Laughing Along: Why Populist Politics Hits Different Up North
Dr Adam North offers a follow up on his recent article in The Conversation.
In my recent article for The Conversation, I argue that comedic populists thrive not simply because they ridicule their opponents, but because they connect with voters who feel alienated from politics. For those who distrust government and career politicians, laughter feels like truth. It punctures the seriousness of “traditional” politics and offers a sense of belonging to those who feel left out.
When Boris Johnson ruffled his hair on TV or Nigel Farage raised a pint in the pub with a cheeky grin, many rolled their eyes. But what looks like clowning to some can feel like connection to others. Comedy, more than policy detail, is what makes certain populist politicians stick.
Take Farage. With over a million TikTok followers, he’s now the most popular British politician on the platform. His posts are full of winks, jokes, and digs at “the elites”, which land with an audience far beyond Westminster. It’s no accident that Farage cultivates the perception that he spends lots of his time in pubs. His humour taps into a mood of disaffection, offering not just an argument but a laugh.
Johnson played a similar role as London Mayor and later Prime Minister. To critics, his gaffes and blunders showed incompetence. But to many voters, especially in parts of the North where trust in traditional politics has worn thin, he came across as relatable — a politician who didn’t take himself too seriously.
In the US, Donald Trump uses humour even more prevalently. His punchlines often sound outrageous, but they travel fast across news outlets and social media. Supporters laugh, critics rage, and the message spreads further. His style shows why dismissing humour as “just jokes” misses how it works politically.
The appeal of this style is often invisible to critics. Those who dislike Johnson or Farage rarely find them funny. Yet for disaffected voters, humour is precisely the point. It makes politics watchable, it makes leaders seem like “one of us,” and it turns political frustration into shared laughter.
Northern voters have long been stereotyped as plain-speaking, no-nonsense, and sceptical of polished Westminster politicians. Populist humour plays directly into that culture. A quick quip over a pint, or a viral clip online, can win more attention than a policy speech ever could.
The lesson is simple: if we ignore how humour works in politics, especially here in the North, we risk misunderstanding why certain leaders resonate. Dismissing them as clowns overlooks the fact that comedy connects — and right now, that connection is gaining ground and winning votes.
Want more?
In our upcoming discussion on important stories of the week, we talked about the recent video by YouTuber ‘The Elephant Graveyard’ titled: How Comedy Was Destroyed by an Anti-Reality Doomsday Cult. This video offers a convincing and interesting analysis of what is going on in the right-wing comedy ecosystem.
