Humour in politics has a long tradition, yet at present the boundaries between parody and reality seem to be blurring more than ever. Think of Vladimir Putin’s absurdly long table during the pandemic, or the figure of the ‘evil clown’, embodied in no other politician quite like Donald Trump. At the same time, right-wing authoritarians are using humour to their advantage, flooding the internet with racist memes intended to amuse their electorate.

In the new episode of Das Politikteil, the two presenters, Ileana Grabitz and Peter Dausend, speak with Mirco Göpfert, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, who conducts academic research into humour in politics. Where does the line between satire and contempt for humanity lie? When exactly did humour become a tool of right-wing propaganda? What distinguishes the humour of the left from that of the far-right political spectrum? And what helps when dealing with right-wing populists who use humour as a weapon?