Count Binface just isn’t funny

On British general election nights, I like to watch Dish and Dishonesty, the first episode of the third series of Blackadder. It pokes some gentle fun at the conventions of election night TV, including the tradition of ‘silly’ candidates. In the episode, Ivor ‘Jest Ye Not, Madam’ Biggun of the Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid party is among the challengers to replace the late Sir Talbot Buxomly.

Mr Biggun – whose policies of compulsory asparagus for breakfast and free corsets for the under-fives will doubtless be in the next Lib Dem manifesto – is an unsubtle parody of the Monster Raving Loony party and their various imitators and competitors. You see them milling around on the stage at the counts, wearing outlandish costumes and often looking inordinately pleased with themselves. In 2017, a photograph of then-Prime Minister Theresa May standing awkwardly on stage with Lord Buckethead at the Maidenhead council headquarters went viral online and was the occasion of much comment about the glorious eccentricities of British democracy.