Lord Buckethead | |
---|---|
![]() Lord Buckethead in 2020 | |
First appearance | Hyperspace (1984) |
Created by | Todd Durham |
Portrayed by |
|
In-universe information | |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | Political satirist |
Nationality | British |
Political party |
|
Lord Buckethead is a novelty candidate who has stood in four British general elections since 1987, portrayed by several individuals. He poses as an intergalactic villain similar to the Star Wars character Darth Vader.
The original character of Lord Buckethead was created by the American filmmaker Todd Durham for his 1984 science fiction film Hyperspace. Without authorisation, Mike Lee stood as Lord Buckethead in the 1987 UK general election and again in the 1992 general election. The character went unused until the comedian Jonathan Harvey stood as Lord Buckethead in the 2017 general election. His televised appearance standing next to then-prime minister Theresa May went viral, drawing media coverage and an online following.
Following the 2017 election, Durham asserted his ownership of Lord Buckethead and displaced Harvey. With Durham's authorisation, Lord Buckethead returned in 2019, now played by David Hughes. He appeared at People's Vote rallies calling for a second Brexit referendum, and stood in the 2019 general election representing the Monster Raving Loony Party. Harvey continues to campaign using his own character, Count Binface.
Lord Buckethead was created by the American filmmaker Todd Durham for his 1984 film Hyperspace, a low-budget parody of science fiction films such as Star Wars . [3] In the film, Lord Buckethead, a galactic villain similar to the Star Wars character Darth Vader, was played by Robert Bloodworth. [3]
In the UK, Hyperspace was released as Gremloids by the video distributor VIPCO, owned by Mike Lee. [4] In the 1987 general election, Lee stood as Lord Buckethead, representing the Gremloids Party, against the Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher in her constituency in Finchley, London. He campaigned to demolish Birmingham to make way for a spaceport. [5] He received 131 votes. [6] In the 1992 general election, Lord Buckethead stood against the Conservative prime minister John Major in Huntingdon, [4] winning 107 votes (0.1%). [7]
In 2017, the comedian Jonathan Harvey stood as Lord Buckethead against Theresa May in Maidenhead in the 2017 general election. Harvey decided to use Lord Buckethead after watching Gremloids and discovering that the character had been used in earlier elections. He received 249 (0.4%) votes, the highest yet for the character. [8] [9]
Lord Buckethead's televised appearance standing next to May went viral. [1] In a tongue-in-cheek article, The Guardian gave Lord Buckethead a "Best Policy" award for a manifesto pledge to bring back Ceefax. [10] A few days after the election, Lord Buckethead appeared on the American talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver , campaigning to lead the Brexit negotiations. [11] Harvey created a Twitter account for the character, drawing hundreds of thousands of followers. [1] The Guardian wrote that Lord Buckethead was part of a British tradition of frivolous political candidates, many of whom were supported by the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. [12]
Lord Buckethead made a surprise appearance at Glastonbury Festival in June 2017, introducing the band Sleaford Mods. [13] That year, he released a Christmas single, "A Bucketful of Happiness", accompanied by a music video. [14]
Following the 2017 election, Durham contacted Harvey and asserted his ownership of the Lord Buckethead character. According to Harvey, Durham instructed him to give him the password to the Twitter account. Harvey acquiesced as he could not afford a legal challenge. [1] Durham said he welcomed authorised applications to stand as the character in future British elections: "My Lord Buckethead character has always been the voice of the people, so my feeling is to let the people be his voice." [1]
The Lord Buckethead Twitter account became active again in 2019. That year, Lord Buckethead, now played by David Hughes, [2] appeared at People's Vote rallies calling for a second Brexit referendum. [1] In April, Buckethead crowdfunded £15,000 to stand against Nigel Farage for South East England MEP in the May 2019 European Parliament Elections. The bid was abandoned for fear it could take votes away from parties campaigning for the UK to remain in the EU. [1] Durham said the money was returned. [1]
For the general election in December 2019, Buckethead represented the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, standing against prime minister Boris Johnson in his constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. He won 125 votes (0.3%). Harvey also stood, using a new character, Count Binface. [15]
