Bill Bailey on Wittgenstein

[libertango]

Back on akirlu's TAFF trip in 1998, Rob Hansen was kind enough to show us a tape of Bill Bailey he'd taken off the TV. The other day, I finally found out the name of the show -- Is It Bill Bailey?, which was a one-series, six episode thing on BBC that year. It's never been released on DVD or rebroadcast.

You can, though, find it in the torrents. If one were to look. I mean, hypothetically.

So, from Episode 5, at about 5:52 in, during a monologue I'll title, "Anyone Can Be a Philosopher," here's a gig that stuck in our brains:

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I mean, you compare that, say, with Wittgenstein's theory of solipsism -- I mean, that is totally useless. And that's a belcher, as well. According to that, only I exist. Everything else exists purely in my imagination. I go out the room, you cease to exist. You go out the room, I cease to exist.

Now in reality, he meant it metaphorically, but hypothetically, let's take him literally.

I don't actually think he had any mates.

No -- I think what was happening was, they were going out the room, and for them, he did actually cease to exist.

They're thinkin', "Let's go down the pub. This guy's a nutter."

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Thank you, internets!