There’s an old line that goes: “The problem with political jokes is that too many of them end up getting elected.” That line has been coming back to me in the last two weeks. With Barack Obama’s inauguration, there were lots of TV comedy clips looking back on the presidency of George W Bush and all the gaffes he made. What a contrast! Obama — clever and composed and never at a loss for words, is clearly a vast improvement on Bush, who just came across as a buffoon on so many occasions.
The trouble is, George Bush’s bumbling is not actually that funny. Yes we laugh and maybe feel sorry for the guy, but the comedy deceives us. The truth is that Bush was more dangerous than he seemed to be. As Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair magazine commented recently, George W. Bush’s administration had a serious mission — to turn over as much money and power as possible to the rich, elite, business interests that supported it.
Lucky USA — Bush has gone and Obama seems to be wasting no time in trying to sort out the mess he left behind. Poor South Africa, it seems here the great ones of the Mandela era are long gone, while our political jokes wait in the wings. Our resident comics are Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema, president of the ANC and the ANC Youth League respectively. But as with Bush, I have no doubt that the buffoonery is the veneer on a much more serious mission — to secure control of state power for the benefit of those who’ve supported them.
Jacob Zuma is a laughing stock with his now famous comments about showering to get rid of HIV, and his constantly singing about his machine gun. But it’s Malema who has the headlines these days. His most recent utterance has everyone outraged. He suggested the woman who accused Jacob Zuma of rape actually had a good time with Zuma. This is apparently proved by the fact that she didn’t leave the house immediately after the incident in question. Like other women who enjoy sex, he said, Zuma’s accuser waited until morning and asked for taxi money. What planet is he on? What is a woman alone without transport supposed to do in the middle of the night in Johannesburg. Walk home? And to suggest that all women are just in search of a free meal and some pocket money is just beyond outrageous.
Malema’s comments have of course sparked fury and condemnation — but I wonder if the outrage will do any good. This joker seems to love the controversy — it keeps him on the front pages after all. This political joke is not so much comedian as the villainous Joker of Batman fame. The Sunday Times last week hit the nail on the head — naming Malema their Mampara of the Week they said, “We’d laugh. But we’re too scared.”
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