Competition for Poland's political cabaret artists

During communist times, Poland's cabaret groups were famous for their original commentaries on politics, writes Szymon Babuchowski. But he notes that after 1989 this changed dramatically - with the exception of a few groups like Mumio from Katowice. "What was once the great strength of Polish cabaret has become its greatest weakness. Basically, nowadays there is no cabaret that deals in an interesting way with political events in Poland. Most artists think using words like 'duck ['kaczka' in reference to the Kaczynski twins], 'mohair caps' and 'Teletubbies' is enough to make them funny. But it's not. You need an idea to describe a political situation, particularly because in many ways today's politics resemble a cabaret. All you have to do is switch on the TV news to have a laugh. This is serious competition."

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