© Ciaran O’Driscoll, 2014,
2021.
Tuesday, 12 October 2021
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE RUBBER BANDITS (2) MORE ABOUT THE HORSE OUTSIDE
The 'Horse Outside' presents a traditional, animal mode
of transport in the midst of flashy mechanical modes of transport
which have become status symbols in a pathologically status-conscious
society. When the sexy young woman mentions the alternative modes of transport
available to her from rival suitors, the Spar-bag-masked yokel dismisses them
all in favour of his equine means of conveyance: 'F**k your Mitsubishi, I've a
horse outside...' This admirer of female allure comes into a highly artificial
and class-conscious society like a blast from the past, like a healthy force of
nature, full of primordial, unselfconscious confidence. He doesn't give a damn
about the claims to a woman's heart represented by ownership of flashy cars; he
believes (as I think we all do deep down) that a horse is a far superior being
to a mechanically propelled vehicle. This cocky wooer is making a claim for a
true gradation of status: the superiority of a living being over a piece of
metal. Not only that, but the image of a horse 'outside' is a powerful one. The
horse which is outside the door of the church is also outside our society,
outside the wedding feast, outside the pale. It conjures up in my mind the
Ancient Mariner, the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth, An Inspector Calls, The
Green Knight, Death the Leveller, the Eumenides, the Reckoning. I don't think it
is too over the top to say that the Rubberbandits' horse outside also conjures
up death and judgement. In one of their sketches, a claim is made that the only
things that ghosts are frightened of are horses. There is also the echo between
'horse' and 'hearse': 'I have a hearse outside'. The church is a scene of
funerals as well as of weddings. First Love, Last Rites is the title of a book
by Ian McEwan. Not only does our society shut out the horse, it also blanks out
on death. In the old days, it was a horse that drew the hearse to the final
resting place. This is still so in the case of travellers, who are like the
horse in that they are also 'outside'. Class distinction, sex, death and
disparity are, of course, the life-blood of comedy.
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