Lord Buckethead's manifesto in the 2017 election promised "strong, not entirely stable leadership", a reference to the Conservatives' slogan "strong and stable". [16] The following promises were included:
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Margaret Thatcher | 21,603 | 53.9 | +2.8 | |
Labour | John Davies | 12,690 | 31.7 | +4.9 | |
Liberal | David Howarth | 5,580 | 13.9 | −7.3 | |
Gremloids | Lord Buckethead | 131 | 0.3 | N/A | |
Gold Party | Michaelle St Vincent | 59 | 0.2 | N/A | |
Turnout | 40,063 | 69.4 | +0.4 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | John Major | 48,662 | 66.2 | +2.6 | |
Labour | Hugh Seckleman | 12,432 | 16.9 | +3.0 | |
Liberal Democrats | Andrew Duff | 9,386 | 12.8 | −8.3 | |
Liberal | Paul Wiggin | 1,045 | 1.4 | N/A | |
Green | Deborah Birkhead | 846 | 1.2 | −0.2 | |
Monster Raving Loony | Screaming Lord Sutch | 728 | 1.0 | N/A | |
Conservative Thatcherite | Michael Flanagan | 231 | 0.3 | N/A | |
Gremloids | Lord Buckethead | 107 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Forward to Mars Party | Charles S. Cockell | 91 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Natural Law | David Shepherd | 26 | 0.0 | N/A | |
Turnout | 73,554 | 79.2 | +5.2 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Theresa May | 37,718 | 64.8 | −1.0 | |
Labour | Pat McDonald | 11,261 | 19.3 | +7.4 | |
Liberal Democrats | Tony Hill | 6,540 | 11.2 | +1.3 | |
Green | Derek Wall | 907 | 1.6 | −2.0 | |
UKIP | Gerard Batten | 871 | 1.5 | −6.9 | |
Animal Welfare | Andrew Knight | 282 | 0.5 | N/A | |
Gremloids | Lord Buckethead | 249 | 0.4 | N/A | |
Independent | Grant Smith | 152 | 0.3 | N/A | |
Monster Raving Loony | Howling Laud Hope | 119 | 0.2 | N/A | |
CPA | Edmonds Victor | 69 | 0.1 | N/A | |
The Just Political Party | Julian Reid | 52 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Independent | Yemi Hailemariam | 16 | 0.0 | N/A | |
Give Me Back Elmo | Bobby Smith | 3 | 0.0 | N/A | |
Turnout | 58,239 | 76.4 | +3.8 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Boris Johnson | 25,351 | 52.6 | +1.8 | |
Labour | Ali Milani | 18,141 | 37.6 | −2.4 | |
Liberal Democrats | Joanne Humphreys | 3,026 | 6.3 | +2.3 | |
Green | Mark Keir | 1,090 | 2.3 | +0.4 | |
UKIP | Geoffrey Courtenay | 283 | 0.6 | −2.8 | |
Monster Raving Loony | Lord Buckethead | 125 | 0.3 | N/A | |
Independent | Count Binface | 69 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Independent | Alfie Utting | 44 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Independent | Yace Yogenstein | 23 | 0.0 | N/A | |
Independent | Norma Burke | 22 | 0.0 | N/A | |
Independent | Bobby Elmo Smith | 8 | 0.0 | N/A | |
Independent | William Tobin | 5 | 0.0 | N/A | |
Turnout | 48,174 | 68.5 | +1.7 |
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) is a political party established in the United Kingdom in 1982 by the musician David Sutch, also known as Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow, or simply Lord Sutch. It is notable for its deliberately bizarre policies and it effectively exists to satirise British politics, and to offer itself as an alternative for protest voters, especially in constituencies where the party holding a safe seat is unlikely to lose it.
Screaming Lord Sutch was an English musician and perennial parliamentary candidate.
Theresa Mary, Lady May is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead from 1997 to 2024. May is the second female UK prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to hold two of the Great Offices of State. Ideologically, May is a one-nation conservative.
Alan Hope, known politically as Howling Laud Hope, is a British politician and former publican who is the current Leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP). On the death of the party's founder Screaming Lord Sutch in 1999, Hope and his pet cat, Catmando, were jointly elected as leaders of the OMRLP. Since June 2002 Hope has been the party's sole leader following Catmando's death in a road accident.
Uxbridge and South Ruislip is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation. The seat has been held by Danny Beales of the Labour Party since July 2024.
A by-election was held in the UK parliament constituency of Bromley and Chislehurst in London, following the death of Conservative Member of Parliament Eric Forth on 17 May 2006. The writ for the electing of a new member was issued on 6 June for a polling day of 29 June 2006, the same day as the Blaenau Gwent by-elections. The Conservatives held the seat but with their majority much reduced by the Liberal Democrats.
