Charlie Chaplin Day for Democracy

It is a day before the very first 'Charlie Chaplin Day for Democracy', and I am as yet undecided as to how I am going to mark this occasion.

To explain, for any of you who might be unaware of this occasion, it is a day pioneered by the UK’s foremost hardworking, experimenting, vulgarising comedian himself, Richard Herring. The idea comes off the back of his latest comedy show, Hitler Moustache, where he picks apart fascism, and in particular how fascism shanghais certain symbols, and twists their meanings to their own ends.

Both historical examples such as the swastika, which the Nazis nabbed from Eastern traditions (it features positively in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Mithraism and Shamanism), and modern examples, such as the BNP cynically co-opting the image of spitfires and poppies, are discussed, with most of the focus falling on the eponymous Hitler moustache.

Herring argues that the toothbrush moustache, an inherently ludicrous item of facial decoration, was originally under the ownership of comedy, as it famously belonged to Charlie Chaplin, who Hitler is believed to have stolen it from. Chaplin later used the likeness to satirise Hitler in The Great Dictator, in which he sends a strong anti-fascist message.

The idea and aim of the ‘Charlie Chaplin Day for Democracy’ is to encourage people to adopt a toothbrush moustache for the day, in order to reclaim the moustache for comedy, much as labels such as ‘queer’ and ‘nigger’ have been reclaimed by the very groups that they once repressed. The hope is that this guerilla toothbrush-moustaching (that’s right, everything is a verb now) will help make a pertinent pro-democracy statement, especially in a time where voters are being ubiquitously described as ‘apathetic’ due to clandestine and illicit behaviour by MPs, which enabled ignorant border groups such as the BNP and UKIP to gain more credence.

So here is the crux of the matter for me personally.

I am a bearded gentleman, it is very much within the scope of my ability to shave down to a toothbrush moustache, for the 16th (incidentally, the date was chosen as it is Chaplin’s birthday, although handily it has fallen during the election campaign this year, meaning that political awareness is particularly high). I also have the desire to shave down a toothbrush moustache, I have always found the moustache amusing, most likely due to the assumed inherent inappropriateness of wearing it. I was once caught by my old headmaster in the middle of a water-fight (inappropriately located in the 6th form common room) where I had swept my sodden hair into a sharp Hitleresque style, and wore a ripped tab of a label of bottled water on my top lip. He was understandably angry, but I believe that having styled myself in the facial representation of a young chubby Welsh Hitler confused him to the point where he expressed a general disgust of the water-fight, and I was able to claim innocence, despite being soaked through and bedecked with a faux-toothbrush moustache. All the other participants claimed they were just following orders.

There are a number of problems with my moustache-based plans. For one, I work for the council, in an environment where I largely supervise children, and I am uncertain how wise it would be to sport the fuzz around them. Whilst reading Richard Herring’s blog one child once declared “he looks like Hitler” and then didn’t much care when I explained that Herr Herring was a comedian attempting to reclaim the moustache. More than likely the child was merely attempting to be a nuisance. Which he was. In fact, all children are a nuisance, that’s why they eventually grow up.

I’m not really sure what the policies of the council would be on this, whether, as an employee of this public-funded organisation, I would get into trouble for sporting it. Would a toothbrush moustache be inherently viewed as a political statement? Certainly if I decided to shave down and come into work with heavy meat chops I very much doubt people would assume I am protesting the new rules over taxation of cider. (I am 22, I deeply feel I shouldn’t be aware of changes to tax). Considering that the political parties are now all campaigning in the run-up to the next election, would it be appropriate for me to bedeck myself with a toothbrush moustache, though it might not be construed as a political statement, that would be the overt aim, or is this acceptable as it is a pro-democracy message, rather than one in favour of a specific party.

I also plan on recording a part of a new sketch tomorrow, the original idea once again belonging to Dafydd, who came up with our first one. I’ll leave out the topic so that it is something of a surprise but the sketch is set up as a faux-terrormongering news report, with me as the reporter, and I feel that the added extra of a toothbrush moustache would add an extra element of eerieness to what I hope will be doom-laden delivery.

My conclusion at this point is that I am definitely going to shave it down for the sketch, but I am uncertain as to whether it’d be wise to have it while in work. It would certainly be an interesting experience, and I imagine it’d easily fuel tomorrow’s blog, where I could perhaps provide some conclusion to all this theorising.

I think perhaps I want to wear the toothbrush moustache for the same reason I kept my eyes open during prayer in assembly as a child. It is a mix of feeling as though I am doing something which is against the rules, while also agreeing with the ideology behind it. I kept my eyes open because I didn’t, and don’t, believe in any almighty, and I want to join in with the reclamation of the toothbrush moustache because I am against fascism.

But how much of either example is simply the desire to be a bit naughty?

I feel it is wrong to sign off with a ‘seig heil’, but I have the uneasy feeling that I have done so before in a previous entry, so best not to get to a point where searching this blog will throw up multiple examples of the phrase ‘seig heil’, which is why I’m never going to type ‘seig heil’ in this blog again.

I can only hope I’ve spelt ‘seig heil’ incorrectly, perhaps it is meant to be spelt ‘sieg heil’.

Damn, I have been hoist with my own ‘sieg heil’-based petard.