A certain amount of clairvoyance is needed in the great satirist, an almost supernatural talent to hold up a mirror to society and force us to see the hideous reflection that lies behind our shiny veneer.
Although I’ve always been a political centrist, I loved British stand-up comedy, usually left-wing, sometimes far-left, and have been a huge fan of Ben Elton since his first appearance in his shiny suit Friday Night Live. Elton, the sarcastic clown of British comedy and a proud Labor man Mrs. Touch Era, I delivered this in spades with Pantinghis first play since 1990.
at that time, Panting It seemed like a clever and absurd embodiment of 1980s corporate greed, the free-market madness of Thatcherism, and the rise of shiny marketing machinery. But as we sit here in 2025, the air around us tinged with pollution and bureaucracy, one has to wonder: Could Elton’s play have been less satire and more prophetic?
For those unfamiliar, Panting The film tells the story of an accomplished advertising executive who, in pursuit of the next big thing, helps his company invent and monetize the “Perrier for the nostrils” – oxygen in a bottle. What starts out as a laughably absurd concept turns into chaos, as the commodification of clean air leads to shortages, global inequality, and a very real scenario for the survival of the rich. funny? definitely. Ridiculously prescient? And even more than that.
Do we tax the air we breathe? Absolutely not
Fast forward to the present day, and Elton’s dystopian vision is no longer as far-fetched as it once was. Sure, we’re not yet queuing at Tesco for bottled oxygen, but it’s not completely outside the realm of possibility. Air quality has become a premium commodity in urban centers, with wealthier neighborhoods often enjoying cleaner skies while poorer areas choke on the waste of heavy industry. Purifiers, filtration systems, and even air filtration plants have become middle-class staples, essentially a tax on the air we breathe.
But where Elton hits eerily close to home is his criticism of big business and government excesses. in PantingThe corporate world is taking something that should be a universal right – clean air – and turning it into a cash cow. It’s hard not to draw parallels with our current predicament, where everything from water to parking to the miles we drive is measured, measured, and taxed. And with a government as revenue-hungry as Labor is today, it’s not entirely unlikely that oxygen would be next on the list. After all, we already have carbon taxes, so how difficult would it be to impose an “air use tax”?
The irony, of course, lies in Elton’s loyalties to the Labor Party. In the past, he was the poster boy for Thatcher-bashing, flag-waving and championing socialist ideals and wealth redistribution. The idea that his beloved Labor Party could one day be accused of taxing everything under the sun – well, it would have made a younger Elton choke on his organically sourced lentil soup. And yet, here we are, with some of the most innovative revenue collection plans coming out of the red corner.
A new dichotomy: oxygen as a status symbol
The world that Elton imagined Panting It is a place where the “haves” breathe easy while the “have nots” gasp for survival – a dynamic that is painfully familiar in today’s world. Clean air is no longer a given; It’s a privilege. In cities like Delhi and Beijing, air pollution is so severe that oxygen bars and personal air purifiers have become booming industries. While these innovations are marketed as lifestyle products for the wealthy, they highlight a stark reality: the gap between those who can protect themselves and those who cannot is increasingly widening.
The Third World, as Elton called it in his play, is still being plundered, not for oxygen but for the resources that keep the wheels of capitalism turning. On the other hand, climate change – which can be seen as the ultimate indictment of our collective greed – has made clean air an increasingly scarce commodity. Forests, the lungs of the Earth, are being cleared at an alarming rate, often in the name of profit. Elton’s satire wasn’t just about the air; It was about commodifying anything and everything, regardless of the consequences.
So, was Ben Elton the cynical Nostradamus? maybe. Or perhaps his genius lies in his ability to distill universal truths and turn them into biting comedy. Topics I explore Panting— greed, inequality, environmental degradation — are as relevant today as they were in 1990. The difference is that we now live in a world that was once exaggerated for comedic effect. Looks like the joke is on us.
And what about Elton’s beloved Labor party? Could he have predicted its evolution from a pessimistic underdog in the 1980s to a tax-happy organization today? One suspects that he might have done so, although he would have attacked them as mercilessly as he did the Tories. Because Elton, at his core, is first and foremost a satirist, and satire spares no one, not even its creators.
in the end, Panting It is both a warning and a time capsule, a reminder of where we’ve been and a cautionary tale about where we might be headed. As the world grapples with climate change, resource scarcity, and the ever-present shadow of corporate greed, Elton’s play feels less like a relic of the past and more like a road map to an unsettling future. So, if you find yourself looking for a Dyson air purifier or paying extra for a seat in the Clean Air Zone, consider Ben Elton. He saw it coming, and made us laugh before we started panting.