By next week at this time, Boris Johnson will be prime minister of the United Kingdom. Not since Margaret Thatcher has such an outsized personality resided in Number 10 Downing Street. Not since Winston Churchill has such a wit presided over Her Majesty’s Government. Wit is actually the chief reason for Johnson’s apotheosis, and it tells us something about Britain’s self-image that it prizes wit so highly that the country is dismissing an unusually broad panoply of shortcomings in its next leader.
Johnson’s wit is irresistibly British: self-deprecating. For years, he had a series of jokes lined up for any interviewers who asked him about someday becoming PM. Even as he was maneuvering for exactly that outcome, he would flutter his eyelids and cast his gaze downward and chuckle at the absurdity. Oh, he’d say, “It’s more likely that I’ll be reincarnated as an olive.” Or locked in a refrigerator. Or decapitated by a flying frisbee. Or blinded by a champagne cork. Johnson’s signature achievement is getting stuck on a zip wire a few feet above the ground while promoting the London Olympics in 2012. There he is, the mayor of the capital, strung up in a safety harness suggesting a toddler in a pram and wearing a ridiculous-looking helmet, waving a Union Jack in each hand: priceless. Any American caught in that situation would have been flummoxed, then mortified, then angry. Johnson made a virtue out of buffoonery. Going back to “Milksnatcher Maggie” and beyond, the Conservative party has been portrayed by the press as scary and heartless. Who could be scared of a big blond baby waiting for Mummy to come and rescue him?
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See Also:
(1) Boris Johnson Faces a Fight for Survival Before He’s Even Won
(2) To Deliver Brexit Boris Must Scrap the Biased, Incompetent, Remainer Electoral Commission
(3) Trump Backs Britain: ‘Iran Is In Big Trouble’
(4) No deal Brexit only option? ‘Not enough time’ for MPs to push EU deal through Commons
(5) Theresa May’s greatest mistake was bid for compromise
