If you were unlucky enough to have missed Basil’s flawless appearance on Tennessee’s Channel 4 News then here it is for your delight and pleasure (including subtitles).

 

 

Here’s a selection of our favourite promises from Marceaux’s campaign:

 

·      ‘VOTE FOR ME AND IF I WIN I WILL IMMUNE YOU FROM ALL STATE CRIMES FOR THE REST OF YOU LIFE!’ (We’ve no idea how this would work, but we’d vote for him).

·      ‘Free the slaves at traffic stops from false arrest and jury fixing’ (according to Basil they still have slaves in Tennessee, although only at traffic stops).

·      ‘Education. Let us put phonics back in school if you can not read you can not do History, Math, English. And that where we are now. Let make it mandatory in high school to read the minutes to the U.S. Congress’ (This one is great. Worth a mention purely for Basil’s masterly command of the English language).

 

This got me thinking about politicians and their popularity. It seems that to be universally loved by the people an aspiring politician must either be glamorous and sexy (rare), or some kind of loveable bumbling buffoon (enter the Basil’s and the Boris’s of the world).

 

 

Mastering the art of the buffoon is tricky, but if carefully executed can see results. Take Marceaux’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel live. A little light comedy and the audience love him, with Kimmel asking Marceaux if he would come and run for Governor of California instead of Tennessee. Similarly Boris Johnson’s appearance on quiz shows such as Have I Got News for You and numerous public blunders have secured him a place fondness, if not respect, in the British psyche.

 

 

When Boris appeared on Have I Got News for You in 2003 his haphazard performance secured him a nomination for a BAFTA TV Awards. This from an inspired act in which he forgot the name of his own book, and admitted he’d once tried to snort cocaine, but sneezed, and failed.

 

Popularity therefore seems to come hand in hand with stupidity. Who wants a boring intelligent rational politician in charge, when there are scores of truly loveable and inspiring idiots to pervade our television and newspapers with? Who wants to read about fiscal measures when these wonderful new idiots are talking about traffic light slavery, mandatory gun carrying, and free pianos?

 

What political parties don’t realise is that politics needs these idiots in order to survive. We live in an age where more people are likely to buy heat than a broadsheet, and a greater proportion still take their daily news from the Metro which attempts to straggle the two. Stupidity, like sex, sells. Any politician who can sell newspapers will instantly become a star. The Boris’s of the world keep the people entertained, with lesser-known intellectuals on hand to tackle any serious social or economic problems.

 

With the Labour party out of power perhaps they should now turn their focus on recruiting some loveable morons. In a long uneventful summer it’s about time we had our very own Basil Marceaux to provide some comic relief.