I s political satire dead? No. It’s just been temporarily eclipsed by satirical politics. And honestly, has there ever been a more satirical politician than Rishi Sunak ? He is a natural, and we have been fortunate witnesses indeed to this brief yet dazzling masterclass.
For decades, a slow-motion metaphysical event has been crunching politics and satire together to form a super-dense singularity. It is reminiscent of an ingenious theory within Flann O’Brien’s 1940 surrealist novel, The Third Policeman . If everything is composed of small particles whizzing around, objects bumping into each other often enough would exchange atoms .
In the book, people rattling along uneven roads inevitably exchange atoms with their bicycles. The bikes become more human; cyclists become more bike-like, spending silent hours at a time propped with one elbow against a wall. Satire and politics have likewise undergone an atomic exchange.
Comedy has become more political. Politics, meanwhile, has become more comical. Politicians still do standup: tight bit of local at the top, then into anything from Jonathan Gullis ’s end-of-the-pier dog-whistle banter to the Stewart Lee-inspired abstract triangulations of Jeremy Corbyn.
But satirical politics goes further. Curb Your Enthusiasm , Larry David’s comedy of manners, may have ended, but it has emboldened a new generation of politicians revolutionising their craft with character-driven improv. Sunak, in his performance as prime minister, has .