Kamala Harris brought viewers back to Veep. But only one character sums up party politics

Good art tells us who we were. It captures the zeitgeist, which is incidentally a beautiful name for a baby girl. Great art tells us who we are. An ever-changing portrait, like the one in my attic of my sexy buddy Dorian Gray. Great art shows us the immutable qualities of human life. Or, when it’s even better, it gives us a chance to laugh.

One particular American sitcom gave us a perfect piece of art, and a timeless character.

A timeless character from Veep, plus Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).Credit:

Like anyone who watches too much television, I love America (never been). I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a US election coming up this year. It’s not just a big deal for Americans, it’s huge for us in Australia. Because in a few months’ time we can brag about how their weird political system is weirder than our weird political system. Finally, we’re not weird any more! Let a thousand blossoms bloom!

The stage has been set for an exciting race. Vice President Kamala Harris XCX being chosen for the Democratic Party ticket encouraged many to view the future with hope. But, more important than the future of global democracy, it encouraged us to rewatch Veep.

Created by renowned satirist Armando Iannucci, Veep follows Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and her ruthless rise to power. The show wrapped in 2019 after seven seasons. After Harris’ presidential nomination, viewership of the show shot up more than 300 per cent. Talk about zeitgeist, baby.

The genius of Veep lies in Meyer never being clearly aligned with a real-world political party. Because, what if it’s all the same? What if it’s all sycophants cosying up to the beast while kingmakers grind fresh meat through the party machine?

Karen Collins (played by Lennon Parham), Veep’s ultimate fence-sitter.Credit:

This was indeed the brutal modus operandi of many a political figure. Thankfully, we can look back on it as an outdated practice.

What? It’s not? Oh, my bad.

Veep features an ensemble of comedic powerhouses, including Tony Hale, Sally Phillips, Sam Richardson and my guy Gary Cole as Kent Davison, the man with the best head of hair in showbusiness.

But one character will always be my favourite, and that’s Karen Collins.

Played expertly by the brilliant Lennon Parham, Karen Collins is a lawyer whose self-proclaimed specialty is “common sense”. Translation: never taking a stance.

If she wore shoes, they’d be flip-flops. If she were a blanket, she’d be wet. When we see her take to a courtroom, she wastes hours defining key terms in painstaking, hilarious detail.

Her character is best surmised when she’s asked for her thoughts on a potential running mate and responds, “What do I think of him? I think there’s a lot to think.” Genius.

Parham’s performance is delicate. Subtle, compared with the booming personalities around her. She maintains a stony neutrality in every situation yet she creates tension. Parham always builds the energy in a scene. It takes a lot of talent to bring a character like Karen to life. And this is what elevates Veep to the status of Great Art.

Because Karen’s temporising isn’t incidental, it hits at the core themes of the show. Why make waves when you could make yourself a job? Karen is a textbook centrist, playing every side of an argument and achieving nothing. A fence-sitter. Her character highlights the ongoing problem with party politics, and it is what cements Veep as evergreen.

To take a leaf out of Karen’s book, let’s define some key terms. What is “fence-sitting”? If we look at the etymology, it entered the Western lexicon as a backlash to people acting with conviction.

It was another US presidential election, in the year 1884. A time when only men with prominent moustaches could vote. A group of Republicans refused to support an allegedly corrupt candidate (unthinkable) and instead chose to back Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland, the first president named after a Muppet.

These men were labelled “mugwumps” by their former Republican colleagues. The mugwumps were depicted in political cartoons as bird-like creatures sitting on a fence with their ‘mug’ on one side and their ‘wump’ on the other. ‘Wump’, of course, being a cutesy spelling of ‘rump’, meaning bum or, to put in layman’s terms, arse.

But Karen is not a mugwump in the traditional sense. She’s just a wump.

While all the characters in Veep are frighteningly real, Karen is eternal. You could walk through the offices of any politician today and find a Karen. And unlike the other Karens in our society, who exist solely to traumatise cafe staff, these political Karens would never argue for anything, ever. Why put your wump on the line?

Global politics is moving at such a breakneck pace that biting satire can feel impossible. Just last week Bob Katter gave a speech to parliament about sacrificing children to pagan crocodile gods. That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. How could anyone write anything better than what actually exists?

Karen Collins is the answer to satire’s question. You can’t. You shouldn’t. Because when you write what exists, when you write to truth, you say something far funnier than fiction and exaggeration ever could.

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