Parlamentet

...because nobody likes our politicians.

Satire is one of the most powerful tools in entertainment and media in the Western world--as recently seen by the publishing of cartoons depicting Mohammed the prophet much to the Muslims' disgust--and "Parlamentet" is just that, except it does not seek to offend Islam, only the Swedish parliament system.

It pokes fun at known Swedish politicians in the Riksdag by dividing comedians into two teams (red team and blue team), red for social democrats and blue for conservatives and letting them compete for the audience's votes at the end of the show, much like the elections held every four years. There is also a host (currently Anders Nilsson) who acts as something like a spokesperson of the Riksdag.

The duel is a half-hour long delight of misunderstandings, sarcasm, doctored images and news clips, and often eerily accurate imitations or parodies of politicians.

I find the subtle jokes and, even to some extent, the puns to be the highlight of this show, especially during "Kunskapsronden" in which the two teams are simply asked to answer questions about various subjects or cultural issues. The blue-team politician Mikael Tornving usually does this quite brilliantly with his deadpan deliveries.

However, as funny as the subtle jokes are, so unfunny are the most of the cruder imitations and excessive body-language usually performed by none other than famous Swedish comedian Robert Gustafsson. It's simply tends to be over-the-top but, when used more seldom, can add to the show in a positive way.

What's interesting to note is perhaps the political orientation of the comedians on "Parlamentet" (there are about 6-7 of them who take turns in appearing on the show); they never switch over from blue to red or vice versa and this of course makes us associate them with being either conservative or socialist in real life. In reality, not a single one of them has commented on their political affiliation, which is probably quite admirable.

You're really missing out on something here.

To line it up simply for you: Think of the parliament, or think of the democrats and the republicans, and there you have the basic outline for the show. The blue team and the red team battle each other and think up jokes as they go. For example, there's a bit called "Hints from the coach", where the comedians are to answer the host's questions while acting as different things or people.

Parlamentet is a satire-show with the best Swedish comedians out there. Every show is full of well-known, or less well-known comedians which never fail to insult each other or think of obscene, witty or just silly remarks about the other team, the host or Sweden and it's politicians.

Parlamentet is yet to disappoint the Swedish viewers.

"Parlamentet" is swedish comedy show where two parties, the blue and the red, battle each other with satire and other jokes, often political ones. I think it is hard to find it funny if you do not understand swedish, reading jokes by text does not entertain you as much as if you understand it by the language. The physical and imutating jokes can be funny and understandble for those who do not understand the language.

Now to those who have seen the show: My favourite moment is "Tips från coachen" where I find Robert Gustafsson, Johan Glans and Johan Rheborg the funniest. No one can match them.

Overall I belive the show has been worse the last years, although it could be fun sometimes. Because back during the 2000's the panel consisted of four top class comedians almost all the time. Nowadays they have extended the show fromm 22 to 45 minutes, in addition each party consists of 3 comedians, this means a less chance to have a majotity of good comedians in the panel.

Nothing can match the 2002-2008-period.