funniest moments in british politics

When I recorded this reaction, a UK general election was approaching, and I wanted to acknowledge it without doing a serious political discussion. There are other people who can cover that. I thought a collection of embarrassing, awkward and out-of-context moments might give people with different views something to laugh at together.

That doesn’t mean the clips were always easy for me to watch. I get secondhand embarrassment, where seeing someone do something cringe-worthy makes me feel embarrassed on their behalf. Some of these were things I’d remembered happening at the time, and I couldn’t imagine getting over them if they’d happened to me.

The zip wire was the moment I remembered

One of the clips I hoped would appear was Boris Johnson getting stuck on a zip wire. I remembered him hanging there with two little flags, though I didn’t know what the event had been for or why he’d agreed to do it. It was probably one of my favourite awkward political moments.

When I found the clip, there he was in a helmet, suspended above people standing below and taking photographs. The shortened version was hard enough to watch. If I’d been in that position, I’d have wanted to change my name and disappear forever.

I could give him some credit for agreeing to things that looked likely to end in disaster, but I also felt he got himself into these ridiculous situations. It was difficult to watch someone stranded with their flags and not wonder why they’d signed up for it in the first place.

The wheat fields were another familiar answer

A Theresa May interview in the compilation asked about the naughtiest thing she’d ever done. Her answer involved running through fields of wheat with her friends and annoying the farmers. I remembered that one too.

I can take the piss, but I could never be a politician myself. I think the job needs at least a little charisma, even if that’s not the first thing you’d name as a technical requirement. Watching these public appearances made that point stand out to me, while also leaving me quite happy to remain on the watching side of the screen.

It’s a fairly easy position to make fun from. At one point I managed to say rabbit hill instead of rabbit hole while talking about how far I could go into the compilations. Being unable to find my own words was another reminder of why I wouldn’t want to be doing this sort of public speaking for a living.

The parliamentary clips felt much louder than Canada’s

Every country has political embarrassment and drama, and Canada certainly isn’t immune. But the British parliamentary clips in these collections seemed particularly rambunctious to me. There was shouting and a lot of theatrical behaviour in what I assumed were House of Commons sessions.

Canada has a House of Commons too, and the material I’d seen from it felt much more boring. I could watch it online or on television, but I hadn’t seen it behave like the British clips I was watching here. That’s a comparison of my viewing experience, rather than a claim that every session in either country is always the same.

The ridiculous scenarios also reminded me of The Thick of It, a British political comedy I’d loved but hadn’t watched in ages. I particularly remembered the insults being very funny. Some of what I was watching felt like that programme, with less swearing and fewer insults.

I’d already lived through one major political surprise

The clips also had me thinking about the Brexit referendum, which happened early in my time here. I’d moved to the UK at the end of 2015 and was working at a college. I understood the vote at a surface level, but not all the intricacies of what it meant.

I remembered teachers and other colleagues telling me it wasn’t going to happen. I watched television, went to bed, then woke up to find that it really had. Whatever anyone’s opinion of the result, it was a very big British event I’d lived through soon after arriving.

Since then I’d seen politicians come and go, with plenty of uncomfortable public moments along the way. I could laugh at the compilations and still find parts of them painfully embarrassing to watch. The zip wire alone was enough to leave me very sure I wasn’t looking for a career change.

Watch my full reaction to awkward British political moments.