28 Unusual Political Parties - mental_floss List Show Ep. 326 | Mental Floss

Hi, I'm Craig. Welcome to the salon. This is Mental Floss on YouTube. And did you know

that there was once a political party in New Zealand known as the McGillicuddy Serious Party? Their goal was to make politics more fun and absurd. And they put up a lot of candidates

back in the fun 80s and the absurd 90s, especially for local elections, but never won more than

.61% of the vote. And that's the first of many bizarre political parties that I'm going

to share with you today. The Canadian Extreme Wrestling Party was never officially registered in Canada, but

it did hold a convention in 1999 in which the winner of a battle royale became the party's leader

They haven't made the news much since he lost the election for Canada Parliament in 2000

The deadly serious party only existed in Australia for a brief time in the 80s. Their primary concern was an Argentine invasion of Australia, so they suggested sending killer

penguins to guard the coast. The US Pirate Party is fairly new. It was founded in 2006. Their goal is to change copyright

law so that more things are open source. Open source. They also want increased personal privacy and government transparency. And by the way

the Swedish Pirate Party, also founded in 2006, quickly became the country's third largest

party by membership and got two members of the European Parliament, or MEPs, or MEPS

The European Parliament currently has one MEP from the Pirate Party. She's German

There's a political party in the US based on Ayn Rand's philosophical system, Objectivism

focusing on individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism. The Objectivist Party had presidential nominees in the 2008 and 2012 elections, though the

nominees only appeared on the ballots in Colorado and Florida in both times In 2015 the UK Beer Backy and Crumpet Party was banned from election because the term crumpet can be sexist Did you know that I didn know that I should stop saying crumpet

But the leaders of the party claimed that it was an acronym for countryside rates, utilities, motoring, pensions, employment, and taxation

They ultimately renamed themselves the Beer-Baki and Scratchings Party for the election

Also in the UK is the Rock and Roll Looney Party, which was founded in 2000. Why couldn't they just say Rock and Roll Party

Why'd they have to add the looney and be weird? They deregistered seven years later. One of their primary platforms was building laughter clinics and providing pensioners

with beer. Sounds like they were an actual party party. Similarly, there's a Polish beer lovers party, which claims that it can protect citizens

from alcoholism by getting them a drink of beer instead of vodka

Health nuts, those guys are. The Youth International Party was created in the US in the 60s to take an anti-war and

anti-authoritarian stance. In 1968, they nominated a pig named Pegasus the Immortal for president

That's also my nickname in high school. Fork chop party! Woo! means no in Dutch. So the nay party in Belgium has pretty much one platform. All the other

parties are no good. In 2007 they made news and their candidate Tanya Der Vo was featured

on a billboard, wait for it, naked. Similarly in the UK there's a no candidate deserves

my vote party. They have one main platform to add a none of the above option to the ballot

The Fed Up party, aka F.U., is Canada's version of that. It was founded by a puppet voiced

by Stephen Kersner who announced he was running for prime minister in 2011. It was a fairly

anti-government campaign. The Rent is Too Damn High party was led by Jimmy McMillan in the US

He made news when he ran for governor of New York in 2010 with this catchy slogan but he actually a registered Republican In 2009 the best party started as a joke in Iceland Actor Jan Nahr claimed that since all political parties were corrupt his new party wouldn keep its corruptness secret

Nahr and his party actually won the 2010 election for Reykjavik City Council, and Nahr became mayor of Reykjavik

Poland's party for the bald aims to reduce discrimination against bald people

They have a few catchy slogans, including, Receding, we advance. They got my vote

The anarchist Pogo Party of Germany was founded in the 80s. The party would like to legalize all drugs and get rid of all police

In 2005, their candidate for chancellor was the lead singer of a punk band

Sweden's Donald Duck party isn't officially registered, but they've been receiving write-in

votes for decades. 1985 was their best year, when 291 people voted for Donald Duck

By the way, in the US, Donald Duck won a 2000 election to be director of the Marion Soil

and Water Conservation Board in Salem, Oregon. No one wanted the job, so all the candidates were write-in

Donald was the victor, but he was disqualified for being fictional. So the second winner was Al Gore

At least he won one election in 2000. Congrats on the Soil and Water Conservation Board

Or should I say in your language? The Guns and Dope Party in the US wants everybody for president

They'd also like to provide guns and dope for anyone who's interested. The Boston Tea Party was different from the Tea Party before it disbanded in 2012, confusingly

Its main goal was to reduce the size and power of the US government. Which is much like the Tea Party

Believe it or not, there's still a prohibition party in the US. What

519 votes in the 2012 presidential election. The party's goal is to ban the sale of alcohol

The Miss Great Britain party was founded in 2008 and they try to elect candidates who have also been in the Miss Great Britain Beauty contest I don think I have a shot Again balding Also man Also American Also

not that great. The union of conscientiously work-shy elements in Denmark was founded by

a comedian who wanted a bunch of things including better weather, more food for ducks in parks

and Nutella rations for the army. There's an American common sense party which claims

that most of the US's problems can be solved with good ol' common sense. This would happen

by electing regular people to office because the group believes that politicians make different

decisions than average Americans would. Okay, let's wrap it up with a few parties real quick

Get the beer. Not that kind of party? Okay. Great Britain has the Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality Party for zombie rights. What

Also in Great Britain, the Death Dungeons and Taxes Party. The party wants to bring the punishment of hanging back and raise taxes to 90%. What

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there was the self-explanatory Party for Moderate Progress

within the bounds of the law. The Rhinoceros Party from Canada made a promise to keep none of their promises

Much like most of my friendships. Finally, I return to the salon to tell you about the time that comedian Gracie Allen

ran for president in 1940 as part of the Surprise Party. She toured the country to campaign with her husband George Burns

The stunt even included a book titled Gracie Allen for President. Some estimates give her upwards of 42,000 votes, which, if true, would put her in the

top ten of female US presidential and vice presidential candidates. Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these

nice candidates. Again, I'm Craig, and if you check out Crash Course Government and Politics, you'll see

a bit more of me. Thanks for watchin', bye