bit of fun there! Hahahaha So

51:08

the windmill is a big point of contention. Snowball spends months

51:10

planning it drawing complicated

51:12

plans in chalk on the ground. Most of the other animals don't

51:14

understand but they're impressed. They're like, that looks

51:16

like a good plan. But Napoleon one day visits the

51:19

plans and takes a big old piss on them. Literally?

51:23

Literally? Oh my god. He pisses all over the chalk.

51:26

Napoleon! Oh, sorry, I didn't see your plans there.

51:29

I was just- Oh, sorry, I was just taking a piss. Just need to piss.

51:31

You shouldn't have drawn your plans on my toilet.

51:35

Bit disappointed

51:35

by the way Napoleon's going about

51:37

things. No. Oh yeah? A little underhanded.

51:40

Hmm. Finally,

51:42

Snowball perfects his plan and the idea of a windmill

51:45

is put to a vote. Snowball

51:47

tells the others that it'll be hard work, yes, but

51:49

if they work together, they can make it a reality

51:52

and everything will be better. Napoleon then

51:54

gets up and says it's a bad idea,

51:56

but Snowball counters and wins over the gathered

51:59

audience who are a b- to vote but

52:01

then Napoleon

52:03

is the Stalin pig makes a noise and

52:06

nine ferocious fully grown

52:08

dogs run in and chase

52:11

snowball away whoa

52:13

the other animals realize that these are the nine puppies

52:15

that Napoleon took away for private

52:17

education they all forgot about oh these

52:20

dogs represent the Soviet secret police the NKVD

52:23

that Stalin used to terrorize and repress

52:26

the population

52:27

so snowball The pig is chased away from the farm

52:30

and Napoleon stands in front of everyone surrounded

52:33

by his nine attack dogs

52:35

And one of the other animals remarks that oh the

52:37

dog seemed to look at him the way that they used to look

52:39

at the human Mr. Jones bit

52:42

of a foreshadowing there Napoleon

52:47

now in front of everyone with the dogs makes an announcement

52:49

of a few new rules for the farm that

52:51

he's been working on There were no

52:53

longer meat on Sundays There

52:55

will be no more debates or any more votes.

52:58

Everything will now be decided by a pig committee

53:00

headed by him. The

53:03

animals are shocked at this announcement. Even

53:05

the ever faithful horse boxer,

53:08

the Jesperkins. Yeah. What?

53:10

But just as everyone starts questioning it, the sheep start

53:12

bleeding. Four legs good, two

53:15

legs bad. Over and over again for 15

53:18

minutes and no one is able to protest and

53:20

everyone sort of forgets and goes, oh well. That's

53:22

a bit much sheep.

53:23

It's

53:26

a long time. So

53:30

Snowball got chased away but survived

53:33

just as now living

53:35

in exile. In real

53:37

life Trotsky eventually made it

53:39

to Mexico City

53:41

where he lived for a time but then

53:44

an agent representing Stalin

53:46

tracked him down and murdered him with an ice pick.

53:48

In Mexico City. Yeah and there's a

53:51

museum that I've been to called the Trotsky

53:53

Museum. He gets to go to the house where he lived.

53:55

Wow. Why did they care when

53:57

he was that far away? Well, just because he was still

53:59

seeing-

54:00

as an influential figure that would write like,

54:02

read them alone. Yeah. It's

54:05

what is where I went. Cause I'm box

54:07

of the horse. I was like, Mexico is hot.

54:11

How did they have an ice picker that didn't melt? Yeah.

54:13

Did they brew an esky? It

54:16

was often called the perfect metal weapon because it melts. No,

54:19

it was a metal ice pick that they drove through his

54:21

brain. They make metal ice picks now. Yeah.

54:24

Wow. That's

54:25

a better way. That's where I didn't hear anything you said. Cause I was just imagining

54:28

a killer walking along with an esky. I

54:30

just feel for this Trotsky guy. And

54:32

yeah you can go to it you can I've stood in the very room

54:34

where he was assassinated. I'm starting to think

54:37

that this Stalin guy was a

54:39

bit of an

54:40

a-hole. So I guess what does that say about Napoleon

54:43

then? Hmm let's find out. Let's find out.

54:45

Well later Squeal of the Pig who's the

54:47

Soviet paper one start telling the others

54:49

that Snowball is a traitor and that they're better

54:51

off without him. Right. But when someone

54:53

mentions how Snowball fought hard in the Battle of the

54:55

Kaoshan and was

54:56

he always fought for our cause Squealer

54:58

says, no, no, no, no, you're misremembering his actions

55:02

have been exaggerated. He wasn't

55:04

brave. You get no

55:06

wrong. Boxer the horse is again confronted

55:08

by this as he remembers seeing Snowball

55:11

fight hard,

55:12

but he tells himself

55:14

if Napoleon says that, well, it must

55:16

be right. And from then on,

55:18

this is a quote from the book, he adopted the maxim Napoleon

55:21

is always right. In addition to his private

55:23

motto, I will work harder. Oh,

55:25

boxing is a big, beautiful idiot. So now he's got two

55:29

models.

55:29

A few weeks go by after Snowball's departure

55:31

and Napoleon tells the others that they will

55:33

indeed, after all, be building the

55:35

windmill.

55:37

And that to do so, they must reduce their rations.

55:40

So he basically disagreed with Snowball

55:42

just so he could turn everyone against Snowball. And now

55:45

he's like, actually, that was a pretty good idea. I'll

55:47

take that. Yeah, we'll take that. I'll take that idea.

55:49

Oh, God. I've just had an idea. I've just had

55:51

a great idea. That wasn't that Snowball's idea?

55:54

You're misremembering. Misremembering. God,

55:56

you're idiots. You'd all fall apart

55:58

without me. And you're right. Actually, Squealer tells

56:01

the others that the windmill was Napoleon's idea

56:03

all along, but he just pretended to be against

56:06

it for the good of the farm. He tells them, that's

56:08

a thing we call tactics. And the other

56:10

animals are like, well, I don't know what that is, but I guess it's

56:13

something.

