I’m as Mad as Hell

Ahoy cunters. Recognise yourselves here. ?

Character: Howard Beale, the “magisterial, dignified” anchorman of UBS TV. He’s also going mad.

Gender: Male

Age Range: 40’s | 50’s | 60’s

Summary: The play version of Howard Beale’s famous “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” speech.

HOWARD: I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job, the dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter, punks are running wild in the streets, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do and there’s no end to it. We know the air’s unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat and we sit and watch our teevees while some local newscaster tells us today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We all know things are bad. Worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything’s going crazy. So we don’t go out any more. We sit in the house and slowly the world we live in gets smaller and all we ask is, please, at least leave us alone in our own living rooms. Let me have my toaster and TV and my hairdryer and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything, just leave us alone. Well, I’m not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. (He gets up from his desk and walks to the front of the set.)

I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your congressmen. Because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the defense budget and the Russians and crime in the street. All I know is, first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say: ‘I’m a human being, goddammit. My life has value.’ So I want you to get up right now. I want you to get out of your chairs and go to the window. Right now. I want you to go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell. I want you to yell, ’I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more.’

Get up from your chairs. Go to the window. Open it. Stick out your head and yell. And keep yelling. First you’ve got to get mad. When you’re mad enough we’ll figure out what to do. Stick your head out and yell, ’I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.’ ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.’ ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.’

That’s it. I’ve had it with the foreclosures and the oil crisis and the unemployment and the corruption of finance and the inertia of politics and the right to be alive and the right to be angry. I want to hear the little man and woman — I want to hear you now — go to your windows — yell out so they can hear you — yell and don’t stop yelling — so the whole world can hear you — above the chaos and degradation the apathy and white noise.

They’re yelling in Chicago. Yell, yell, and then we’ll work out what to do about terrorism and the oil crisis. Stick your head out of the window and shout it with me: ’I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more. I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this any more. I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE.’.

Nominated by: the cunt of montybisto

(Also from the great film, “Network” – DA)

34 thoughts on “I’m as Mad as Hell

  1. Indeed C of M, Network is one of my all time favourite films, and the older I get the more I relate to it, and 44 years later the world is even more fucked now, another one is Michael Douglas in Downfall, another relatable masterpiece!

    • I think you mean Falling Down. The other one was about Hitler!

      Both brilliant films though, and both, ironically, featuring a man being pushed over the edge!

      • Yes, I always get them confused, the scene at “Whammy Burger” sums up the world perfectly!

      • So many great set-piece scenes in Falling Down. Mike Douglas seeing off those spades for encroaching onto ‘their’ territory and being relatively sane compared to that nutter in the Army Surplus Store spring to mind.

        It’d never get made today. Hollywoke just wouldn’t take the risk.

      • Ed Norton in American History X is a great antihero, a thought provoking film too and more relevant than ever in the shit heap that is 2020.

      • American History x and Romper Stomper are both as woke as fuck-as is This is England:

        The protagonists all end up dead / lose a loved one, are portrayed as the bad guy and the “immigrants” as the victim.

        Love Shane Meadows stuff-I grew up on that era…a child of Maggies era.

      • Forget Olivier, Gielgud, Welles etc. The best bit of cinema ever is when Bubs shoots that gook in the eye with a nut from his catapult in Romper Stomper.

      • This wasn’t a dig at you LL-I love all those films and the central performances (Norton / Douglas / Graham) are tremendous👍

      • This is England is one of my favourite films!!👍

        “Wanna suck me tits?”

        (Smell after Shauns first kiss😁)

  2. Or….sit down with a nice glass of wine. Read a good book. Go for a walk in the beautiful countryside, breathe some clean, fresh air, eat a good meal.

    For all the shitty stuff in the world, there’s plenty of good too.

    • Thanks for saying that, RB.

      I think we all lose a little perspective from time to time. This really has been a cunt of a year. Yours was a nice reminder that there’s good out there if one chooses to look for it.

      • Cheers Imitation.
        I get pissed off about enough things, I like to have a good rant, probably too often if you ask my wife (!). This site is a great stress reliever.

        But, you know what, it’s not all bad. There’s still plenty to enjoy in life, plenty to make you smile.

        Glad I’m not the only person who sees that 👍

  3. An old mate of mine known as Soundhog used to open his DJ sets with this. He combined the ‘Network’ dialogue with the theme from Granada’s World In Action and a prog band called Velvet Opera.

    For some reason the Youtube link won’t appear here. So just google ‘World In Action Soundhog’ and it’s the first video on the list (lasts 2:29).

  4. What? Me worry?

    To be honest I’m past caring.

    I also happen to be mad, but that’s not important right now…

    This country is finished.

