The Tragicomic Election Campaign

We decided to make a tragicomic election campaign in 2006 with simple humor and tongue in the cheek.

We expressed a little sketch with a jester, a professor, an ape, and an odd bicycle. The play began with the clown showing a new invention, a bicycle with a large front wheel and the smaller back wheel. He proudly shows the “democracy model” to the professor, but the professor is very skeptical about the idea. He doesn’t think this strange bicycle model can work. The buffoon becomes insecure and dares not to try himself, but he forces the monkey to make an effort. It proves to work against all odds. The sketch gives the juggler the last word:

– If my stupid ape can learn to ride, everyone can do it!

“I do not listen to you, clown!” said a woman in the square when I – disguised as jester Karl Toffel with a bad circus accent – asked if she had heard about Demoex, the democracy experiment. “You are making fun of people”, she continued. I felt compelled to respond to her criticism.

– Look, I said, and started talking normally. Now, I take off my red nose. I’ve never tried to make fun of you, on the contrary! I have something to say that is so important that I am literally making a fool of myself to make you and others stop and listen. And if you refuse to listen to a clown, I am very happy to act normally instead.

– It does not matter what you do, I do not listen anyway, the woman replied. At that moment I experienced strongly the tragicomic side of the election campaign. I got the urge to laugh and cry at the same time, but I gathered myself instead, took off my hat, and wished the lady to have a nice day.

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