imported>GreenC bot: Rescued 1 archive link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#observer.guardian.co.uk

2025-10-27T19:48:06Z

Rescued 1 archive link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#observer.guardian.co.uk

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	==External links==		==External links==
	* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110826044144/https://richardgeefe.blogspot.com/ Richard Geefe - The Complete Works]		* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110826044144/https://richardgeefe.blogspot.com/ Richard Geefe - The Complete Works]
	* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/page/0,11821,671683,00.html ''Observer Review'' - Chris Morris special] <!-- one column seems to be missing from their list, I'll email GU about it -->		* [https://archive.today/20130420201605/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/page/0,11821,671683,00.html ''Observer Review'' - Chris Morris special] <!-- one column seems to be missing from their list, I'll email GU about it -->
	* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831337/ IMDb - Second Class Male]		* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831337/ IMDb - Second Class Male]

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2025-05-01T04:36:52Z

External links

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{no footnotes|date=January 2015}}
'''"Second Class Male"''' and '''"Time to Go"''' were a series of 12 [[Parody|spoof]] newspaper columns written by [[Chris Morris (satirist)|Chris Morris]] and [[Robert Katz (British writer)|Robert Katz]] under the [[pseudonym]] Richard Geefe in ''[[The Observer]]'' in 1999.

"Second Class Male" was a feature column written by a handsome though ineffectual sort who has a lack of luck in life. After the sixth article, the writer of the column decides that on a certain date he will commit suicide, and the rest of his columns, retitled "Time To Go", will be written about the state of mind of someone knowing they are going to die on a particular date. The last article, consisting of accounts by Geefe's dinner party guests on the night of his death, was published after Morris's co-authorship had been revealed.

The articles were presented as fact and not as a Chris Morris production, although the premise was very similar to a monologue from his ''[[Blue Jam]]'' radio programme, titled "Suicide Journalist" on the ''Blue Jam'' compilation CD. The last pseudonymous column included a man speared by frozen urine and a suicide by repeated jumps from a first floor window, both situations from earlier work by Morris.

The series attacked what some saw as the self-absorption of columnists writing about personal and domestic matters, and the quasi-fashion for columns about dying typified by those written by [[John Diamond (journalist)|John Diamond]] and [[Ruth Picardie]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080309200524/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/07/31/neye131.xml]

According to the [[IMDb]] a 7-minute short film (titled ''Second Class Male'') based on the second column (in which Geefe gets locked out of his flat) was made in 2006.

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110826044144/https://richardgeefe.blogspot.com/ Richard Geefe - The Complete Works]
* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/page/0,11821,671683,00.html ''Observer Review'' - Chris Morris special] 
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831337/ IMDb - Second Class Male]

{{Christopher Morris}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Second Class Male Time To Go}}
[[Category:British satire]]
[[Category:1999 hoaxes]]
[[Category:1999 in London]]
[[Category:Hoaxes in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Journalistic hoaxes]]
[[Category:Satirical columns]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The Guardian]]

Second Class Male/Time to Go - Revision history

imported>GreenC bot: Rescued 1 archive link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#observer.guardian.co.uk

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