Lord Buckethead

Submission 24,448

Part of a series on 2017 UK Election. [View Related Entries]

About

Lord Buckethead is a satirical political candidate who has run in three UK General Elections. An intergalactic space lord, the character, known for his long black cap and two-foot-high helmet, points out the absurdity of UK politics, highlighting the difficulty of government bureaucracy, its leaders and policy though tongue-in-cheek, science fiction-themed platforms.

Origin

Lord Buckethead is a character from the 1984 science fiction comedy film Hyperspace aka Gremloids, a parody of Star Wars.^[1] In the film, Lord Buckethead accidentally lands on earth in search of a Princess and the secret transmissions she has on her person (clip below). The film's writer and director Todd Durham created the character.

Three years later, in 1987, Buckethead appeared in his first political campaign, running against Margaret Thatcher in the UK General Election for Parliament.^[2] Representing the Gremloids Party, a fictitious political party, he ran on the platform of demolishing Birmingham, England to make way for a spaceport. He won 131 votes.

Spread

Five years later, April 9th, 1992, Lord Buckethead ran against conservative party leader John Major. He won 107 votes.^[3]

On May 10th, 2017, Lord Buckethead joined Twitter, and within one month has amassed more than 86,000 followers.^[7] On May 11th, Twitter user and BuzzFeed writer @JimWaterson tweeted a photo of Lord Buckethead, following Buckethead's announcement for candidacy. Waterson captioned the tweet (shown below), "A person called Lord Buckethead is standing against Theresa May in the election. Unclear if same Lord Buckethead who opposed Thatcher in 87."

On June 6th, Lord Buckethead posted the video "Where are we know?" (shown below, left), a comedy song, which has received more than 120,000 views within a week. The next day, he posted a video of himself discussing his platform (shown below, right), and comparing Britain's lack of self awareness to a man with an infected erection. The post, entitled "Lord Buckethead: A SHOCKING STORY ABOUT THE NHS," received more than 50,000 views in less than a week.

[This video has been removed]

On June 8th, Lord Buckethead ran against Prime Minister Theresa May in the UK General Election. Winning 249 votes, his most ever, Buckethead appeared on stage with May, Jeremy Corbyn and fellow joke candidates Elmo and Howling “Laud” Hope of the Monster Raving Loony Party, the pictures of which became a viral sensation.

The next morning, on June 9th, Lord Buckethead tweeted^[8] a picture of him on stage dabbing with the caption "Morning! No, you didn't dream it. I stood on a stage with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (And I did a dab)." The tweet (shown below, left) received more than 26,000 retweet and 57,000 likes in less than a week.

The morning, he also tweeted^[10] a photograph of himself sitting cross legged at the hall where the election was called with the caption "Savouring the moment." The tweet (shown below, right) received more than 10,000 retweets and 36,000 likes.

Later that day, on June 9th, Redditor ontothefuture posted a picture of Buckethead on stage in the /r/The_Donald] subreddit (shown below, left). The post, entitled "Folks, the Brits have Lord BucketHead, Boss Hogg and Elmo as candidates. They never get to make fun of our elections again," received more than 3,000 points (96% upvoted) and 120 comments.

Also that day, Redditor the_trashman_devito posted^[12] the image in the /r/DankMemes subreddit in the thread "Lord Buckethead>Theresa May." They picture included the caption: "'Nothing is more fucked up than American politics' Britain: hold my tea. The post (shown below, right) received more than 1,200 points (98% upvoted).

Additionally, on June 9th, Redditor deceptiveconsumption asked the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit "Who is Lord Buckethead? Where did He Come From? Why?" The post received more than 1,000 points (93% upvoted) and 140 comments in two days.^[15] On June 10th, Buckethead also received an AMA request by B3RT4N14 in the /r/ukpolitics subreddit, which received more than 1,000 points (96% upvoted) and 120 comments in less than a day.^[14]

On June 10th, Twitter user @AliPlumb^[9] posted a picture of Darth Vader Lego with two black Lego blocks for a head and the caption I can't believe Lego have made a Lord Buckethead minifigure already." The post (shown below, left) received more than 4,600 retweets and 11,200 likes in three days.

On June 12th, John Oliver devoted 19 minutes of the show to discuss the vote (shown below), highlighting Lord Buckethead in the process. Following the segment, Oliver announced that they had flown Lord Buckethead to the studio to appear on the show. He closed the show standing side-by-side with Buckethead/ Within 12 hours of being posted to YouTube, the clip received more than 598,000 views.

Several news outlets covered Lord Buckethead's appearance on the show, including Rolling Stone,^[4] The AV Club,^[5] USA Today^[6] and more. The clip was posted in the /r/Europe subreddit by Redditor MrScotchFingers,^[13] where it received more than 860 points (75% upvoted) and 220 comments in six hours.