56:13

Wow. These animals are idiots. They're

56:16

kind of stupid. Ha ha ha ha. So

56:19

the animals get to work on building

56:21

the windmill, which is very hard because they have to

56:23

break stones to make it, them

56:25

small enough for them to carry. It's very difficult for

56:28

animals to build a windmill. Boxer works

56:30

harder than ever Boxer

56:32

you big beautiful idiot. The animals

56:35

are told that working on Sundays

56:37

is optional But anyone who doesn't will have

56:39

their food ration cut in half But

56:41

before it was you're not working on Sundays But

56:43

now hey, you don't have to work on Sunday Sundays are still

56:45

a holiday But if you don't work on Sundays, you only get

56:48

half the food of everyone else. So is it optional?

56:50

Not really. Yeah

56:53

But there are a few items that the animals

56:56

aren't able to make themselves, like nails

56:58

and kerosene. Napoleon's

57:00

solution to this is to hire

57:02

a human called Mr. Wimpa,

57:06

a solicitor who lives in the town who will act on

57:08

their behalf and they'll start trading with other

57:10

human farms. How, wait, how they

57:13

communicating with him? They can write

57:15

in English, remember. Oh, so they just

57:18

send in letters saying, hi, I'm a pig. I'm

57:20

a pig in the market for a lawyer. Yeah.

57:22

Yeah. I

57:24

Mean if you believe that they can speak to each

57:26

other in English, why not? This

57:30

is a bridge too far for me. Yeah,

57:32

we

57:33

needed to find the line and there it is. There it is Yeah,

57:36

a bit far-fetched actually So

57:38

the animals are shocked and alarmed at this announcement of dealing

57:40

with their sworn enemies But squeal of the

57:43

pig smooth things over by reminding them the

57:45

animals that the seven commandments never forbade

57:48

using money or trading with humans and

57:50

anyone who thinks it's bad has been influenced by

57:52

that lying scum snowball.

57:55

So snowball starts

57:57

becoming a real patsy. Yeah, it's really annoying

57:59

that he- His

58:00

wicked influence is still

58:02

lingering after expelling him. Yeah,

58:04

but he's still influencing them somehow. Geez, this

58:06

guy is the worst.

58:08

And speaking of the seven commandments, the

58:10

animals of the farm start to hear that the pigs

58:13

are sleeping in Jones's old

58:15

house and have started sleeping

58:17

in his old bed. That's

58:20

one of the rules. Yes! Clover

58:22

the Horse,

58:23

remember, is definitely in violation of the commandments.

58:26

So to make sure she gets Muriel the goat who's the

58:28

best reader out of everyone is not a pig to read to

58:30

her the Commandment is written on the wall in front of everyone

58:32

and discovers it says no animal

58:35

shall sleep in a bed

58:36

with sheets Yeah,

58:39

yeah But

58:43

they they go I guess it's always been like

58:45

that conditions apply see

58:48

fine print for details Speak

58:50

to your doctor if pain persists and

58:52

when they're when they're looking at it going I don't remember

58:55

it saying that squealer the pig again appears

58:57

and says the animals have simply

58:59

forgotten that the words in sheets were always

59:02

there After all all

59:04

animals have to sleep in a bed of some kind

59:06

the pigs work the hardest So they need the best

59:08

beds for rest it makes sense You're

59:11

all crazy Do

59:14

they work the hardest I mean I like

59:17

I know obviously they don't but could they even Could

59:21

the horses even believe that? Well, I mean, like

59:23

how do you, that's so interesting, Matt, because

59:25

how do you define hard work? It's

59:27

a bit like, are they the most successful?

59:29

Well, it depends on your definition of

59:31

success. Yeah, that's true. You know, if you're thinking

59:33

money, fame, power, poor. Cause

59:36

they're saying- Maybe, but that's a pretty, in my

59:39

eyes, pretty rigid view of the world. Cause they're

59:41

saying it's brain work. We're managing, we're the

59:43

big ideas, animals. Yeah. This

59:45

is the hardest of all work. This is much harder than backbreaking

59:48

labor. I would

59:48

agree. I think my job, you

59:50

know, being on and mentally

59:54

draining is harder than being

59:56

a doctor. You're to me you're

59:59

now just standing like an Alan

1:00:01

Joyce type, a CEO taking

1:00:04

so much money. For

1:00:06

what? Doing a few press conferences?

1:00:09

Yeah, do you know how hard they are? In a few meetings?

1:00:12

Okay, now I'd like to see you sit in a meeting, see

1:00:14

how hard it is. I'd love to

1:00:16

see you sit in a meeting. I find it brutal, I really hate

1:00:19

sitting in, I'm gonna say fun meetings

1:00:21

about fun things. There's no such thing. Yeah.

1:00:24

Even meetings about fun things are the worst. Anyway.

1:00:27

So in reality, the Bolshevik Party,

1:00:29

who was in charge of the Soviet Union, moved

1:00:32

into the Kremlin in Moscow, which was an old

1:00:35

palace built by the royal family.

1:00:37

And Stalin lived a pretty lavish lifestyle

1:00:40

with access to multiple houses. Nice cars,

1:00:42

great wine and tobacco, which was

1:00:44

a lot more when compared

1:00:46

to

1:00:47

his people and the everyday person.

1:00:49

No, you're misremembering, Dave. We

1:00:52

all had palaces, it was fine.

1:00:56

A storm soon batters Animal Farm

1:00:58

and smashes the windmill to pieces,

1:01:00

eroding months of the animals'

1:01:03

hard labour.

1:01:04

Napoleon announces that it was in fact Snowball

1:01:07

who sabotaged the windmill, and he

1:01:09

sentences Snowball to death in absentia.

1:01:12

He then encourages the animals to rebuild the windmill and

1:01:14

make it even stronger than ever and this will involve

1:01:17

a lot more labour. So

1:01:20

the animals toil through the harsh winter to get the

1:01:22

windmill built and conditions go from bad to

1:01:24

worse when the potato crop fails

1:01:27

and they're told their rations will decrease even

1:01:29

further.

1:01:31

Napoleon doesn't want the outside world to know that

1:01:33

they are struggling to feed themselves so

1:01:35

when the lawyer Mr. Wimper visits it's

1:01:38

set up to look like they have more supplies than they do

1:01:40

like they put the they fill the

1:01:42

bottom of the the barrels of food with

1:01:44

wood. And then

1:01:46

they put the grain over the top so it looks like we've got heaps

1:01:49

of stuff which in

1:01:51

reality the Soviet Union were doing to make it when

1:01:53

anyone from the outside visited they're like this

1:01:55

country is doing great

1:01:57

when in reality there was, like I said at the time of the early

1:01:59

19th. a time when they went

1:02:01

through famine where millions of people start. To

1:02:05

get extra grain, Napoleon makes

1:02:07

a deal with a neighbouring human run farm

1:02:09

to exchange grain for 400

1:02:11

chicken eggs per week.

