Here is my Top 10 funniest political videos. Or  more accurately they could be seen as my Top 10 occasionally humorous, awesome and/or downright terrible politically themed videos on the Internet.

# 10 Star wars political analogies rule: Coming in at number 10. Chris Knight goes all Star Wars campaigning for Rockingham County Board of Education in 2006.

It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Evading the dreaded Imperial starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Chris Knight have established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth.

The evil Board of Education Vader, obsessed with finding young Knight, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space….

#9 There’s not a chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard only another fist: History will show that Arkansas Republican Mike Huckabee finished second behind John McCain in his tilt for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination. History will also show that he was also rather awesomely the only “Chuck Norris Approved” candidate in that particular race.

#8 The Howard Dean scream: 2004 were the fledgling days of youtube and with it’s help one enthusiastic Dean scream to supporters after the 2004 Iowa primary was amplified to such a degree that it scuppered the Democratic Presidential hopeful’s nomination attempt in one fell swoop;

#7 This is my Land : From the same era, a legendary political viral. This is my land parodied both President Bush and John Kerry with equal measure and ensured it travelled far beyond the usual partisan attack videos.

#6 Gordon Brown picks a winner (and eats it) : Gordon Brown showed us back in 2007 he was made of the right stuff for PM; determining his goal, deftly picking away at it and executing with a skilled slight of hand. Love the analytical notes accompanying this one.


#5 Kevin Rudd waxes lyrical : Closer to home, the infamous ear wax saga - Australian PM in his back bench days picking his own ear wax and eating it. To me this is somehow far more weird and disturbing than your run of the mill nose picking job. See also the famous Australian satirists Chaser’s war on everything subsequent ambush the PM with a giant cotton bud dripping with ear wax.

#4 Political fisticuffs : Again - one of those topics that warrants its own list. It is perhaps not surprising that when passionate people with diametrically opposing views are put in a room to shout at one another that occasionally tempers can get a little flared. What is surprising that these people all around the world hardly ever come to blows, but when they do it’s shamefully spectacular. Here is a compilation of some of the biggest political melees ever caught on camera set to the Benny Hill theme tune. 

#3 Roll like Barack : This divisive classic has been given a distinctive Obama twist

#2 Tina Fey single handedly skewers Sarah Palin : Sarah Palin played an important role in the 2008 election. As the Republican VP candidate she mobilised the Hard christian right concerned that the moderate McCain was not standing up for their values and helped quell some nasty internal GOP divisions. She also pretty much scared the living daylights out of everyone else.  Enter Tina Fey and her earth shattering Palin impersonations… (apologies for the highlights vid - NBC has stomped out all copies and restricted regional viewings… unless you’re in the US)

#1 The genius behind Bush’s soaring rhetoric : Topping out my Top 10 funny political videos list you cant go past former American President George W. Bush. With so many Bushisms to cover off (they could easily form a separate top 100 list), I thought it best we look at this revealing interview with the genius behind so many of them… Bush’s ‘Speechalist’ Harlan McCraney

What other funny videos of a political bent have you loved in recent years?

NP

Proof that some journalists really do put themselves in the firing line.  Last week reporter Aaron Tru got more than he bargained for when interviewing one of the leading female MMA ultimate fighters Cris “Cyborg” Santos. Questioning whether Ms Santos had the strength to “finish her mission” she kindly demonstrated what she can do.

NP

I like many millions of people worldwide have been closely watching the tragic events unfold in Iran. It is shocking and disheartening to see genuine grassroots protesters being beaten and intimidated in this way.

Today I was taken by a particularly sharp call for ‘real’ activism by Huffington Post’s Kase Wickerman questioning the real value of “adding a green overlay to your online presence”.

“So instead of empty gestures and hashtags, why don’t we actually engage in some activism and help, instead of whispering about this like some kind of neighborhood scandal that will never catch up to us because it’s an ocean away?

There’s always the option of an online donation to a relief agency like Red Crescent, for something immediate and helpful. The world runs on money and blood (as the events in Iran over the last week and a half have so morosely reminded us), and America is too far away to donate the blood that the wounded in Iran so desperately need.

You can also make donations to those covering the ongoing protests and violence, like Tehran Bureau, which is run by an Iranian-emigre out of a house in Newton, Massachusetts and is in need of financial support to keep the site live and bandwidth plentiful. Reliable information is harder and harder to come by, already 24 journalists have been arrested in Iran, and the majority of the rest have been forced out of the country by expired visas and government intimidation.

Don’t have cash? There are ways you can help for free without ever leaving your computer. You can create a proxy or Twitter relay to help keep those ever-important Iranian Twitterers connected and informing the world about the situation in Iran. Or change your location and time zone to match Iran, in hopes of tripping up government censors looking for active sources.

If you’re more diplomatically-inclined, and looking toward the long term, write a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council and urge them to take action on international election standards and protection for citizens.

Above all, the thing you must do before any difference can be made is to inform yourself. The term “knowledge is power” wouldn’t be repeated so much if it wasn’t true. So spend some time reading the news, know what the hell you’re talking about, and go out and tell someone else about it, and how they can help”

I hear you Kase - I’ve just donated to Red Crescent selecting funds go ‘where most needed’, and hopefully helped spread the word. Any other ways we can help in Iran?

NP

The Labour party in Britain were left reeling yesterday as they slipped to overall fourth place at a historic low of just 16% of the proportional vote for the European elections held last week.

Voters across Europe deserted mainstream parties in favour of fringe parties or simply abstained from voting, in what some analysts say is a backlash to perceived economic inaction surrounding the global financial crisis.

In Britain, voters were still reeling from the cross party MP expenses scandal. Labour appeared to be most heavily hit with an almost 10 point drop in overall votes, but the conservatives, whilst finishing on top, also did not receive the expected surge in support from their previous showing. They did however hold their ground and led the party vote split with 27% share of the vote.

The centre left parties were the biggest loser across 27 Euro member states with the Centre right coalition cementing its place as the largest voting bloc. The BBC has a rather nifty interactive chart showing the results here

There was also a notable rise of nationalist or specifically anti-immigration (often outwardly racist) parties in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.

The British political establishment appeared in despair at their failure to mobilise voters against the far right British National Party (BNP). The party has now broken into the mainstream by securing two seats in the EU parliament.

The Swedish “Pirate Party” won a historic seat in the parliament running on an internet privacy platform, after polling 7.4% of the vote in Sweden. Support for the party increased markedly in April after a Stockholm court sentenced the four original founders of file sharing website the Piratebay to a year in jail.

NP

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That rather enterprising fellow Richard Branson - you remember him? The silver fox with a penchant for hot air (balloons) and bikini clad virgins?

Well he’s come up with PitchTV a cracking way of letting small businesses pitch their ideas into the jetset via his Virgin Atlantic media platform.

Cracking idea I think.

NP

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Digital Grassroots Limited is a boutique grassroots public affairs consultancy specialising in stakeholder engagement and local strategic partnerships around major projects.

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