    • I don’t hear many people shouting in America today. But a can of worms has been opened in America and there is an uneasy feeling.

      There is a kind of wait and see attitude among the Progressive Left and the Neo-Marxists. After a failed coup and a summer of violence they successfully stole the election and ousted their hared foe. Now they want their pound of flesh from Biden and his Corporate cronies. If they don’t get it…there will be more violence.

      On the other side there is a wait and see attitude among the traditional Americans who watched as the villains of the left resorted to foul means and topple the government. We watch uneasily as the scoundrels install a new puppet regime.

      Meanwhile a new wave of black and immigrant working class have came out in opposition to the Left. They believe in traditional values and don’t want to see the horrors of the Brave New World Order replace their way of life.

      A few people are shouting right now. But many are buying arms, stockpiling ammunition and sounding revolutionary slogans as they prepare for what they believe will be a violent clash of ideologies.

      I fear when people do begin shouting it will get much, much worse.

      White Lives Matter
      Armed Resistance
      Never Surrender

      • You might be right, General.

        The are a LOT of Repubs in the US. The last time a Demon won the presidency, I felt the Repubs kind of accepted it on a number of levels, not least because their own candidates were so awful. Romney thought he had it in the bag because this know-nothing new comer with a political career lasting all of 10 minutes couldn’t possibly win. Win he did. 4 years of shit followed and who did the Repubs turn to in order to get Obama out? McCain! FFS! Comes to find out, fewer people voted for McCain than for Romney and we got 4 more years of shit from Obama.

        This time, as unpresidential and uncouth as Trump has been, he’s made some major strides forward for America while keeping election promises and flipping the finger to any and all who get up his nose. Polished, suave, sophisticated and media friendly he most certainly isn’t. Effective, productive and determined he most certainly is. This time around, I too get the sense his support won’t just accept what’s happened, shrug their shoulders and hope for better next time.

        I know fuck all about what’s going on behind the scenes. What I do know is, Trump and his allies haven’t spent the last 4 years telling us MAGA and consistently telling us how accountable he is to us, for them to tuck their tails between their legs and fuck off stage left never to be heard from again. My guess is Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka (I would) et al are all seething and planning the demise of their opponents as we speak.

        The Repubs have a decision to make. Take control of the situation once and for all and MAKE the rest of the US realize the danger they’re in and back Trump to the hilt or revert to form and let the Demons walk all over them. The Demons also have a decision to make. Try to appease enough people to make it through 4 years or collapse and let the extremists take over their party.

        A LOT of people I know directly and indirectly in my part of TX are NOT happy. Something is brewing.

      • Hello my Counterfeit Colleague,

        Your description of Trump and his accomplishments is absolutely spot on.

        And you are correct in that the Republican party has a division between the establishment Republicans, the RINOs and the Never Trumpers…(the 3 groups are not mutually, exclusive)…and the rank and file voters.

        I think it’s every bit as serious as the Civil War within the Demonrats.(i .e. The Neo-Marxist Left and the Corporate wing of their party)

        A lot of people in my part of Alabama are NOT happy as well.

        White Lives Matter
        Armed Resistance
        Never Surrender

      • Stellar analysis General. I too think the future could hold extreme violence. That’s not what we want, but we must be ready in a defensive mode. Stock up, arm up, and keep the weapons well oiled and clean.

      • Thank you Boomer.

        The Progressive Left has plans for us. Using the cover of Covid they intend to shut down the economy and isolate the population.

        They want to compile retaliation and retribution lists and so they can identify and punish us.

        They want riots and unrest in the streets so they can burn it all down in under the guise of building it back better.

        They want government by fiat and not by law. they want to take our rights away and impose their will unchecked.

        Nobody wants this to degenerate into violence. But some of our British cousins don’t understand what’s at stake and what’s going on here. They think it’s just hot air from disgruntled losers.

        We’re serious when we say:

        White Lives Matter
        Armed Resistance
        Never Surrender

        And I ain’t the only one saying it!

      • Hi I’m Cunty Chops and I approve these messages. 🇺🇸

        A nice commentary there chaps, can’t find fault with any of that. 👍

        “some of our British cousins don’t understand what’s at stake and what’s going on here.”

        ’tis true, there’s a truly shocking level of ‘ignorapathy’ in the UK about this catalytic event that could/will have massive repressive repurcussions this side of the pond.
        Personally, I’ve always cocked an ear to U.S. elections but this one I’ve been fucking glued to!! What you fellers are saying is critical not just to you blokes but to the rest of the white Western world. If America falls then all bets are off, who’s left to fight? the Germans? (hide bound by their legacy and their ‘constitution’) the Scandinavians (all now fully cucked) the British? I just don’t think they’ve got the bollocks anymore, they’ve forgotten how to “get mad”: sixty odd years of being told that anger/agression is “…a bad thing.”