1:02:13

The chickens are not happy when they are told they

1:02:15

have to give up their eggs and stage

1:02:17

a protest by flying up into the rafters of the

1:02:19

barn and laying the eggs that they smash

1:02:22

onto the floor below. I

1:02:24

got a funny feeling that the wings thing is

1:02:26

going to come out of... Fuck

1:02:29

the wings! Yeah.

1:02:30

Two legs bad. Doesn't

1:02:33

matter if they got wings. Um,

1:02:35

four... four hundred eggs

1:02:38

is a lot of eggs. Have they got 400 chickens

1:02:40

or something? That's crazy. Is that a lot

1:02:42

of eggs? It's a lot of eggs. There's not that many

1:02:44

chickens. That's wild. 400 a week?

1:02:47

Pumping them out. Is it a week? Yeah, 400

1:02:49

chicken eggs per week. What? So

1:02:52

they're up there staging a protest. And

1:02:54

in response, Napoleon cuts all of their food

1:02:56

supplies And after five days and

1:02:58

the death of nine chickens, they halt

1:03:00

the rebellion.

1:03:02

Napoleon of course says they have died from

1:03:04

disease, not from starvation. What

1:03:07

are you talking about? That sucks. So

1:03:10

anytime someone tries to rise

1:03:12

up, they are quickly crushed, they're quelled.

1:03:15

Now, what's their problem with

1:03:17

the eggs being taken? What would they be doing

1:03:19

with the eggs? These fertilized eggs. Hatching

1:03:21

them into chickens. Right.

1:03:23

Basically taking away their babies. Yeah, okay.

1:03:26

I can see why that might be a problem. Why that might

1:03:28

be. Can you? So shouldn't there be heaps

1:03:30

of chickens then, if they're laying 400 eggs a week? Well,

1:03:33

there's quite, I don't know the numbers here, but at

1:03:35

least nine of them die from starvation

1:03:38

at that time. I think George Orwell or H.D.

1:03:40

Wells should have done a little more

1:03:42

research before writing this one up. I

1:03:45

mean, there could be 400 chickens, I don't

1:03:47

know.

1:03:48

Who doesn't say? It's not a picture book? No,

1:03:51

no illustrations. Snowball

1:03:53

continues to be named as the source behind all their woes

1:03:56

and is blamed for everything that goes wrong, when

1:03:58

they lose the key to the

1:04:00

store shed

1:04:01

where everything's kept the pigs say that snowball

1:04:03

is responsible and

1:04:05

that he must have thrown the key down the well

1:04:07

to stop us from getting to our supplies a HD

1:04:09

well

1:04:12

it all makes sense now and they

1:04:16

actually continue this lie even when they find

1:04:18

the misplaced key which was just under a bag

1:04:20

of food no no no he threw it

1:04:22

down the well

1:04:24

and then he went got it and put it under

1:04:26

this bag of food just to make us look silly

1:04:28

what a prick Napoleon

1:04:31

after this invent announces an investigation

1:04:34

into snowball and finds that snowball

1:04:37

was in fact behind the the attack on the

1:04:39

battle of the cow shed that he was working

1:04:41

with the humans the whole time whoa

1:04:44

this snowball is bad news

1:04:46

the bad guy and most of the other animals like but

1:04:48

I remember him fighting valiantly

1:04:50

on our side against the farmers but squealer

1:04:52

the newspaper guy retorts that

1:04:55

that was just part of Snowball's plan to cover his

1:04:57

tracks. He looks like he was fighting for us but really

1:04:59

he

1:05:00

was a bad guy and after all it was actually Napoleon

1:05:03

our fearless leader who was heroic

1:05:05

during the battle who threw himself onto the

1:05:07

enemy risking his life even though that's absolutely

1:05:09

untrue. One word to describe

1:05:12

Snowball

1:05:13

dastardly. Yes that dastardly

1:05:16

Snowball. That dastardly pig.

1:05:20

Boxer the strong horse has trouble accepting

1:05:22

that Snowball wasn't on their side because he remembers

1:05:25

him fighting alongside him. But Squealer

1:05:27

insists that Napoleon said that

1:05:29

he wasn't and that they have a confession

1:05:31

in Snowball's handwriting. This

1:05:34

is enough for Boxer to accept it. After

1:05:36

all... Hough writing?

1:05:38

Hough writing? Yeah, come on Dave. He's

1:05:41

hough writing. I'm sorry, I'm sorry Jess. We're out of hands.

1:05:43

You've taken the time to be on this podcast.

1:05:45

The least he could do would be to respect

1:05:48

you enough. Yeah. To

1:05:49

not lie to your face. I imagine

1:05:51

they probably- Higgs have hands in this

1:05:54

mad-capped world all of a sudden. Well,

1:05:58

keep that thought. They're gonna

1:06:00

grow hands. This... is

1:06:04

enough for Boxer. He's like, well if Napoleon

1:06:06

says it, it must be right. But Squealer looks

1:06:08

at Boxer with suspicion. Oh. Because

1:06:11

he's questioning stuff.

1:06:13

Uh oh. The next day, Napoleon,

1:06:15

who is not seen as much anymore, he's always away

1:06:17

in his palace or house, he assembles

1:06:20

all of the animals and gets his dogs

1:06:22

to drag four pigs to the front of the

1:06:24

group while he parades around wearing his

1:06:26

two military medals.

1:06:28

Three dogs also attempt to jump

1:06:31

Boxer,

1:06:32

the big horse. But Boxer is so strong,

1:06:34

he throws them off with ease and even pins

1:06:36

one dog down. Love it. Ready

1:06:39

to crush it until Napoleon says, hey, let him go.

1:06:41

And he goes, all right, if you say so. Okay,

1:06:43

so he's still thinking Napoleon's all right. He doesn't

1:06:46

realize that Napoleon has told them. Yeah,

1:06:48

gotcha. The four key. Where did he get

1:06:50

the medals from?

1:06:50

I thought that too. They

1:06:53

have made him out of something. They're awarding medals.

