Entertainment

Johnson and Corbyn launch pop culture-inspired campaign videos

The Love Actually and Mean Tweets videos were posted to Twitter on Monday evening.
The Love Actually and Mean Tweets videos were posted to Twitter on Monday evening. The Love Actually and Mean Tweets videos were posted to Twitter on Monday evening.

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn have launched pop culture-inspired campaign videos in the final days of the General Election campaign.

In a video posted by Mr Johnson on Monday evening, the Prime Minister emulated a scene from Love Actually as he approached an apathetic voter with a series of placards on her doorstep.

Referencing a famous moment from the 2003 Christmas-themed romantic drama, the “Vote Conservative Actually” video showed him silently showing a woman a series of Brexit-themed messages after pretending to be a group of carol singers.

Mr Corbyn posted his own video on Monday evening.

In a video entitled “Mean Tweets with Jeremy Corbyn”, the Labour leader read out critical tweets about him in a format popularised by US late-night chat host Jimmy Kimmel.

In the Conservative’s three-minute video, which recreated a scene originally featuring Andrew Lincoln and Keira Knightley, two of the placards read: “With any luck, by next year we’ll have Brexit done (if Parliament doesn’t block it again).”

Other placards said: “Your vote has never been more important, the other guy could win, so you have a choice to make between a working majority or another gridlocked hung parliament.”

“Enough, let’s get this done,” Mr Johnson said at the end of the spoof clip, directly referencing the original clip once more while walking away from the woman’s house.

General Election 2019
General Election 2019 The Prime Minister parodied a famous scene of unrequited love (Boris Johnson/Twitter/PA)

Mr Johnson’s video comes after Labour candidate for Tooting Rosena Allin-Khan posted her own campaign video “Election Actually” on November 22.

Less than half an hour after the campaign video had been launched, Dr Allin-Khan tweeted to say the Prime Minister had copied her spoof.

She wrote: “I won’t be retweeting it – but Boris Johnson has copied my #ElectionActually video. Tanks. On. The. Lawn.”

In Mr Corbyn’s spoof video, the Labour leader sat by a fireplace and read out critical tweets about him and his campaign.

Mr Corbyn replied: “What is a commie hat? I wear a cap! It’s a bit like when I was told I was riding a Maoist bicycle. It’s a bicycle!”

After addressing Labour manifesto promises on broadband and tuition fees, he read out a tweet about being found sexy.

General Election 2019
General Election 2019 Mr Corbyn reacted to tweets about a wide range of topics (JeremyCorbyn/Twitter/PA Wire)

“Oh this is bad,” Mr Corbyn said, later telling viewers there was a magic money tree “in the Cayman Islands”.

The Labour leader ended the video with a high-five to someone off-camera and saying he would be the next prime minister.