Jonathan Pie: 'I Cannot Be Responsible For Other People's Stupidity'

Somewhere in the space between Jon Stewart and Alan Partridge lies the character of Jonathan Pie, a straight-talking leftist correspondent created by UK satirist Tom Walker. But while Pie is a livid, loudmouth liberal, Walker is able to see the nuance in his creation where others may not.

“It is weird. Not only am I creating an enormously fictionalised argument for satirical purposes, but often people don’t really see that, and they come and say, ‘I don’t agree with what you said,’” Walker says. 

“It’s weird because on the one hand, you’re more than welcome to disagree, but on the other hand it’s my work. It’s not always my political outlook or my opinion, but it is my work. I’m devastated that Boris Johnson won the election with such a huge majority, but I just thought it would be far more satirically interesting if Jonathan Pie was angry at the left for losing. Not everyone necessarily sees that though, and that goes with this video I’ve just made.”

The video in question, recorded from Walker’s Sydney hotel room, sees Pie furiously criticising the world’s obsession with social media and its effect on global politics.

“It sort of talks about this idea that because we’re all on Facebook and surrounded by likeminded friends, we all think everyone is going to vote the way we do,” Walker explains. “We all think this, and then we’re amazed when the vote doesn’t go our way, and this is happening more and more. We tend to be more isolated and far less willing to actually listen to people that we disagree with. That’s not good for politics: the art of debate has been lost and we just hurl insults at each other now. 

“If you just hurl insults at people who didn’t vote the way you did, like, ‘You’re thick, you’re a racist,’ you’re not going to persuade them to vote differently. And then people comment saying, ‘But they are thick and racist!’ and you just have to turn around and tell them, ‘You’re just not listening, and that’s why they won.’”

While the comedian sees the irony in lambasting the platform that skyrocketed the character, Jonathan Pie, to notoriety, Walker says that stepping further away from social media has helped him turn Pie into a more interesting persona. 

“I used to read the comments quite avidly when it all first started. Now I tend to just drop the video and sort of check the temperature of what people think of it and just leave it be. Otherwise, you just go mad,” he laughs. 

“I know social media is incredible and I absolutely would not be where I am now without it, but it is a cesspool.” 

Walker reckons people, generally, have lost the ability to critically analyse information.

“Nowadays, it’s all about personal insults and taking things very personally. The show I’m bringing to Aus is called The Fake News Tour, and it’s not even really about Trump or his obsession with fake news. It’s really about how we all consume the news and media these days, and how we only consume the media that backs up the opinions we already have. Rather than allowing ourselves to be challenged and be more enlightened, we only read the newspapers we agree with. There’s also this notion now that fact and opinion are given equal weight in our society, and that is a massively dangerous thing.”

Pie has been met with such acclaim that, on many occasions, the general public have failed to recognise him as a satirical character. While Walker has seen his work reappropriated and misconstrued by ultra-conservative viewers, he feels no obligation to spell it out to those unable to use Google. 

“The thing is, I cannot be responsible for the manner in which people use my work,” he asserts. “My intent and the context in which I wrote it is all that matters to me. I see it as satire, and fiction, and comedy, but if someone wants to use it as a sort of political activism, I can’t stop them – but that’s not the intent. I often get asked if I feel responsible because a lot of people think that Pie is real, and my answer is always this: I cannot be responsible for other people’s stupidity. If people are so thick that they can’t see it’s a character and a fictional version of a possible political view someone might have, I’m not going to change the character and write it for stupid people.”