1:06:55

Yeah, they're awarding medals. Oh,

1:06:57

they made a minute of something. Obviously

1:07:00

that was probably- A bit of foil. Makes

1:07:02

it seem like a silly question when you say

1:07:04

that. The four pigs that were dragged

1:07:07

out the front by the dogs are the ones that protested

1:07:09

when the Sunday meetings were abolished. Remember,

1:07:11

every first time I was like, what are you talking about?

1:07:14

We need these meetings. And when Napoleon

1:07:16

asks if they have any crimes to confess, they

1:07:19

admit that they have been working in cahoots

1:07:21

with Snowball and that they helped him

1:07:23

destroy the windmill. They

1:07:25

add that Snowball had privately admitted

1:07:27

to them that he had been Jones's secret

1:07:29

agent in the years past.

1:07:32

And this is what the book says, quote, when they had finished

1:07:34

their confession, the dogs promptly tore

1:07:36

their throats out. So they get

1:07:39

killed. I don't think that's true

1:07:41

though. No, it's not true

1:07:43

at all. This is reminiscent of the Stalin's

1:07:45

great purge where hundreds of thousands, if

1:07:47

not millions of citizens were executed, often

1:07:50

after show trials, where they

1:07:52

admitted to plotting against the state and where they

1:07:55

often implicated others, usually

1:07:58

because they'd been tortured. Yeah.

1:08:00

They're told to say this is what you say

1:08:02

you read this script admit that you did everything wrong

1:08:04

and it Stalin's great And then you they

1:08:06

get killed Because

1:08:08

in the book Napoleon us any other animals

1:08:10

have anything to confess and then three Hens

1:08:12

who are responsible for the egg strikes

1:08:14

step forward and they say Snowball tallest

1:08:17

tell us to do it and then a goose comes forward

1:08:19

and confesses to having Secreted

1:08:22

six ears of corn during the last year's harvest

1:08:24

and then eaten them in one night And this

1:08:26

is what the book says, and so the tale of

1:08:28

confessions and executions went on until

1:08:31

there was a pile of corpses lying before

1:08:33

Napoleon's feet, and the air was heavy

1:08:35

with the smell of blood, which had been unknown

1:08:37

there since the expulsion of Jones. Why

1:08:40

are the hens admitting to that?

1:08:42

And implicating snowball? I

1:08:45

don't understand. Because that would often

1:08:48

happen in the show trials. You'd get

1:08:50

up there and say, yes, I was working in cahoots

1:08:52

with the enemy. Were they thinking that

1:08:54

they'd get off? Because of that? No, I

1:08:57

think that they've probably been taken aside by the

1:08:59

pig and the dogs and said, you have to

1:09:01

say this. Right,

1:09:02

wow. Yeah. Afterwards,

1:09:05

the animals were in shock as this was the first time

1:09:07

an animal had been killed since Mr. Jones left.

1:09:10

Boxer, the horse can't make any sense of it

1:09:12

and decides it must've been something they did

1:09:15

by not working hard enough and decides

1:09:17

from now on he'll work even harder.

1:09:20

Oh, he's gonna have to change his motto. work

1:09:23

even even even harder.

1:09:26

The animals try to cheer themselves up by singing Beasts

1:09:28

of England, the song that they, you

1:09:30

know, learnt at the start of the revolution, but Squealer tells

1:09:32

them the singing of their favourite song

1:09:34

will now be outlawed as the rebellion

1:09:37

has been a success and they don't need to sing it anymore.

1:09:40

Really it's because the reality they're living

1:09:42

in now is quite similar to the farm of old

1:09:44

and by singing the Beasts of England which

1:09:46

celebrates the way in which they are free they

1:09:49

might notice that things aren't in fact better than

1:09:51

they used to be and

1:09:53

they given instead a new pig-penned

1:09:56

poem to sing or pig

1:09:59

hoofed poem to... No, they

1:10:01

still penned it. They're not. What

1:10:03

is he? I don't think he understood what he did wrong

1:10:05

before. And

1:10:10

the new poem doesn't rouse them at all because it's just

1:10:12

Animal Farm, Animal Farm, never

1:10:15

through me shall thou come to harm.

1:10:17

Well, might not have roused them but it aroused

1:10:20

me. Your beautiful dolls

1:10:22

are tones there, Dave. The golden

1:10:24

tonsils. Awoke something inside

1:10:27

of me.

1:10:29

Matt, I am going to ask that you do put some clothes

1:10:31

on at this point then, because that is making me uncomfortable.

1:10:34

Alright, I think fair's fair. I'll

1:10:36

put on a shawl.

1:10:37

There's

1:10:39

a little draft in here, I'll put on a shawl.

1:10:42

One of those hospital gowns that's

1:10:44

completely open at the back. That mine's

1:10:46

open at the front.

1:10:49

At this point, some

1:10:51

of the animals start to think they remember that one of the seven

1:10:53

commandments was, no animal shall

1:10:56

kill any other animal. But

1:10:57

then they go and check the wall and see that it says no

1:11:00

animal shall kill any other animal without

1:11:03

cause They must

1:11:06

have been mistaken. Yeah, I think that's

1:11:08

what you said at the start Dave.

1:11:09

Yeah, right Surely

1:11:12

that must be it. That's what they all think finally

1:11:15

they finished the windmill The

1:11:17

animals wonder if they used to have more food

1:11:20

and work less when mr. Jones was in charge

1:11:22

But squealer assures them with figures that

1:11:24

show that every year rations have been

1:11:27

increased. Oh, it's better

1:11:28

now than ever Napoleon

1:11:35

negotiates to sell firewood to the neighboring

1:11:37

farms first mr. Pilkington,

1:11:40

but then he makes an agreement Hitler But then he makes

1:11:42

an agreement with mr. Frederick But

1:11:45

three days later the actual Well

1:11:47

three days later the animals discover that the money he

1:11:49

used to pay are in fact forgeries.

1:11:52

Napoleon

1:11:52

declares a death sentence on

1:11:54

Mr Frederick. The

1:11:57

next day, Mr Frederick and 15 of

1:11:59

his men are with guns attack Animal Farm

1:12:02

and as the animals are pinned down the humans blow

1:12:04

up the windmill with explosives! Woah!

1:12:07

Oh, with Snowball involved?

1:12:08

While seeing their hard work destroyed,

1:12:10

the animals are inspired with rage to fight

1:12:12

back and

1:12:15

evict the occupiers. Boxer

1:12:18

alone kills three people.

1:12:19

Woah, Boxer! He's a huge

1:12:22

horse, he must be the biggest horse ever. He's

1:12:24

like a double Clydesdale. Woah.

