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There's nothing like hard-hitting topical satire...

Still, it's not as if there's anything happening in the news. There are no tax-avoiding, greedy hypocrites to comically condemn from your Soapbox.

The next natural step will be for the pointy bit to start curling up and around, Rumplestiltskin-style.

Kind of looking foward to that.

I hate overly pointy shoes and it doesn't help when you have Hadley Freeman telling us square-toed shoes are the work of the devil and immediately give women the right to extrapolate various aspects of our personalit yfrom wearing said shoes.

God this is boring

I am not very keen on pointy shoes. but I had a pair of pointy boots once which were the most comfortable footwear I have ever had. Appearances can be decepetive. I looked a prat but my footsies were enjoying themselves.

God this is boring

I would have agreed wholeheartedly prior to your contribution.

Frankly, DM, you can start moaning when you are expected to teeter around on stilletto heels - like woman are. But actually, as I remember, you wrote a whole article in the Observer saying you thought that was OK, didn't you?
[And this was very boring. I suspect less Finnemore input.]

I am not very keen on pointy shoes. but I had a pair of pointy boots once which were the most comfortable footwear I have ever had.

I knew someone that had a pointer dog. To be honest, i didn't, but i wanted to join in and who will ever know that i'm lying?

Only an idiot would wear pointy shoes.

This from a man with one of those ubiquitous London media beards? Pointy shoes are great!

Btw, women, those high heel/wedge/clog combination things some of you are wearing at the mo are fucking awful. I understand the idea is they make you look like Bambi. You don't. You look like Minnie Mouse.

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This from a man with one of those ubiquitous London media beards? Pointy shoes are great!

The Italians have been wearing these for yonks. It's the beard that gets me. I can't think of a single funny comedian who had a full beard. James Robertson Justice counts as an actor not a comedian.

In my impoverished youth I was obliged to toil on the milkrounds on what, in those days, passed for weekends. I saved up for some time to buy a pair of chisel-toes. I unfortunately missed the deadline for those and, indeed the next one for pointy ones and was eventually obliged to buy some pointy chisel-toes. They were 13 inches long. I measured them. I had a tee-shirt made with 'look girls. 13 inches'. But that, unfortunately, led to some misunderstandings. I was desperate to wear them on the milk-round, despite my mother's advice being to the contrary, because an extremely pretty girl had been looking at me from behind the curtains. I thought 13 inch shoes might clinch the deal. Milkmen are plagued by dogs. I was no exception. Usually, a good kick was enough to make them search out other sniffings. I had seriously underestimated my opponent on this day. He judged his moment perfectly and bit the end off my 13 inches. I left the milk at the gate when I got to her house.

Billy Connolly
George Carlin

Either of those work for you?

Those Turkish pointy shoes that go up at the end are, in fact, highly practical if you've got lots of Turkish rugs you don't want to trip over.

The beard's a bet you lost, no?

Billy Connolly

That was an intrinsic part of his act as the "wild Scotsman".

George Carlin

I'd never heard of George Carlin but he doesn't look very good on youtube.

Regimentally pointy shoes are almost as bad as newspaper columnists who have to use video...
I mean
What's All That About?

If you think British shoes are pointy you should see the ones they wear in Russia...

It's official. Every commenter on here is a dismal spod.

Totally agree - I spend ages looking for non-pointy shoes.... Depresses me...

Every commenter on here is a dismal spod.

Specially the guy who never heard of George Carlin.

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Suitcases all having wheels is definitely not a good idea and I cannot let this falsehood pass unchallenged.

David Mitchell has obviously never been tripped by an idiot towing something so small and light that a couple of years ago a babe in arms would have been able to carry it.

Mine go with my pointy head

suitcases with wheels should be banned between certain times of the day, living near students residences, during the long summer break it is taken over by tourists, and they often leave early in the morning with their suitcases on wheels, and those suitcases are very noisy.

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Completely agree - been complaining anbout skinny banana long shoes for years.

And the missus agrees with me, so I'm right.

Pointy shoes?

Know
Your
Enemy

Crocs, Uggs, Socks+Sandals combos, knee high boots, crap trainers with the 'air bubbles' on them.

All worse than the pointy shoe.

t's official. Every commenter on here is a dismal spod.

True, but some are more dismal than others.

I think it represents the epitome of impartial thinking. A man with Hitler's hair and Castro's beard has got to be Renaissance Man.

Yep - pointy shoes make the wearer look ridiculous.
Unless the wearers have ludicrously long pointy feet of course, in which case, they have my deepest sympathy too.

Another thing that bothers me is:
Since when did computer makers decide that all laptops should be ultrabooks?
The pointy shoe of the PCs...

I think the pointy toe is really helpful to get your foot into the stirrup on a saddle. That must be the reason for this trend.

You are far too tolerant. I'm advocating a total ban. If you can't carry it, you shouldn't have it with you.

Well ok. Not a total ban. I'd be prepared to issue permits to a few special cases.

(special cases - geddit).

Fashion just goes round and round. These pointy shoes were highly fashionable in the mid 60s, and were called 'winkle pickers'.

I would imagine it's down to two reasons:

1. He's already talked about what he thinks about tax avoidance back in 2010: www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/31/david-mitchell-george-osborne-tax

2. This is the 2nd soapbox of this series, which are recorded in blocks of five (as he told everyone in the red shirt episode, also back in 2010), so was recorded sometime before the 14th of June.

Pointy shoes have been around for Ages - what next Collars on shirts ?

While I'm in a moaning mood...

...People who say "See what I did there?" deserve a pointy shoeing as well.

Yes I did see what you did there and it still isn't funny (you twat!).

Pointy shoes fit so well on our pointy feet... Oh.

Historian Ian Mortimer on the 14th century fashion for pointy shoes ...

In 1300 your average nobleman wears shoes which would look expensive but not outlandish: the toe is a neat little point, nothing remarkable. In the 1330s the toe begins to grow. And grow. On both sides of the Channel noblemen seem to be in competition to wear the longest shoes. Whatever the cause of this trend (length of feet and manhood?) by 1350 the artificial lengthening of the toes is well underway -- six inches long, seven, eight -- with the points being partly stuffed with wool to make them semi-rigid. By the reign of Richard II some lords can barely walk without tripping over their own shoes. Although older men still wear normal-length shoes under their long robes, the younger men with very short paltocks push the boundaries of style ridiculously far. The longest style of all -- the twenty-inch Crackow, an imported fashion from Bohemia -- is so long that its tips have to be tied to the garter. Walking upstairs in them in virtually impossible.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Travellers-Guide-Medieval-England/dp/1845950992/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1340295100&sr=8-3

If you think British shoes are pointy you should see the ones they wear in Russia...

You thinking Rosa Klebb?

If you think British shoes are pointy you should see the ones they wear in Russia...

... or Mexico
DM, on the other hand, completely pointless.

I'd never heard of George Carlin

You wouldn't be the one to pronounce on comedians then.

Mexican tribaleros and their extremely pointy boots ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CEiMA3QtYWc#!

I'd never heard of George Carlin

You wouldn't be the one to pronounce on comedians then.

I've seen him on youtube now. He's another American ranter who doesn't suit British tastes. No wonder he's not famous here.

People who wear outlandish fashion so as not to appear unfashionable should bear the following in mind: back in the seventies and eighties we did the same thing. And during the nineties all photographic evidence was destroyed.

Which was easy with old fashioned paper photographs

Can I please have some pointy socks to go with the pointy shoes?

Next, please, some pointy panties.

Personally I think that everything that's going wrong in the world can be traced back to young people not wearing pointy shoes anymore.