Politics is funny. If you have ever watched Have I Got News For You, or admired the work of one of Britain’s great political cartoonists, you will perhaps agree with me. Politicians themselves and the political world were made to be satirised. Even political shows that aren’t meant to be funny can often have you laughing, quite literally, out loud: David Dimbleby really knows how to rock the Question Time crowd. 

One gets the impression that our politicians generally embrace the humorous side of their job. It is not uncommon for MPs to appear, and actually crack jokes, on HIGNFY. Some of their tweets are even rather amusing.

Politics in the USA, however, reaches a whole new height of hilarity, and does so completely unconsciously. Our MPs’ counterparts across the pond veer very far from serious without even knowing it. This could be one reason why mainstream US politics is fast losing credibility. 

Here is an example of some true political comedy gold that I came across on YouTube: Ted Cruz, Republican Senator for Texas, recently paid homage to the great American filibuster, in one of the funniest pieces of video I have ever seen. In order to delay and therefore avoid the “Obamacare bill” funding getting through the Senate, he stood and spoke against it for 21 hours straight. The best part comes a few hours in when Senator Cruz pauses his speech to narrate Dr Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” so that his kids, watching at home, won’t miss out on their bedtime story. I am not joking. Ted Cruz read “Green Eggs and Ham” out loud in the US Senate. Look up the video; it will floor you.

I don’t think I need to point out the completely flawed premise upon which Senator Cruz took the floor. Despite his claims, Americans are not “suffering because of Obamacare.” No, what is more astounding is the idea that reading out a bedtime story during a filibuster could ever be acceptable. These kinds of antics are no doubt having an effect on the general voting public. Some proof of this plummeting credibility comes in the form of the phenomenon that is The Young Turks, whom I could otherwise refer to as the people that brought me the aforementioned video.  

I would like to briefly introduce those of you who don’t already know of them to TYT network. This online network of news and talk shows, the creators of the first ever daily online television show, has seen huge growth and a surge in popularity over the last few years. They were founded by Cenk Uygur, Columbia University law graduate, to live up to their name: deriving from the name of a secularist nationalist reform party from the late Ottoman empire, it has become a term signifying groups who advocate reform and support liberal policy. They are liberal, they are unapologetically critical and they are very, very popular.

The network recently celebrated its billionth YouTube video view, and according to OpenSlate, a company that provides metrics and rankings for YouTube channels, are the highest ranking news and politics channel (beating CBS, ABC and Fox). When Cenk replaced MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan on his eponymous show for a few days back in 2010, the ratings climbed. If you visit TYT’s website, you will even find a “TYT Glossary” explaining phrases that often come up in the videos. Because they are just that much of a phenomenon, (and also very cool). 

TYT are not simply the Democrat counterpart of Fox News. In fact, to compare them in any way to Fox News would be criminal. They don’t just slate the bizarre and quite frankly terrifying Republican Party antics, they expose the hypocrisy of the Obama administration too. For Cenk, The Young Turks is about “challenging the establishment, conventional wisdom, the status quo.” They do just that, and a growing section of the American public are loving it. More than ever before, this is what they want to hear. 

Recall the Occupy Wall Street movement, started in 2011 and revived in 2012 by a march through New York City that was tens of thousands strong. Social and economic inequality, corruption, the power of corporations and big lobbies over government policy,ignorant, outrageous politicians (see above example) - these are all issues that are mobilising voters in the US to demand change. 

I think that what TYT are doing is, in fact, revolutionary. Their popularity, together with movements like Occupy Wall Street, indicate that something very exciting is happening in the US right now. It is not just TYT of course. There are lots of other shows that expose the truth about US politics, such as the extremely popular Daily Show with Jon Stewart that airs on mainstream TV channel Comedy Central. These shows, whose followers are growing rapidly in number, highlight the serious issues within the US political system. They also point out that a lot of the issues have gone so far beyond funny, that something needs to change. 

Hence, I’d like to propose a hypothesis: we may in fact be looking at the start of a popular political revolution in the USA.