Rosie Holt On Political Satire: Lighthouse Event
Image by Mark Stuckey via Unsplash
On Monday 14th of October, students and staff were invited, with great privilege, to listen to Rosie Holt answering questions from Falmouth Senior Lecturer Adrian Markle and the audience about her experiences and career as a comedian in the cosiness of the Lighthouse on Woodlane Campus.
While much of her work is online, Rosie does not think of herself as an ‘internet comic’ - and rightly so, for her skills of crafting satire are present on stage production and in published writing. Rosie’s comedy work is famous for her videos in which she plays a character, who shares her real name (this came as a result, Rosie told us, by way of using her personal account on where to post her videos, and people who watched assumed the character’s name - not that they knew she was a caricature of a Conservative MP - was Rosie Holt); this began during the national lockdown in 2020. During then, Rosie was unable to go to the USA to act in a two-person comedy satire of The Crown; and online comedy clips that arose bore a frustration for how they always seemed to be short clips of a stand-up comedian doing crowd work rather than original comedic material.
Since then, Rosie has gone to work with other comedians such as Tom Walker, who plays the fictitious Jonathan Pie, and has also brought her comedy to the stage; in this medium she found that her character became much more confident - though brazen may be more fitting of a word, given who Rosie Holt MP is supposed to be - in her defence of her Tory party. She was further fleshed out as a character in Why We Were Right, published on 20th June of earlier this year, in which she celebrates the past fourteen years of Tory leadership, and criticises the left for being wrong about the scandals and controversies that the Tory party were so submerged in… And it is ripe with relevant political satire. Rosie is fantastic at satirising the political landscape, and this is not done without any research on her part.
In the writing process, Rosie described how it was important to be familiar with what was going on in parliament: this meant watching morning interviews with ministers, or reading newspaper articles that had a political relevance. She found a catharsis in creating Rosie Holt MP, finding the humour in both the sadness and anger that comes from listening to a great deal of politicians talk and argue and make awful decisions. Part of her creation, Rosie recalled, was how ministers in parliament defended the indefensible - a quality of politicians that has seemed to be unchanged within the recently elected Labour party.
There may well be a new chapter for Rosie Holt MP, separated somewhat from her idolisation of the Tories; Rosie described her character as being into power, a reason why she may sneak into the Labour party at a near date, and commented about talks with Radio Four in which the character might discuss her new affections for Labour, and defend them as she did the Tories. As a general public, we are evermore privy to how corrupt the government is, and this offers opportunities for political satire which Rosie has sought and found success, and hopefully will continue to do so (though of of course we all wish for a far more competent and decent government to come sooner rather than later).
Edited by Nico Horton