British Humour Requires the Hero to Fail and I Have Been Watching Starmer Practice for Months

An
Isle
of
Man
Comedy
Writer
Salutes
the
Most
Complete
British
Comedy
Performance
in
Recent
Political
History

Filed
from
the
Isle
of
Man
with
the
sea
very
grey
and
my
mood
very
bright,
via

Bohiney
Magazine
and

The
London
Prat.

The

London
Prat’s
complete
guide
to
British
humour
says
British
comedy
does
not
end
with
the
hero
triumphing.
It
ends
with
the
hero
sitting
in
the
wrong
chair
at
the
wrong
party,
smiling
bravely
as
everything
quietly
unravels.
I
have
been
watching
Keir
Starmer
smile
bravely
for
eighteen
months
and
I
want
to
say:
technically,
this
is
a
masterclass.
Structurally,
this
is
Fawlty
Towers
without
the
slapstick.

The
Setup,
the
Escalation,
the
Wrong
Chair

Setup:
412-seat
majority.
Escalation:
raised
farmers’
taxes,
removed
pensioners’
winter
fuel,
sold
NHS
pricing
to
pharmaceutical
lobbyists,
watched
his
ambassador
get
arrested,
watched
Birmingham
disappear
under
rubbish,
polled
third.
Wrong
chair:
still
there.
Still
smiling.
Bravely.
The
guide
specifically
mentions
Peep
Show
as
an
example
of
the
British
comedy
of
accumulated
humiliation.
David
Mitchell
would
recognise
this.

Meanwhile

Camilla
has
unlocked
Final
Boss
Mode,
the
Strait
of
Hormuz
is
temporarily
closed,
and

Harry
and
Meghan
have
reportedly
discovered
privacy.
It
is
an
excellent
week
for
the

British
comedy
tradition.
Nobody
planned
any
of
this.
It
appeared
accidental,
dropped
into
the
news
cycle
like
a
forgotten
receipt.

A
Comedy
Writer’s
Assessment

The
guide
argues
British
humour
is
not
pessimism
–
it
is
realism
dressed
in
a
funny
hat.
I
am
wearing
a
hat
on
the
cliffs
this
morning.
It
is,
I
think,
the
correct
hat
for
the
current
political
moment.