The British sense of humour is legendarily self-deprecating. Confidence and self-assurance are vulgar, in a way, so they turn the jokes inward – nothing is as funny as the pure ridiculousness of one’s shortcomings.
For all intents and purposes, this might make Boris Johnson’s non-ironic appointment to the post of Foreign Secretary one of the greatest jokes of all time.
In case you’ve been tuned out to the happenings of the British Isles over the past two months, Johnson – former mayor of London, and an instigator for the EU referendum’s Leave camp – found himself victorious when the UK indeed chose to Brexit.
In celebration of that success, he promptly turned down the opportunity to contest for the leadership, utterly befuddling analysts who pegged him as the go-to guy to lead the UK outside of the EU. That absence helped to create a leadership void that new PM Theresa May has only just filled.
Instead, the guy who wrote a poem about Turkey’s leader shagging a goat, the guy who labeled Hillary Clinton a “sadistic nurse”, the guy who compared the EU itself to Hitler‘s plan for a Third Reich has now been placed in charge of foreign diplomacy.
Yep. The bloke who was instrumental in the campaign to sever Britain from its continental neighbours now bears much of the burden of co-ordinating with ’em in the years to come.
Here’s a video of the bloke barreling over a Japanese schoolkid, in what many seem to believe is an accurate representation of his diplomatic style:
Makes our lil’ convict-founded nation seem sane by comparison, hey?
Source: BBC / Independent / Washington Post.
Photo: WPA Pool / Getty.
