Count Binface, Elmo and a man wearing a balaclava with a baked bean print have all had their brief moments of glory in this British election.
As has long been a tradition in Britain, elections feature several joke candidates, often running against prominent politicians. While this is a bit of comic relief in a serious moment, the candidates are still there to convey a message: since the 1970s, their aim has been to bridge the gap between politics and ordinary people.
On election night, these joke candidates share the stage as they learn who won their constituency. This is how you get photos of the country’s new prime minister shaking hands with a man dressed as Elmo, without even batting an eyelid.
This is also how you get an image of Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former cabinet minister who lost his seat to a Labour candidate on Thursday, standing next to a man wearing a balaclava holding baked beans.
And that’s how you get an outgoing prime minister to share the stage with a man dressed as a garbage can from outer space and Archibald Stanton from The Official Monster Raving Loony Party, holding a ventriloquist’s dummy.
Count Binface, a perennial favourite who entered the political scene in 2018 and lost to Rishi Sunak on Thursday, was not even that unhappy with the results, which left him in sixth place. “My highest parliamentary vote ever,” the self-styled space politician wrote on social media.