1:12:27

A double. Double C. another

1:12:29

closed out. Yep. That's big and

1:12:31

very hard to balance. Yeah. They clip

1:12:33

and clop so much as it is. Yeah. Double

1:12:36

clip, clip,

1:12:36

clip, clip, clip, clip. I'm Googling

1:12:39

biggest horse. Oh, I can tell you.

1:12:41

Yeah. I did it on a, there was a question

1:12:43

on who knew it a while ago and it is so

1:12:46

big. Who is it? Oh, what was his name?

1:12:48

When I said I can tell you. Well, I lied.

1:12:51

You could tell just by also Googling.

1:12:53

Biggest horse ever recorded

1:12:55

was Samson. How big

1:12:57

were you talking? who was from the Shire breed, he weighed

1:13:00

an astounding 3,359 pounds and

1:13:03

stood over 22 hands tall.

1:13:06

The tallest horse alive as of 2021 is Big Jake, who

1:13:09

measured just over 22 hands, which I said

1:13:13

the other one did too. Big Jake,

1:13:15

who was a Belgian, weighed significantly less

1:13:17

though. So Samson seems like the biggest horse.

1:13:19

Samson's so big. Maybe Bock is

1:13:21

halfway between the two maybe.

1:13:24

Look at his photo of Samson.

1:13:27

Holy shit, that's a big horse. That's a muscly

1:13:29

horse too. It's just so thick. You

1:13:33

love a thick beefy animal. I love beefy animals,

1:13:35

but look at this. This bit's not normally so big

1:13:37

on a horse. Which bit? That bit at

1:13:39

the back.

1:13:39

Yeah, I got a thick neck. Yeah, thick-necked

1:13:42

horse. I just need to

1:13:44

convert this into kilos and then I can

1:13:46

concentrate on you again, Dave, because that's

1:13:48

really just blown my mind. That's a big frickin'

1:13:51

horse.

1:13:51

Pounds to kg. But do

1:13:53

you know how much an average horse weighs? Why

1:13:56

is 1500 kilos? That's huge.

1:13:58

of nine hundred. Okay,

1:14:02

average weight of horse.

1:14:07

Donated any of this out, Dave? A thousand

1:14:10

kilos. Oh wow, one and a half horses. That's heavy, 700 to a thousand kilos.

1:14:15

Okay. That's a big horse. We're talking

1:14:18

a big horse. That's a huge horse. And that's probably what boxer

1:14:20

is. Yeah. Yeah, that's what we're

1:14:22

talking about. And this whole bit where they

1:14:24

have a fight with the other farm and the other farm comes

1:14:27

in after making a deal with him, that

1:14:29

mirrors World War II when Stalin

1:14:31

signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler and

1:14:34

then Hitler invaded Russia and took the

1:14:36

Soviets by surprise. And initially the

1:14:38

Nazi invasion was successful, but eventually the

1:14:40

Soviets were able to fight back through a counter offensive.

1:14:42

I've got to say this Hitler guy sounds

1:14:45

awful. No good. Dare

1:14:47

I say. It's interesting

1:14:50

Hitler was a human in this. Stalin

1:14:52

was a pig. Makes you think. Makes

1:14:54

you think. That does make you think. What's that

1:14:57

an oligori for? An

1:14:59

oligori? An

1:15:02

oligori. An oligori. One oligori!

1:15:06

Boxer, you're never going to believe it. What? The

1:15:08

windmill's gone, but he commits to working harder than ever

1:15:10

to rebuild it. Boxer! But

1:15:12

at age 11 and now injured in the fighting,

1:15:15

he quietly realizes he might not

1:15:17

be as strong as he once was. No! But

1:15:19

he thinks if he works hard for one more year, he'll reach 12, which

1:15:22

is retirement age for a horse on the farm.

1:15:24

He'll be able to live his days

1:15:25

out on a field dedicated to retirement.

1:15:28

That's one of the rules. I definitely think

1:15:30

girls let him do that. Yeah, that sounds

1:15:32

like that'll happen. Although this field is soon

1:15:34

commandeered so that Napoleon, who has gotten a

1:15:36

taste for human whiskey, can plant barley.

1:15:39

Oh my god. Oh dear. I

1:15:41

kind of feel like they said no drinking

1:15:44

alcohol. Well,

1:15:44

the animals then think

1:15:46

another commandment looks different. Whilst

1:15:49

in their memory it used to say no animal shall drink alcohol,

1:15:51

now it says no animal she'll drink alcohol

1:15:54

to excess. Oh yeah, that's

1:15:57

a good rule, you know, for anyone I think.

1:15:59

And I think it's... It's very clear.

1:16:02

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, there's a lot of parameters there. Exactly

1:16:05

right. No wiggle room. Yeah. This is black

1:16:07

and white. Yep. OK, no shades here. No.

1:16:10

One night, the animals awake to a large crash

1:16:12

and find that next to the wall of

1:16:14

commandments,

1:16:15

Squealer, the pig, passed

1:16:17

out next to the ladder with a can of white

1:16:19

paint and a paintbrush. And

1:16:22

they're like, oh, what are you doing out here?

1:16:25

None of the animals except Benjamin and

1:16:27

the old donkey

1:16:29

put two and two together about what's going on. But

1:16:31

Benjamin chooses to stay out of politics

1:16:33

and say nothing. So they

1:16:35

don't know that

1:16:37

it's the pigs that are up there painting, repainting

1:16:39

the commandments. Because what was the donkey's

1:16:42

trait? It was like a, a skeptic

1:16:45

or something. Yes. He's cynical, but doesn't actually say

1:16:47

anything, which I think is like the, uh, he's supposed

1:16:49

to represent like the intelligentsia

1:16:51

of society that are

1:16:54

quietly able to realize, huh, look

1:16:56

what's going on here. Aren't these peasants

1:16:58

silly but not actually doing anything about

1:17:01

it? Cool. Until it's too late. Nice one.

1:17:03

Nice one, guys. Great people. The

1:17:05

animals' rations are decreased even further,

1:17:07

whilst the pigs continue to somehow grow

1:17:10

fatter.

1:17:11

Napoleon fathers 31 piglets and orders

1:17:13

a classroom be built so he can educate them,

1:17:16

creating an upper class of pigs.

