Jonathan Pie
Media
https://www.youtube.com/@JonathanPie
Overview
Jonathan Pie is a character played by the British actor Tom Walker: a television news reporter who delivers his piece to camera with professional composure and then, believing the camera is off, tells the producer what he actually thinks. The videos began in 2015, with early scripts co-written with Andrew Doyle, and have covered Brexit, Trump, Corbyn, Johnson, Truss, and the state of the British press. Pie's politics are broadly of the left, and a good proportion of his fury is reserved for the left. Walker also tours the character and has made pieces for the New York Times opinion section.
Notes
Satire that argues. Each rant has a thesis, usually that the people in charge are insulting the public's intelligence, and the comic device, the gap between the broadcast face and the private one, is itself a point about how political language works. Pie is also one of the few comedians willing to turn on his own side when it deserves it, which is the test I apply to everyone. The Brexit pieces are a record of the period as good as most journalism.