Whenever I see someone claim the Orange Turdinator is playing three dimensional chess, this is all I can picture.

I love the NHS. Not just because they helped me when I was run over. Or nursed me through an eight month bout of glandular fever. And not because they have kept my Dad alive for years as his kidneys failed and he needed dialysis. I also love them because we have a rich seam of comedy because of it.

Stupid Watergate will not end like the original did.

It shouldn’t be possible to take a topical sketch from the mid 80s, and just change a few words for it to still be topical today. But here we go.

It’s also interesting to see Spitting Image being performed live of course, and as Ben notes at the end, that’s Chris Barrie doing the voice. You might recognise the questioners from the audience too.

Scripted jokes can of course win you an election …

Mondale himself believes this was the moment that he lost.

If TV can tell the truth, as you say it can, you’ll see that I was smiling. But I think if you come in close, you’ll see some tears coming down because I knew he had gotten me there. That was really the end of my campaign that night, I think. [I told my wife] the campaign was over, and it was.

In case, like me, you don’t know much about Walter Mondale, here’s Rich Hall getting to know him better, on Saturday Night Live.

Mondale took Reagan to the wire, winning exactly two states (Minnesota and DC) for a total of 13 Electoral College votes.

Continuing on from yesterday’s theme that comedy from the 1980s resonates today much more than feels comfortable.

Here’s Phil Hartman’s Reagan on Saturday Night Live, in a sketch which aired the night before Regan resigned, on 28th February 1987.

And here he is again, playing Robert MacFarlane, in a sketch from 16th May 1987.