New Royal Society of Edinburgh fellow Armando Iannucci is not just a satirist but a 'futurologist' too – Scotsman comment

Today’s politics frequently seems self-parodying as if satire and reality have merged

Satirist Armando Iannucci greeted the news he’d been appointed as a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh by saying it would “remind me at all times that it's as equally important to make people think as well as laugh”.

Satire was once an artform in which funny people mocked politicians by enlarging their faults to ridiculous proportions. Today, many of their faults already seem so enormously ridiculous that they are self-parodying, making it hard for satirists to expand things further.

The South Park movie song “Blame Canada” – “We must blame them and cause a fuss. Before somebody thinks of blaming us!” – has been repurposed as “Blame Westminster” by the SNP. Until she eventually followed through on her resignation, Nadine Dorries appeared to have downed tools as a Conservative MP in a sulk over her lack of elevation to the Lords. And Liz Truss’s “deep state” ramblings are already a bad joke.

As yesterday’s satire becomes today’s reality, we need ‘futurologists’ like Iannucci and co, as never before, to help us think, and laugh, about where all this is heading.

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