1:17:19

Animal Farm is eventually proclaimed a

1:17:21

republic. Napoleon is elected

1:17:24

president, as there are no other potential

1:17:26

candidates put forward. He's

1:17:28

basically

1:17:29

a king. Boxer

1:17:32

continues his backbreaking labor to build

1:17:34

a new windmill despite having a severely

1:17:36

injured hoof.

1:17:38

Clover, he's our companion

1:17:41

horse, warns him to take it easy,

1:17:43

but he doesn't, until one day he collapses,

1:17:46

having suffered a collapsed lung.

1:17:49

No. Me. Sorry,

1:17:53

Jess. You're helped back into your

1:17:55

stall, and Squealer

1:17:57

informs them that Napoleon has sent for

1:17:59

the V- to treat Boxer.

1:18:03

The others aren't happy with the idea of trusting

1:18:05

an evil human to look after him but

1:18:08

they're assured it's alright.

1:18:10

The next day whilst out working Benjamin the old donkey

1:18:12

comes running to the group and tells them they're taking

1:18:15

Boxer away they're taking him away. They

1:18:17

see a van pulling off down the driveway

1:18:19

and all the animals run after it yelling and waving

1:18:22

goodbye Boxer goodbye see you

1:18:24

soon but Benjamin tells

1:18:26

the others

1:18:27

fools don't you know what it says on the side

1:18:29

of that van and he reads to them it says Alfred

1:18:31

Simmons horse slaughterer

1:18:34

and glue boiler

1:18:36

yeah no let's not jump to conclusion

1:18:38

let's not jump to conclusion that could mean

1:18:40

anything the

1:18:42

animals scream out to box at a

1:18:45

fight and break free fight back but he is

1:18:47

old and weak now never having realized

1:18:50

or taken full advantage of his powers like the

1:18:52

Soviet proletariat and and he can't break

1:18:54

free. The van pulls away and

1:18:56

they never see Boxer again.

1:18:58

Because he they fixed his lung

1:19:00

up and he just lived on another farm.

1:19:02

Oh that is such great news. That's the glue

1:19:05

would have been used to fix the lung. To hold

1:19:07

the lung in place. Yeah. Oh that's great.

1:19:10

Well the next day Squealer the the

1:19:12

pig tells them hey I've heard some

1:19:14

rumors about Boxer and they I'm here to

1:19:16

tell you they're not true. There's

1:19:18

a very simple explanation for why that

1:19:20

van came. He says the van

1:19:23

was previously the property of the nacker.

1:19:25

Yes, and had been bought by

1:19:27

the veterinarian Surgeon who had

1:19:29

not yet painted the old name off

1:19:32

that makes sense He said napoleon paid for

1:19:34

the best medicine available sadly

1:19:36

boxer died anyway very uncomfortable and

1:19:38

his last words were

1:19:40

Very comfortable. I should say his last words

1:19:42

were ford in the name of the rebellion

1:19:45

long live animal farm Long live

1:19:47

comrade napoleon napoleon

1:19:50

is always right Wow Boxer

1:19:53

would say.

1:19:55

The animals are they're happy to hear

1:19:57

this explanation thank goodness though

1:19:59

they do begin to wonder where the pigs

1:20:01

got the money to buy another case of whiskey

1:20:03

that arrives the next day. They're

1:20:05

like, huh, I've got an influx of money from somewhere. Anyway,

1:20:09

we hit the final chapter where

1:20:11

years have now passed. Only

1:20:14

Benjamin, Clover and some of the pigs

1:20:16

remember life before the rebellion. Clover

1:20:19

is 14 years old. She's a horse and still not retired. It's about

1:20:21

being two years over the retirement age. They

1:20:24

try to remember if life was better

1:20:26

before they removed Mr. Jones, and

1:20:29

they can't quite recall.

1:20:31

Even so, they feel proud to live on Animal

1:20:33

Farm.

1:20:34

The second windmill is done, but

1:20:37

they use it for milling profitable

1:20:39

corn not for electricity as snowball

1:20:41

had originally proposed. They're not living a life of luxury

1:20:43

and

1:20:44

they're certainly not working three days a week as he

1:20:46

told them they would. It says

1:20:49

quote Napoleon had denounced such an idea

1:20:51

as contrary to the spirit of animalism. The

1:20:54

truest happiness he said lay in

1:20:56

working hard and living frugally. That'll

1:20:59

make you happy. Oh man, how fun

1:21:01

is frugality?

1:21:03

It feels so good. That's fun. It's

1:21:05

my favorite activity. I didn't realize this

1:21:07

book was actually a frugal- a

1:21:10

frugal- a frugal- a

1:21:13

frugal- frugaligory.

1:21:16

Frugaligory. I didn't know it was a frugaligory.

1:21:19

Oh, that's good. That is good stuff.

1:21:23

There were more pigs and more dogs than ever on the farm

1:21:26

now. Squealer takes the sheep

1:21:28

away to a secluded spot on

1:21:30

the farm. He says he needs to teach them a

1:21:32

new song. When they return the

1:21:34

animals are shocked to see that Squealer the pig

1:21:37

is walking on two legs.

1:21:40

Wait what? Napoleon also

1:21:43

walks on two legs. These are pigs.

1:21:46

They've taught themselves to walk on two legs.

1:21:50

And they took the sheep away and they

1:21:52

came back

1:21:54

walking on too late. No, just the pigs walking on

1:21:56

because before All the animals can protest or say

1:21:58

anything like, what the fu- You're not supposed

1:22:00

to walk on two legs the sheeps

1:22:02

loudly start bleeding four legs

1:22:05

good two legs better Oh,

1:22:07

that was the new song that they were taught. That's catchier

1:22:10

And soon

1:22:12

the final commandment is altered as well it now

1:22:15

reads all animals equal But

1:22:17

some animals are more

1:22:19

equal than others. That's where that comes from. Yeah.

1:22:22

Whoa Bloody hell this

1:22:24

book

1:22:26

See, that's what

1:22:28

I thought. I did think that was funny. Kigs

1:22:31

walking on their high legs is very funny.

1:22:33

You're right, Jess. I

1:22:36

think the changing of the commandments

1:22:38

I thought was funny. It is funny.

1:22:41

Some animals are equal. Some animals

1:22:43

are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. That's funny.

1:22:46

It's like you are all

1:22:48

individuals. We are all individuals.

1:22:51

I'm not. That's funny. That was

1:22:53

from Babe?