        That’s why that seminal piece of film is a regular yootube watch. Gotta keep the fires stoked, feed the radge, fifteen minutes of BBC News output daily does the trick for me. Fuck passivity, fuck ‘tolerance’ get mad and stay mad.

  5. Yes but myself and I are perfectly sane. Just ask my friend Harvey. He’s the 6 foot rabbit 🐇 stood by my side. Bahh

  6. We may be as mad as hell, but we do fuck all about it.
    It’s a British disease.
    Good evening.

      • I wasn’t even as mad as hell yesterday, and the angina was still playing up.
        I’m just going to take the dog for a walk.
        Anarchy in the UK, indeed.
        Evening MNC.

      • Every once in a while the English do rise up.
        Its not in our nature,
        We’re reserved,
        The French tend to do it better,
        It pains me to say.
        But every so often as a nation we get sick of eating shite and kick off.
        Due anytime soon…

      • I fucking hope so Mis.
        Problem is, Brits have become apathetic, lazy fat cunts.
        Maybe the fall out from lockdown, unemployment and recession will wake them up.

      • I think covid restrictions, loss of income, and this government might just do it CG?
        One thing Boris is world beating in is incompetence,
        He’ll push it and sooner or later people will push back.
        I think he knew if he tried to push the agenda over Christmas people would of ignored it, so making out its a relaxing of restrictions out of good will.

      • “We may be as mad as hell, but we do fuck all about it.
        It’s a British disease.”

        “Every once in a while the English do rise up.
        Its not in our nature,
        We’re reserved,
        The French tend to do it better,
        It pains me to say.
        But every so often as a nation we get sick of eating shite and kick off.”

        The Secret People – GKC

        SMILE at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget.
        For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.
        There is many a fat farmer that drinks less cheerfully,
        There is many a free French peasant who is richer and sadder than we.
        There are no folk in the whole world so helpless or so wise.
        There is hunger in our bellies, there is laughter in our eyes;
        You laugh at us and love us, both mugs and eyes are wet:
        Only you do not know us. For we have not spoken yet.

        The fine French kings came over in a flutter of flags and dames.
        We liked their smiles and battles, but we never could say their names.
        The blood ran red to Bosworth and the high French lords went down;
        There was naught but a naked people under a naked crown.
        And the eyes of the King’s Servants turned terribly every way,
        And the gold of the King’s Servants rose higher every day.
        They burnt the homes of the shaven men, that had been quaint and kind.
        Till there was not bed in a monk’s house, nor food that man could find.
        The inns of God where no main paid, that were the wall of the weak,
        The King’s Servants ate them all. And still we did not speak.

        And the face of the King’s Servants grew greater than the King:
        He tricked them, and they trapped him, and stood round him in a ring.
        The new grave lords closed round him, that had eaten the abbey’s fruits,
        And the men of the new religion, with their bibles in their boots,
        We saw their shoulders moving, to menace or discuss,
        And some were pure and some were vile, but none took heed of us.
        We saw the King as they killed him, and his face was proud and pale;
        And a few men talked of freedom, while England talked of ale.

        A war that we understood not came over the world and woke
        Americans, Frenchmen, Irish; but we knew not the things they spoke.
        They talked about rights and nature and peace and the people’s reign:
        And the squires, our masters, bade us fight; and never scorned us again.
        Weak if we be for ever, could none condemn us then;
        Men called us serfs and drudges; men knew that were were men.
        In foam and flame at Trafalgar, on Albeura plains,
        We did and died like lions, to keep ouselves in chains.
        We lay in living ruins; firing and fearing not
        The strange face of the Frenchman who know for what they fought,
        And the man who seemed to be more than man we strained against and broke;
        And we broke our own right with him. And still we never spoke.

        Our patch of glory ended; we never heard guns again.
        But the squire seemed struck in the saddle; he was foolish, as if in pain.
        He leaned on a staggering lawyer, he clutched a cringing Jew,
        He was stricken; it may be, after all, he was stricken at Waterloo.
        Or perhaps the shades of the shaven men, whose spoil is in his house,
        Come back in shining shapes at last to spil his last carouse:
        We only know the last sad squires ride slowly towards the sea,
        And a new people takes the land: and still it is not we.

        They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords,
        Lords without anger and honour, who dare not carry their swords.
        They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
        They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
        And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
        Their doors are shut in the evening; and they know no songs.

        We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
        Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
        It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,
        Our wrath come after Russia’s wrath and our wrath be the worst.
        It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
        God’s scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
        But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
        Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.

        G. K. Chesterton

  7. I’m in my mid 30s and I don’t feel safe going out. The chavs are a problem begging to be resolved.

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