A swedish writer, Fritiof Nilsson Piraten, put it something like this:
"You can write about a sewing needle and there are always some one-eyed moron who gets offended"

Great quote :) Good writing does always say something poignant and perhaps controversial in my opinion.

You can lead a whore to culture
but you cant make them think
So pissing them off is the next best thing!

Damn. My secret's out.

I once told an artist friend (a playwrite) who was afraid of some PC complaint that if she "didn't get at least 20% of her audience pissed off, she wasn't pushing it far enough."

Does anyone recognize the old 80/20 rule here ;-)
Or perhaps in this form its Amon's Corrollary :-) :-)

I know it might sound like a Sherlock Holmes
story
But there is really only The Rule Of Three.

Dida dida Punchline.

And the filthiest and triple entedre the better!

I must have a lie down now!

Yoou can lead a horticulture,
but you can't lead an animal husbandry.

Kingsley Amis should have written for Jyllands-Posten.

I'm entirely with the sentiment here. If nobody ever offended me how dull would my life be? I watched Penn Gillette's film "The Aristocrats" last night to that very end.

Alan, absolutely. Amis was a cantankerous old sod, but at his best he could be supremely funny. Lucky Jim is still worth reading. He was also no snob: he enjoyed sci-fi, the Ian Fleming stories, thrillers, etc, as well as more up-market" tastes. His son, Martin, alas, comes across as a complete tosser.

Martin's book on Stalin was worth putting up with him.

Martin will never win the Booker prize
like his dear old dad because for all his cleverness, his characters are ones you have no belief in or interest at all.
I recommend The Old Devils ( but then I would do Boyo!)

I know he hardly belongs in the same category as Amis et al, but columnist Richard Littlejohn says he loves it when he gets abusive emails from outraged readers; apparently it makes his day to know he's ruined theirs.