Open mic

Is Jeremy Corbyn too nice for satire?

Brian Logan

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A man being persuaded to compromise on his lofty ideals could make for
great comedy – but given the best satire kicks against the strong, it
could be hard to wring gags from the underdog Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn
Fruitful new realms of satiric possibility … the new Labour party
leader Jeremy Corbyn. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer

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When Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour party last
Saturday, did Britain’s satirists rub their hands with glee, or wring
them in despair? On the one hand, Corbyn requires a tricky gear change
from political comics, in that he simply doesn’t fit modern satire’s
default “they’re all the same, they’re all unprincipled careerists”
paradigm. Even his worst enemies would probably acknowledge he is

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delighted by Corbyn’s arrival on the scene. He is a completely new
figure to joke about, and that same high-mindedness – as we’ve already
seen – opens up fruitful new realms of satiric possibility.

Related: Can Jeremy Corbyn ever be funny? Only on my joke Twitter feed
| Jason Sinclair

So what is satire’s approach going to be? Like the approach to Corbyn
more generally, it’s not yet settled. Witness the Sun’s contradictory
front pages last Monday and Tuesday: the first berated Corbyn for

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rich. In the first Corbyn sketch, he was mocked for having “muddled and
contradictory opinions”. In the second, he was teased for having an
out-of-date dress sense. Truly, the new dawn of satire is upon us.

Sandwiched between those gags, another Dead Ringers line of attack

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comedy gig in Brighton to coincide with this month’s Labour conference
in the city, speculated that the “Jez we can” phenomenon might
revitalise UK satire, because Tory-bashing jokes are too easy, too
familiar and totally ineffective. I doubt that’ll be the case. The best
satire derives from moral outrage of the kind it’d be hard to muster
against Corbyn. And the best satire kicks against the strong, not the
weak – given the volume and virulence of the establishment attacks
being directed at him, Corbyn clearly falls (in satire terms at least)
into the latter category. It’s revealing that one of the most popular
cartoon images of the Labour leader so far doesn’t depict him with
Y-fronts over his trousers or a mad, staring eye, but as Obi-Wan
Kenobi. Venerable, wise, unflappable, soon to be destroyed by the
forces of darkness, but whose spirit will live on. Satire will find
worse to throw at Corbyn, but – for him, at any rate – that’s a pretty
encouraging start.