Not another freeshite

I was ambling down Oxford Street tonight seeing a bloke struggle to shift copies of The London Paper - and the fella in front wasn't having much luck getting rid of his London Shites either. Maybe, I thought, the age of the freeshite is coming to an end. Or, perhaps, there's no point in having multiple distributors between, say, Bond Street and Oxford Circus Tube stations. Then I went to the pub, and forgot all about it.

Until coming home, when my train at Charing Cross was plastered in the aforementioned rags, plus another - "the free satirical newspaper", The Tart. Seriously, if you care for the environment or people's well-being, this may actually be more of a threat than crap rags with pictures of Z-listers flashing their knickers outside Chinawhite.

Because it's terrible. Really, really bad. It's hard to convey just how flat the jokes are in there, but just one gives a flavour of how ill-thought out it is. One spoof headline reads: "Bridgend officially most depressing place to live."

Yup, you can be tasteless and amusing, but that was as funny as the sound of a funeral bell. In fact, London Shite's letters page, full of gripes about why things just aren't fair for normal people, is funnier. I'd advise The Tart to give up and leave comedy to the real experts...

Comments

[Creepy]

I only pick the London Paper or Lite up for the free soduku. If they just gave away an A4 piece of paper with 4 soduku I'd pick that up instead. Although the freepapers are good to use as litter trays for the pets. I can't read them though - the crap inside gives me an ulcer.

[natasa]

In my own (small) country, where the last national literacy survey showed extremly poor results, the things are finaly starting to get better. And where to start if not with launching the first daily »freeshit«. The morning city buses become learning (reading) rooms. Sometime ago reading a book on a bus looked odd. Nowadays not reading a free newspapers looks odd and above all- shows your illiterateness.

[Knit Nurse]

What's wrong with a library to improve your literacy, Natasa? Even if you don't like the book you can take it back afterwards for others to read rather than throwing it away. I'd also seriously challenge your assertion that it's possible to learn anything at all from our free papers. The best you can expect is a bit of neural exertion courtesy of the Sudoku, as Creepy suggests.

[natasa]

Dear Knit Nurse. I didn’t quite understand your main point, but I hope you understand the sarcastic mine.