Stuart Hughes is an English politician representing voters at all three levels of local government in Devon, in the West of England. He represents Sidmouth Sidford as a councillor on East Devon District Council and on Devon County Council, where he is currently Cabinet member for Highways Management. He is also a Sidmouth town councillor.
Get Britain Out is a United Kingdom-based independent cross-party grassroots Eurosceptic group which campaigned for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. The campaign is still in operation and is pushing for the UK to break away from continued alignment with the European Union.
Lord Toby Jug was a British politician. He was the leader of the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire branch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, serving as the party's media officer and a prospective parliamentary candidate, until being expelled from the Loony Party in 2014. He founded The Eccentric Party of Great Britain in 2015.
Patrick James O'Flynn is an English journalist and Social Democratic Party (SDP) politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East of England from 2014 to 2019. He was elected for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) but defected to the Social Democratic Party in November 2018. Since 2019 he has written frequently for The Spectator.
Huw William Merriman is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bexhill and Battle in East Sussex from 2015 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Minister of State for Rail and HS2 from October 2022 until July 2024. He previously chaired the Transport Select Committee between January 2020 and October 2022. Prior to his parliamentary career, Merriman was a barrister and a local councillor.
The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election. It was held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019, after all the other EU countries had voted. This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020, and was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and was the first European election in the United Kingdom to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections since 1999. This was the first of two national elections that would be held in the United Kingdom in 2019 with the 2019 general election being held six months later in December 2019.
Hyperspace, also known as Gremloids, is a 1984 3D science fiction comedy film starring Chris Elliott and Paula Poundstone, written and directed by Todd Durham and filmed in Shelby, North Carolina. This was the sixth and final 3-D film produced by the Owensby Studios in the 1980s.
A by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Sleaford and North Hykeham in Lincolnshire, England, was held on 8 December 2016. It was triggered by the resignation of the Conservative member of parliament (MP) Stephen Phillips, who left Parliament on 4 November 2016 due to policy differences with the Conservative government led by the prime minister, Theresa May, over Brexit – the British withdrawal from the European Union (EU). The Conservatives nominated Caroline Johnson, a paediatrician, to replace Phillips; she won the by-election with more than 50 per cent of the vote, a sizable majority. The Conservatives' vote share fell slightly compared to the result at the previous general election in 2015.
A by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Manchester Gorton was scheduled to take place on 4 May 2017, following the death of the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Sir Gerald Kaufman. It was cancelled on 20 April following the announcement of the 2017 general election. At the general election in June, most of the candidates who were due to stand in the by-election contested the seat, and the Labour candidate, Afzal Khan, retained the seat for his party with a large majority.
3,303 candidates stood in the United Kingdom general election of 2017, which was held on 8 June 2017. The deadline for parties and individuals to file candidate nomination papers to the acting returning officer was 16:00 on 11 May 2017.
Todd Durham is an American filmmaker, comedy writer, and novelist, best known as the creator of the concept for the Hotel Transylvania film franchise and as the creator of Lord Buckethead. Durham's works, including over forty screenplays and books, frequently combine fantasy storylines with character comedy.
A by-election was held in the UK Parliament constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire on 1 August 2019 after Chris Davies, who had held the seat for the Conservatives since the 2015 general election, was unseated by a recall petition. The by-election was won by Jane Dodds of the Liberal Democrats.
Count Binface is a satirical novelty candidate created by the British comedian Jonathan David Harvey in 2018. He stood as a candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the 2019 United Kingdom general election against the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, and again at the 2023 by-election that followed Johnson's resignation. He also stood in the London Mayoral elections in 2021 and 2024. In the 2024 UK general election Binface stood against the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in his Richmond and Northallerton constituency.
A novelty candidate is a person who runs for political office in an election as a form of satire or protest, without seriously expecting to win. Novelty candidates are similar to and sometimes synonymous with perennial candidates, but whereas perennial candidates sometimes run on substantive policy issues, novelty candidacies are typically run for satirical purposes.
Hughes, David Steven, commonly known as Lord Buckethead
She looked grim as her local victory was announced, even while sharing a stage with a man dressed as the Muppet character Elmo (he got three votes), Howling "Laud" Hope of the Monster Raving Loony Party (119 votes) and Lord Buckethead, a towering figure in black with a pail on his head (a resounding 249 votes).