Simon Amstell gets us talking about veganism
Never Mind the Buzzcocks’ Simon Amstell has made a film! And wait…hang on a minute? It’s a comedy about Veganism. Forced out of a mid-week slump by this curious information, I decided to take a look at Carnage. Before now I’d seen hard-hitting documentaries, such as Food Inc. and The Cove, set out to expose truths behind the meat industry, so I was simultaneously gripped by and a little taken aback at this entirely different approach to the subject. If you haven’t yet seen it and you want to really be surprised by a film I urge you to get on the BBC iPlayer and check it out.
You see, Carnage isn’t a standard graphs and stats-heavy documentary. It is something quite unique. It is a mockumentary ‘made’ in the year 2067, a world where a game of tennis involves a shining golden ball, where people tend their gardens from the convenience of hover seats and where a vegan-total society can’t face up to its meat eating past. It comes to us from an altogether strange world that is troubled and haunted by the thought of eating flesh or taking milk from an animal, considering it a crime on the same scale as harming a fellow human. Simon Amstell provides the voice-over from the future, telling the story of meat and dairy farming and looking back on humanity’s relationship with food.
The result makes for some pretty entertaining television that quickly draws you in with the downright daft and bizarre antics of the imagined future people. The mockumentary provides a ‘window’ into the support groups, reminiscent of our substance abuse support groups today, set up for those who remember meat and dairy consumption, where attendees hold hands and solemnly say the names of cheeses aloud to overcome their guilt and grief. Cow-opera, that’s right, opera that explores the emotions of a cow, is the entertainment of the day and a ram is given a headset which enables communication with humans.
While the tone remains humorous throughout, poking fun at drab vegans and hip vegans alike, it’s not easy to forget this quest for understanding. The very real images of mass slaughter and the scenes that explore the power of the advertising imagery to manipulate our emotions and separate society from the realities of the food industry are some of the most brutal and honest scenes I’ve seen on television in a long while. I’ve since found myself talking a lot about veganism with my friends and have been inspired to start finding out more about dairy farming and the dairy alternatives available in our UK supermarkets. But while I do wonder how easy it is to keep to a totally vegan diet in the long term, I’ll certainly be trying to incorporate more meat and dairy-free meals into my life.
