Political joke
The Five Star Movement, led by comedian Beppe Grillo, won 26% of the vote in the Italian general election. Comedian John O’Farrell competed as Labour’s candidate in the Eastleigh by-election. Some other comedians who have won office:
— Jon Gnarr won Reykjavik’s mayoral election in 2010 with 35% of the vote, on a platform of free towels in swimming pools and putting polar bears in the city’s museum (instead of shooting them). He had previously played a Swedish Marxist in a TV comedy show.
— Al Franken was elected to the US Senate for Minnesota in 2009, after a recount. He had previously been a writer for Saturday Night Live and a stand-up comedian.
— Ian Lang, Scottish Secretary and president of the Board of Trade in John Major’s government, cracked few jokes in office, but he appeared with John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graham Chapman in the first-ever Cambridge Footlights revue at the Edinburgh fringe in 1962.
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