{"id":27856,"date":"2020-08-06T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T08:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=27856"},"modified":"2024-02-29T08:44:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T08:44:51","slug":"the-rise-of-comedian-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/stage-screen\/the-rise-of-comedian-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise of comedian politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In our current populist and post-democratic moment, boundaries between politics and comedy often seem to be dissolving. Boris Johnson played a political fool<\/a> for years before becoming prime minister, and the speeches and tweets of Donald Trump often read like absurdist comedy. Current elections and debates are fought and won through memes as well as manifestos<\/a>. But while professional politicians are clowning, comedians in several countries have been trying their hand at serious politics \u2013 often with spectacular success at the polls, if not always in office. It’s the rise of the comedian politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beppe Grillo \u2013 Italy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Credit: Giovanni Favia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An early example of the \u2018populist\u2019 surge, comic actor and satirist Grillo co-founded the Five Star Movement<\/a> (M5S) in 2009. Its \u2018five stars\u2019 referred to the movement\u2019s five key issues: public water, sustainable transport, sustainable development, right to Internet access, and environmentalism. M5S\u2019s chaotic brand of anti-establishment politics and promotion of direct democracy saw it make gains in local and regional elections, and in 2018 it became the largest individual party<\/a> in the Italian Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiririca \u2013 Brazil<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Credit: Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom\/Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, professional clown Francisco Oliveira Silva, known as Tiririca, was elected to Brazil\u2019s congress as deputy for Sao Paulo<\/a> with 1.3 million votes, a higher share than any other candidate. Tiririca, or \u2018Grumpy\u2019, ran on the slogan \u2018It can\u2019t get any worse\u2019. Re-elected by a landslide in 2014, he stepped down three years later<\/a>, citing embarrassment at his fellow politicians, and has since returned to full-time clowning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marjan \u0160arec \u2013 Slovenia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Credit: Slovenian Press Agency<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u0160arec began his career as a comedian and satirist, before entering politics as mayor of Kamnik in 2010. In August 2018 he became prime minister of Slovenia<\/a>, leading a fractious minority coalition of five centrist parties. After losing the informal support of the opposition left party Levica, and frustrated at the failure of his coalition to push through legislation, \u0160arec announced his resignation<\/a> in January 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luka Maksimovi\u0107 \u2013 Serbia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Credit: Vuk Maksimovic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maksimovi\u0107 is a comedian and political activist known for portraying the satirical fictional politician \u2018Beli\u2019. He formerly led the parody political party Sarmu probo nisi (\u2018You haven\u2019t tasted the sarma\u2019 \u2013 a kind of stuffed vine leaf) created by a group of comedians from Mladenovac. \u2018Beli\u2019 ran for president in 2017 with a self-satirising campaign<\/a> that nonetheless drew support from across the country. He finished third with 9 per cent<\/a> of the vote, ahead of several more established candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volodymyr Zelensky \u2013 Ukraine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Credit: The Presidential Office of Ukraine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine\u2019s current president had no prior political experience other than starring in the television comedy Servant of the People<\/a><\/em>. He played a high-school teacher who rises to the top of Ukrainian politics after a video showing him complaining about government corruption goes viral. Fiction became political reality in 2019 when Zelensky unseated the incumbent Petro Poroshenko<\/a>, becoming president with around 73 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is from our Climate Revolutions<\/em> Summer 2020 issue \u2013 out now! Subscribe here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As more and more comedians find success in the political arena, Rhian Jones lists some of the most prominent examples of satirists turned statesmen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":39173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2587,2269,2,685,2525,2543],"tags":[2589],"class_list":["post-27856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authoritarianism-far-right","category-democracy","category-europe","category-media","category-north-america","category-stage-screen","tag-rhian-e-jones"],"yoast_head":"\nThe rise of comedian politicians - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Comedians continue to find success in the political arena, The most prominent examples of satirists turned statesmen and comedian politicians.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/stage-screen\/the-rise-of-comedian-politicians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The rise of comedian politicians - Red Pepper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Comedians continue to find success in the political arena, The most prominent examples of satirists turned statesmen and comedian politicians.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/stage-screen\/the-rise-of-comedian-politicians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Pepper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-06T08:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-29T08:44:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/volodymyr-zelensky-1-800x400-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gerry Hart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gerry Hart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/stage-screen\/the-rise-of-comedian-politicians\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/stage-screen\/the-rise-of-comedian-politicians\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gerry Hart\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/3e41cf1d33479333ab0e03fdfcfed0bb\"},\"headline\":\"The rise of comedian politicians\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-06T08:00:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-29T08:44:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/stage-screen\/the-rise-of-comedian-politicians\/\"},\"wordCount\":498,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/stage-screen\/the-rise-of-comedian-politicians\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/volodymyr-zelensky-1-800x400-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Rhian E. 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