In Scotland we don't make political jokes, we elect them

The Herald Scotland

14-05-2025

That left Cumming reliant on his suits and a light smattering of smut for laughs, and it did not go well. Jilly Cooper, legendarily nice to everyone, looked like she wanted to throttle him. Ditto David Mitchell. But why? His teasing, such as it was, had been of the mildest kind, more George from Rainbow than Gervais at the Golden Globes.
As Cumming confirmed on Sunday, comedy is a serious business. Get it right and you will be adored, put a foot wrong and it's curtains, or cancelled.
Makes you wonder why they do it. There's the money of course, but they can't all earn Peter Kay-level wages. The biggest mystery is political comedy. Who in their right mind would try to get a laugh out of the state we're in today?
Step forward Rory Bremner, who is just about to start his Making an Impression tour. His show at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh on June 1 is already sold out, but there's a waiting list if you fancy your chances.
Sold out? Waiting list? Rory Bremner? The bloke who does Gordon Brown impressions and other cutting-edge material? The very one, though his list of subjects now extends to more contemporary figures, including Trump, Starmer, and Farage. The older faces and voices may yet be wheeled out; it depends on audience reaction. As he made clear in a recent interview, Bremner is more interested in pleasing his audiences than eviscerating the powerful. That in itself is a radical notion.
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'Look, I love making people laugh,' he told the Sunday Times. 'Yes, satire has lost its power a bit because our leaders are so shameless. But we're so polarised now — there is so much hate. I just want people to enjoy stuff, and if the best you can do is to send people into the night laughing? What a great job. It's like Voltaire and his idea of cultivating your own garden. Just do your best, in your own particular way. Don't change the world: just cheer it up a bit.'
So we're talking comedy that's not nasty, just a little bit naughty. Comedy that sits on the nicer end of the spectrum. Is it an idea whose time has come, or in a world of Trumps and Farages, should comedians show no mercy?
Bremner has played in this sandpit before and knows more than most what a risky business it can be. He is the guy, some readers will remember, who thought it was a great idea to make a 'fun' programme about Scottish politics in the run-up to the independence referendum.
We all know what a barrel of laughs the independence campaigns turned out to be. Bremner's BBC Scotland show, Rory Goes to Holyrood, was the canary in the coalmine. 'Unionist lackey' and 'English toff' were among the more printable reactions. He is, in fact, from Edinburgh, but if anything, that seemed to annoy his critics even more.
Has the balloon burst on political comedy in Scotland? (Image: Mark Runnacles) Interviewed by The Herald at the time, Bremner said his film was about 'making a case for political comedy in Scotland'. Scottish politics, he said, was unlike anything he had encountered before in that there was a great degree of hostility. It was usually taken as read that politicians were fair game for comedians, but that did not seem to apply in Scotland across the board.
In other words, you could poke fun at anyone you like, as long as they were Unionists. Everything and everyone else were off limits, especially if they were in any way connected to the SNP. It was a pretty damning indictment at the time but looking around then, and now, Bremner had a point. Where are the satirists revelling in the governing party's woes? Who dares take on the rich and powerful in Scotland? Or is everything so dandy around these parts there is no need for such comedy Bravehearts?
BBC Radio Scotland has Noising Up on a Saturday morning, billed by the Radio Times as 'a mix of sketches, gags, spoofs, quickies and take-offs, satirising all that's happening right now and poking fun at what might be around the corner'. I don't think many would compare it to Spitting Image or Bremner Bird & Fortune in their prime, but it is at least having a go. And hey, no flag-waving demos outside, so that's a bonus.
I don't know if Bremner has been working on his John Swinney in prep for Edinburgh. I hope so. When it comes to impressions of women he seems to be limited to the late Queen, which is a pity giving the starring role in Scottish politics of one woman in particular.
Regardless of subjects, it will be fascinating to see if Bremner's wish to generate 'joy in the room' comes true, and if he mentions a certain independence vote.
According to someone who caught one of the rehearsal gigs, Bremner's takes on Trump and Farage are worth the ticket price alone. But what would a 'good' take look like in this context? For all the spoofs and cartoons of Trump, he won a second term, and he keeps on going, regardless of his critics.
Any impression of Farage risks giving him even more free publicity. Has no-one learned the lesson from Boris that when it comes to political clowns it's best to think Stephen King rather than lovable children's entertainer? Johnson laughed all the way into Downing Street and look what happened then.
Good luck with your gigs, Mr Bremner, and your efforts to make comedy a little less savage. Perhaps you can add Glasgow to the list. We're famously welcoming to comedians, and after all that's happened lately, we could do with someone poking fun at our political classes. See you soon?
Alison Rowat is a senior politics and features writer on The Herald. Contact [e-mail]