The Cult of Jonathan Pie, Facebook's Dire Political Satirist

There must be something about being called John that makes a man want to take a wry look at the week's news. John Oliver, Jon Stewart, John Wells – they've all succumbed to the urge. And now we have another John to add to the satirist hall of fame; another genius of reactionary polemic ready to steer the sturdy ship of ridicule into the warm red sunset of political misgivings.

Step forward Jonathan Pie, the fake newsreader.

You've probably already seen him, maybe from the time you tried to check Facebook on the home computer but realised it was still logged into your dad's account. Jonathan Pie does pieces to camera about things in the news, but unlike the other Johns, Jonathan Pie doesn't pay too much attention to nuance. Where the rest try to delve further into a story, Pie does headline politics for the masses, favouring "shareability" over information.

The first video on his Jonathan Pie YouTube channel shows him performing his schtick in a more rudimentary way. He talks about crass stuff like shitting himself. It's kind of funny. The plot: newsreader breaks character and reveals himself to be a "normal" person. It's been a viral video trope for a few years: the slick reporter losing their cool, the façade drops, the mask falls. Bugs fly down their throats. Kids throw snowballs. Pie presumably saw a view of these, had a bright lightbulb flash above his head and birthed this character.

But after his initial, semi-amusing foray into news pastiche, it started to become more of a one-man show – a weird monologue more befitting an empty comedy club improv night than a sketch show.

At first, that sense of the amateur is what's most objectionable about his videos. Take the first one I saw, in which he's standing in front of the Houses of Parliament. A fake conversation with a faceless manager called Tim turns sour. He indignantly tears his earpiece out and launches into a tirade about Tories and nukes and blah, blah, blah. Very easily shareable opinions 4 U.

But it's more than that. It's that these videos can be found in the same dark crater of conspiracy occupied by Alex Jones and David Shayler. All these men, Pie included, believe the "mainstream media" is unwilling to give you the real truth. Pie letting us know how it really is, no holds barred. It makes him seem like a crank, especially when he does the same thing for the UK arm of Russian propaganda channel RT.

There's something quite unnatural about this breed of shareable video. It's like it hasn't been created in and of its own creative merit, rather purely as a vehicle to get Pie's face on as many Facebook pages as possible.

Pie's Sport Relief edition is particularly guilty of a bourgeoisie, Chris Addison-esque, Grumpy Old Men-baiting tawdriness. Gags about millionaires kicking leather around. Gags about rolling around on the floor. He asks himself the rhetorical question "Who do you support?" and then replies: "I support freedom of speech and right of expression. I do not support a bunch of overpaid teenagers!"

Good for you, mate – I'm sure Amnesty will be calling soon.

Pie is the product of a world where people believe they're being lied to by the news, but told the truth by the TV channel Dave. He is the son of panel shows replete with squawking comedians making facile jokes about how awful the government is. It's a carnival of irritating ignorance, a cult of (weak) personality ingraining itself in every part of political discourse with no signs of abating.

Really, though, Jonathan Pie's greatest crime is being unfunny. There is something about expecting to laugh and not laughing that deeply offends the senses and twists the heart. Pie is knocking on the giant golden doors of the satire-John Valhalla, but Stewart and Oliver are ignoring him, laughing, gorging on their ham hocks while he lingers outside, cracking wise about Thatcher's tits.

@joe_bish

More from VICE:

Dickhead Contestants Are Ruining British Gameshows

YouTube Channel of the Week #24: Surveillance Camera Man

ITVBe Is an Insult to Every Woman In Britain