1:22:54

That's Babe, yeah. That is good. Sorry,

1:22:56

Babe 2, Pig in the City. Yeah. And

1:23:00

then the book says, quote, after that, it did not

1:23:02

seem strange when the next day the pigs

1:23:04

who were supervising the work of the farm all

1:23:07

carried whips in their trotters.

1:23:09

The pigs soon owned radios, had

1:23:12

a telephone installed and ordered subscriptions

1:23:14

to human newspapers. Napoleon

1:23:17

even starts to wear clothes and smoke

1:23:19

a pipe.

1:23:20

Soon Napoleon invites neighbouring human

1:23:22

farmers to Animal Farm for a tour. The

1:23:25

animals are terrified of the humans who that

1:23:27

night go into the farmhouse where they

1:23:29

are heard laughing, drinking and playing

1:23:31

cards with the pigs. The

1:23:33

other animals creep up to the window and

1:23:35

see that inside

1:23:37

is Mr. Pilkington from the neighboring

1:23:39

Foxwood farm who stands and makes

1:23:41

a speech about how the humans have been wrong about

1:23:43

animals running a farm. He's very

1:23:46

happy to say that hostilities between

1:23:48

the two farms are over and how he's impressed

1:23:50

to see that on Animal Farm animals

1:23:53

did more work and received even less food

1:23:55

than any other animals in the county.

1:23:58

He says he and his fellow visitors today

1:24:00

have observed many features which they

1:24:03

intend to introduce on their farms immediately.

1:24:06

This meeting in the farmhouse is a mirror

1:24:08

of the 1943 Tehran conference, the first of three conferences

1:24:12

in which US President

1:24:14

F.D. Roosevelt, UK

1:24:16

Prime Minister Churchill and Stalin met to talk

1:24:18

about how they could create peace after

1:24:20

World War II.

1:24:22

Anyway, Napoleon was in... Wasn't Pilkington Hitler?

1:24:25

I'd had him twisted around. Was Hitler's already gone?

1:24:27

Hitler is gone, we don't hear from him again. Right, because

1:24:30

he, yeah, we know what happened, he went to his farm

1:24:32

bunker. Exactly. Blew

1:24:35

his farm brains out.

1:24:43

Napoleon the pig then stands up

1:24:45

and thanks Mr Pilkington for his speech, but

1:24:47

he corrects the man on one thing. The

1:24:49

farm shall no longer be known as Animal

1:24:51

Farm, but is in fact changing its name back

1:24:54

to manna farm.

1:24:56

Napoleon ends his small speech by saying, gentlemen,

1:24:59

here is my toast to the prosperity

1:25:02

of the manna farm. And

1:25:04

the animals outside watch on as the

1:25:06

pigs and the humans cheer, but

1:25:08

their eyes flip from one

1:25:09

to another and can't quite make sense of what they're

1:25:12

seeing. Anyway, their

1:25:14

faces seem to be melting and changing somehow,

1:25:16

but as those inside stop

1:25:18

cheering and start their card game, the animals

1:25:20

outside slowly walk back to the

1:25:23

barn.

1:25:23

But after a few meters of walking, the

1:25:25

animals outside hear shouting voices

1:25:28

and rush back to the window to see that a violent

1:25:31

argument has started with Napoleon and

1:25:33

Mr. Pilkington both having played

1:25:35

an Ace of Spades. They

1:25:37

shout and look at each other accusingly.

1:25:41

Then the final line of the book comes,

1:25:43

and it is, 12 voices

1:25:45

were shouting in anger, and they were

1:25:48

all alike. No question now

1:25:50

what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The

1:25:53

creatures outside looked from pig

1:25:55

to man and from man to pig and

1:25:57

from pig to man again. already.

1:26:00

It was impossible to say which was

1:26:02

which. Whoa. The

1:26:04

end. Napoleon turned into a man. That's

1:26:07

right. And Pylkian turned into a pig man? Whoa.

1:26:11

Everything had come full circle and the pigs had become

1:26:13

exactly what they had originally

1:26:15

hoped to abolish. Wow. All

1:26:18

because Napoleon was a real piece of shit.

1:26:21

A real piece of shit.

1:26:22

Do you get the feeling, I can't

1:26:24

tell if like, it's just something that

1:26:26

happened with a bit of power, or if that was

1:26:28

kind of the long game the whole time.

1:26:30

Ah. Hard to

1:26:32

say. Yeah. Well, there's that famous quote

1:26:35

that is always an essay question on U12 essays. They

1:26:39

say that power corrupts and absolute

1:26:41

power corrupts absolutely. Discuts.

1:26:44

Discuts. Wow. Wow.

1:26:47

Wow. I don't get it. I

1:26:50

don't think I'd pass U12 now. You wouldn't

1:26:52

pass it. And here's the thing. So?

1:26:55

Yeah. You know what I mean? I'm rich

1:26:58

and powerful and hot

1:27:01

and corrupted.

1:27:03

I yeah, I agree. I would

1:27:05

I would. I would have had a rich, powerful and hot. Yes,

1:27:07

I agree with that. But I would also I'd battle with

1:27:09

you 12. And it's so funny that they

1:27:11

don't tell you how little it matters. I

1:27:13

also think I'd fail a driving test. Oh,

1:27:15

my gosh. Yeah. Your three point turns are

1:27:17

superb, Jess. Thank you. But that's only

1:27:20

part of the test. My reverse

1:27:22

parallel is also incredible. You know the part where they ask you

1:27:24

to toot the horn you'd be like what's a horn? I don't

1:27:26

know what that is. I don't know what that means. Yeah,

1:27:29

yeah like the written part of the test is

1:27:32

probably where you'd struggle. Yeah, yeah.

1:27:34

You never learned how to read. I

1:27:38

did read and I read that book. What do you guys think of it?

1:27:40

I just heard it before. Yeah

1:27:42

but I remember bits as we went

1:27:44

along but I'd forgotten huge chunks of it

1:27:46

and really thought the whole time it was communism not

1:27:48

the Russian Revolution. Yeah.

1:27:50

They claim that

1:27:52

socialism that they're adopting, but then it just

1:27:54

all gets very much corrupted. Yes, absolutely.

1:27:57

Right, socialism communism. But

1:27:58

I like it as a story.

1:28:00

I do think there's elements that are a bit funny. Maybe

1:28:02

not on purpose, but I do think changing

1:28:04

the

1:28:05

words to suit you is pretty funny And then everybody

1:28:07

going huh, I guess it's always yeah,

1:28:09

I found it, but that's classic classic dictator

1:28:12

rewriting history there Yeah, I think

1:28:14

it's like it's very good book, but jeez. It's a grim story.

