The mysterious MR SHUSH CAPITAL, author/artist of the brilliant weekly comic strip KEEPING UP THE ACT, steps out of the shadows to complain that the local pollies are threatening his future; they’re getting funnier than him!

In 1973, American humorist Tom Lehrer famously gave up satire, stating: “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize”. Real life had trumped parody. 

Of course, trumping parody is what many comedians are saying now about Donald Trump’s re-election. I get it and am beginning to feel the same about our own “forever government”. 

I mean, how can KEEPING UP THE ACT top this glorious statement by Dave Peffer, the long-sufferable CEO of Canberra Health Services: “What I’ve seen in a lot of complaints is comments about how wonderful the nurses are, the Allied Health team members, the doctors; but people feel like the system let them down.” 

The guy in charge of “the system” further explained: “I think for a lot of our workforce, they feel exactly the same. They’re working hard and it’s the system, this nebulous concept, that keeps letting them down.” It’s not that nebulous a concept, Dave – it’s you. 

This almost rivalled his ministerial boss, Rachel Stephen-Smith and her announcement that, “I’m pleased to see junior doctors standing up for their rights at work. As a Labor minister, I see that as a positive!” 

The fact that they were standing up against her department for these rights was a mere trifling detail. In fact, when I did a strip on this, I just used Stephen-Smith’s words, verbatim. I couldn’t top them for absurdity. 

In following this disturbing trend towards stand-up politics, I’ve also been marveling at Shane Rattenbury’s new comedy schtick that he was never really part of the former Greens/Labor government. 

Shane recently took to Facebook to complain about how hopeless the ACT government had been for renters, but took great umbrage when someone pointed out that he was that government, and that it was a Green who was minister for housing services. 

But at least Shane allows hecklers at his stand-up. Our Chief Jokester, Andrew Barr, curates his audiences in a manner that could give pointers to Kim Jong Un. His large comms team makes sure our dear, very dear, leader gets nothing but warm applause for bringing sunshine, lollipops and rainbow roundabouts into our dreary lives. It’s the political equivalent of canned laughter. 

The opposition isn’t immune to these realpolitickles, either. We’ve all enjoyed the slapstick violence of the Libs’ long-running Punch and Judy show, where successive leaders take turns mishandling the baby while they beat themselves up. But now they’re going with the screwball stylings of the chuckler from Charney, Leanne Castley. 

Leanne started strong in her new role with her opening gag, two weeks after losing the ACT election – “I believe that it wasn’t a win and it’s time to admit that we did lose.” Got big laughs at the ACT Electoral Commission. 

Leanne followed up with this further bit of observational humour – “We need to be listening to what Canberrans want from us.” Well, the kids snorted chocolate milk out their nostrils laughing at that one. Leanne is shaping up to be the political saviour Canberra needs to make the bleedin’ obvious great again!

And what of the indie newcomers? Well, the surreal humour of Thomas Emerson is looking promising. Thommo has more than a touch of the Think Gardens to him, with his background running Praksis, a mind/body studio that “explores diverse modes of being”. 

But the earnest Emo plans to be more than just a Pilates reformer, he plans to reform the future! Yes, in his biggest stretch yet, Thomas Aspryness wants to introduce the Future Generations Act to our little local council. 

This would “carry forward a community-led vision for a Canberra for generations to come and ensure government decisions ultimately align with that vision, including through the establishment of a Future Generations Commissioner”. Quick, ring the Chris Steel batty-phone and see if Chris can wrangle Patrick Hollingworth’s number!

Of course, Chris Steel, the ACT’s Mr Bean if Mr Bean were a robot, is perhaps the most hilarious of all of our local stand-up politicians. His Buster-Keaton-like stoneface when the house falls on top of him while explaining why the house won’t fall on top of him, is comedy gold. 

But, I despair about my future. How can I keep KEEPING UP THE ACT when our MLAs have funnier material?