Bob Monkhouse's top three jokes

During his lifetime comedian Bob Monkhouse was widely disdained for a public persona of cheesy smarminess. Something which, as an ENTP,* he shared with Tony Blair.

In a generation dominated by working class comedic vulgarity, his middle-class intelligence and sophistication was evident. Consequently he was not popular with his peers.

Bob Monkhouse

For me what saved him was his sense of self-deprecating irony. Here are three of his best jokes which - despite familiarity - are still pretty good.

"They laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian ... They're not laughing now."

"I can still enjoy sex at 74 - I live at 75, so it's no distance."

"I want to die like my father, peacefully in his sleep, not screaming and terrified like his passengers."

(Source)

---

* ENTPs don't do (tertiary) Extraverted Feeling at all well: (Myers-Briggs personality theory).

---

If the connection between brain architecture and personality type interests you, take a look at this post. I've been reviewing recent results from the Human Connectome Project and my remarks back then seem to stand up pretty well.

The Enforcer and the Thinker

Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn

I find myself guessing the personality types of the new Labour leadership. New leader Jeremy Corbyn is a classic INTP (which makes him similar to me). Profiles present him as rather solitary, not a team player, courteous to a fault, non-confrontational, not interested in the small stuff and infinitely stubborn over matters dear to his heart. Such people are rarely natural leaders.

His deputy, Tom Watson, seems to me an ESTJ (not sure how extravert). This is in line both with his reputation as a fixer/operator and with his claimed loyalty to the party. There are irresistible comparisons to the pairing of Blair (ENTP) and Prescott (ESTJ): the thinker and the enforcer.

The Machiavellian component (INTJ Peter Mandelson, anyone?) is surely provided by the third principal, the new shadow chancellor John McDonnell. Since I had never heard of him, for the moment the jury is out, though.

---

The unions will come to regret backing Corbyn; Andy Burnham would have been far more biddable.