Not even comedy legends could make these politicians’ jokes funny – but they tried

Oonagh Keating. Updated November 13th, 2019

We’ve seen some cringeworthy attempts at comedy since the election campaign started, such as the ill-conceived doctored video of Keir Starmer’s GMB interview, or the excruciating Lib Dem take on the private messages of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. Even before campaigning had officially begun, the parties all had a stab at being funny in their conferences, with exactly the success you’d expect.

This clip of comedy masters Armando Iannucci, David Schneider and Peter Baynham attempting some of the political humour from the 1997 general election campaign shows that this kind of poor judgement isn’t by any means a recent phenomenon, and the standard has stayed pretty consistent. The relevant part is little more than three minutes, but the full thing is worth making time for.

We can absolutely imagine the current crop of candidates delivering those exact lines.

When funny tweeter @NickMotown tweeted the link, some familiar faces spotted it.

Bloody hell! That was fun. Once it was over.

— David Schneider (@davidschneider) October 31, 2019

Christ, I had to perform Tory jokes as if they were my own. I still haven’t showered that night away

— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) October 31, 2019

Here are a couple of other things people said about it.

I have just medically died of cringe, but not before admiring the supreme balls involved by all

— David Lewis (@davidclewis) October 31, 2019

Coo, that was a night. On the lash with Valerie Singleton in TV Centre.

— David Quantick (@quantick) October 31, 2019

Comedy writer and drummer, Louis Barfe, witnessed it in the flesh.

I was in the audience that night.

— Louis Barfe (@AlanKelloggs) October 31, 2019

It might be why he’s a comedy writer.

everyone who was in that audience went on to form a comedy act.

— David Quantick (@quantick) October 31, 2019

Source: YouTube Image: YouTube, Twitter