1:28:16

Yes Based

1:28:19

on one of the most grim periods in human history.

1:28:21

You want you want old majors

1:28:24

vision to come true Yes, or

1:28:26

for a while there really looks like you know in the

1:28:28

Russian Revolution that wow these people

1:28:31

are putting for these ideas It's all gonna be better

1:28:33

now, and then you know it just takes one person

1:28:35

to maneuver into that

1:28:37

place of power and then

1:28:39

Real and everything yeah Well,

1:28:41

we won't let that happen again Jess

1:28:45

is a member of the proletariat. Yes. Can

1:28:48

you make sure you pull your bloody finger out

1:28:50

mate

1:28:50

no? Well

1:28:53

the only thing left to do is we give it a score out of five

1:28:55

as you heard it here today. Am I so-

1:28:57

was it- was it the proletariat- I don't know what that means. Is it

1:28:59

the proletariat? The one you said were just

1:29:02

like- Yeah so they're the masses, the working

1:29:04

class and the peasants and Boxer

1:29:06

represented them because he never knew his own

1:29:08

strengths. So it wasn't them that needed to pull their finger

1:29:11

out, it was the- what did you call the sort of the

1:29:13

academics and that? Yes, that's right. The scholars

1:29:16

and the intelligentsia. Oh the intelligentsia.

1:29:19

As a member of the intelligentsia. Huh?

1:29:20

Pull your bloody finger out. I'm

1:29:23

happy to sit back and like make snide comments,

1:29:25

but never really engage

1:29:27

on how they can fix it. Yeah. Proletariat

1:29:29

is such a good word. That's what I am. I'm

1:29:31

the dumb horse. Right. So you are Proletariat,

1:29:34

which I love as a word. And now I like that I sort

1:29:37

of kind of almost know sort of what it means.

1:29:39

Wow. We've learnt

1:29:41

today. So score out of five. I'm

1:29:44

going to... Can I go? Can I tell you what

1:29:46

I think? I'm gonna give it a 4. 4 out

1:29:52

of 5. Fantastic. Yeah, why not? It's pretty good.

1:29:54

Yeah, I'm gonna give it a 3.8. Okay. 3.8 out

1:29:58

of 5. Okay, fantastic And for you,

1:30:00

Dave. I'm going to give it a 4.5 out of 5.

1:30:04

It's, um, I've got to say, if you haven't

1:30:06

read it, it's a pretty quick read and it

1:30:08

is gripping. And it's amazing how

1:30:11

a story about animals can make you feel

1:30:13

so much, if that makes

1:30:15

sense, which I am an animal lover, I will

1:30:17

say that. But also- Were you wimping into the book?

1:30:19

But it's just so tragic, especially when the animals are

1:30:22

murdered and when Boxer is taken away.

1:30:24

That really, you know,

1:30:25

tears my eyes in that scene. Go say, it's sad.

1:30:28

It is sad because Boxer is such a big old

1:30:30

sweetie bullshit. I know and he works so

1:30:32

hard for the cause. And then at the end

1:30:35

when he was no longer needed, they just shipped

1:30:37

him

1:30:37

off. And he's smarter than he thinks he

1:30:39

is. Cause he's always sort of like, oh I remember Snowball

1:30:42

fighting, but I guess I'm wrong. And that's gaslighting.

1:30:45

That is absolutely. That is the product of being gaslit.

1:30:48

Well, I'm an idiot. I must remember things

1:30:50

wrong. I'm gonna give it a four. Okay.

1:30:54

Okay, we're up into a four. I've been thinking about a bit more. It's

1:30:56

really, it's just because it's a grim

1:30:58

story doesn't mean it's a,

1:31:00

I was letting that cloud me too much. It was really,

1:31:02

it was a really good book as you told

1:31:04

it. But yeah, it has

1:31:06

made me feel depressed. Yeah. Yes.

1:31:10

And the more you think about it and you go, huh, these animals

1:31:12

all represent real people too. Anyway, Millions

1:31:15

of them. Yeah, millions of them. But it

1:31:17

happened. It happened. And so

1:31:19

did this podcast. It happened. Thank you so much for joining

1:31:21

us for it. We really appreciate it. You

1:31:24

can suggest a book by clicking

1:31:26

the link in the description of this episode But before

1:31:28

we go one more time we've all got shows

1:31:30

coming up do go on the quiz show There's a couple more to go

1:31:33

Monday nights at the Town Hall great guests

1:31:35

coming on Jesse. You've got your show almost

1:31:38

almost maybe it kicks off on the 14th

1:31:40

of April and I've got Yeah

1:31:43

shows that still have room. I think

1:31:45

on the 22nd and 23rd

1:31:47

fantastic and Matt my show

1:31:49

ding It's on it's already on and it's

1:31:51

on every night 6 30 and 5 30 on Sundays and yeah live

1:31:54

Who knew it with Matt Stewart

1:31:56

podcast with may so? So, Cast

1:31:59

Page and Ben- Russell on

1:32:01

the 9th of April at the

1:32:04

Mason... Morris House!

1:32:07

Why is that one so hard to remember? And

1:32:10

in Brisbane at the Powerhouse in

1:32:12

May. Fantastic.

1:32:15

And I've got just under a week left of

1:32:17

even hotter in real life when this comes out. Come

1:32:20

see me at Campari House. It's not too late.

1:32:22

You can see it. It's a great show.

1:32:24

You should see it. It's just a nice time. And you

1:32:27

reference a book in there somewhere. That's right,

1:32:29

there's one book joke in there. And you should come

1:32:31

to our quiz show as well because it's, I

1:32:33

maybe like saying it's

1:32:35

a quiz show doesn't sound as interesting

1:32:38

because it is a

1:32:39

wild ride. Anything could happen.

1:32:41

Last year

1:32:43

within the first few minutes we all got up

1:32:45

and sang the national anthem. Exactly. Anything

1:32:47

can happen.

1:32:47

Anything, nothing's off the table. Because Napoleon

1:32:50

the pig told us to. Yeah and we obey

1:32:52

Napoleon. Well that's

1:32:55

it from us here at Bookcheck this week. Thanks

1:32:57

so much for listening and as we always say

1:32:59

here, books forever!

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