13 hilariously viral moments from the UK election campaign 2017

2025-04-27 13:35:11admin

It's widely known that General Election campaigns tend to be long, depressing affairs. But that doesn't mean they're totally devoid of fun.

Nestled among the repetitive answers and frustrating debates are brief, shining moments of hilarity. Sometimes these come from obvious places (politicians eating food), and sometimes less obvious (politicians asking random members of the public to "smell their spaniel").

SEE ALSO: Politicians change 404 error page to troll UK Prime Minister Theresa May

From tweets on the official House of Cards account to spectacularly odd campaign videos, we give you some of the most viral moments from the UK general election 2017 campaign trail:

1. Brenda's brilliantly blunt reaction to the news of another election.

In terms of viral moments, the election campaign got off to an excellent start. Brenda may not have been very happy about the news of another election but her reaction certainly made Britainhappy.

2. Theresa May awkwardly eating chips.

As we learned from Ed Miliband's infamous bacon sandwich incident (now so infamous it has its own Wikipedia page) politicians and food do not often mix well. Theresa May demonstrated this perfectly when she visited Cornwall in early May and somehow managed to get eating chips wrong.

3. Jeremy Corbyn playing football.

Oh dear. Credit: John Stillwell - WPA Pool /Getty Images

If food and politicians is a bad combination, then sport and politicians is perhaps an even worse one. Just ask Boris Johnson. Jeremy Corbyn decided to ignore the rich history of failed political sporting endeavours when he joined in a game of football with some children at Hackney.

He didn't flatten anyone, but he didn't exactly look graceful either.

4. Ed Miliband mowing someone's lawn.

Politics isn't always lose-lose. If former Labour leader Ed Miliband and former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls are anything to go by, the rule seems to go something like this: you have a stab at getting into power, get beaten, and then your popularity soars through the roof.

Ed Miliband mowing a potential voter's lawn was another entertaining example of how the guy can absolutely do no wrong these days.

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5. And just generally being sassy.

When he's not been busy tweeting sick burns at Theresa May, Ed Miliband can be found sharpening his Twitter game by slamming sexist headlines, shutting down Donald Trump and just generally being awesome. He's not a key player in this election campaign, but his sideline Twitter commentary has been one of the more entertaining voices to follow.

6. Tim Farron asking someone to smell his spaniel.

When you're out meeting the public -- and, in this case, animals -- there are plenty of opportunities for awkwardness. On this occasion it was a video clip of Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron appearing to ask a man to "smell his spaniel", which quickly sparked the inevitable headlines and Twitter jokes.

In hindsight, Farron was probably suggesting that the man's dog could smell his ownspaniel, Jasper, on him (as in, "he can smell my spaniel, maybe?"). But the whole thing got very quickly lost in translation.

7. An audience member muttering "bollocks" during a debate answer from Theresa May.

The anonymous, blue-shirted man in the clip above briefly became a national hero during Channel 4's Battle for Number 10programme, when he was caught muttering "bollocks" during an answer from Theresa May. You've got to love live TV.

8. House of Cards mocking Theresa May.

This isn't the first time the House of CardsTwitter account has waded in on UK politics and it hopefully won't be the last. After Theresa May decided not to attend the Leaders' Debate, the Netflix series sent her a direct tweet. And it was written in the cold, no-nonsense voice of Frank Underwood.

9. Paul Nuttall struggling to remember his opponent's name.

Debating is obviously a fine art. There are many different factors that come into play, and when you're taking on multiple opponents it gets even more complex. Remembering the names of the people you're debating, that's a pretty basic one.

During the recent leaders' debate UKIP leader Paul Nuttall managed to get Leanne Wood's name wrong not once, but twice. He kept calling her Natalie, for some reason. No one on the debating stage was called Natalie.

10. A song about Theresa May getting to #2 in the iTunes chart.

Captain Ska's anti-Theresa May song "Liar Liar GE2017" was so popular it made it to number two in the iTunes charts, much to Theresa May's obvious annoyance. It ispretty catchy, to be fair.

11. This spectacularly odd campaign video from Conservative candidate Greg Knight.

We don't really know what to say about East Yorkshire Conservative candidate Greg Knight's gloriously odd campaign video. Just make sure you watch it through to the end.

12. Theresa may revealing the "naughtiest thing" she's ever done.

Yep: she was asked about the naughtiest thing she's ever done, and she responded with what may be the most disappointing answer ever: running through wheat fields and annoying the local farmers. Needless to say, it became a meme pretty quickly.