McGillicuddy Serious Party - Definition and Overview

The McGillicuddy Serious Party was a satirical political party in New Zealand. For many years, McGillicuddy Serious attempted to provide "colour" to New Zealand politics, and ensure that the political process was not taken too seriously. The party's logo, the head of a medieval court jester, was indicative of McGillicuddy Serious's status as a joke party.

Notable McGillicuddy Serious policies included:

• The "Great Leap Backwards", a return to a medieval lifestyle.
• The establishment of a monarchy supposedly based on the Scottish Jacobite line.
• The abolition of money, or the introduction of chocolate fish as legal tender.
• The demolition of Parliament Buildings.
• Raising the school leaving age to sixty-five.
• Full unemployment.
• The demolition of the Auckland CBD in order to create a giant sundial, using the Sky Tower as the gnomon.

The McGillicuddy Serious Party was founded in the 1980s as the political arm of Clan McGillicuddy, which had been established in the previous decade. The party had a strong Scottish theme, and the kilt was considered to be one of the party's symbols. The party's policies were selected on the basis of their absurdity and their impracticality.

McGillicuddy Serious attracted a surprising level of support, and became one of the larger parties outside parliament. On a number of occasions, particularly with the introduction of the MMP electoral system, it was predicted that McGillicuddy Serious might actually win parliamentary representation, although this never happened. Votes for McGillicuddy were most often protest votes, something that the party encouraged with one of its slogans: "If you want to waste your vote, vote for us."

As time went on, McGillicuddy Serious began to encounter the problem that often appears in joke parties—a debate about exactly how serious it should be. The original founders of the party essentially saw it as "a bit of fun", aimed at providing humour and entertainment. This remained a major part of McGillicuddy Serious throughout its history. Later recruits to the party, however, sometimes saw the party's satire in a more serious context, believing that it was a tool by which the political establishment could be ridiculed and challenged. In particular, a number of anarchists joined the party, seeing it as an antidote to the traditional order. The dichotomy, in essence, was between "satire for fun" and "satire to make a political point". Many of the party's original members resented what they saw as a usurpation of their party for political purposes.

The 1999 election was the last election in which the McGillicuddy Serious Party participated. The party gained only 0.15% of the vote, a considerable drop from its previous performances. Shortly after the election, the party was disbanded, with its leader Graeme Cairns engaging in a public 'self-humiliation ritual'. A number of former McGillicuddy Serious members, however, went on to stand as candidates for "real" parties, particularly the Greens—Nandor Tanczos and Metiria Turei, both Green MPs, are former members of McGillicuddy Serious.