‘I’d have a panic attack’: One Nation candidate says he won’t quit ‘Please Explain’ cartoons
Por Finn McHugh — POLITICO – TOP Stories
CANBERRA — The mastermind behind One Nation’s viral “Please Explain” series will continue to make the cartoons if he enters Victoria’s parliament, saying he’d “have a panic attack” if he was forced to give it up.
Mark Nicholson is top of the One Nation upper house ticket, for the Northern Metropolitan region, in Victoria’s state election, where the right-wing nationalist party looks set to seize a swathe of seats — and potentially a role in government.
Just weeks after the series’ biggest firestorm — caused by labelling Liberal frontbencher and Afghanistan War veteran Andrew Hastie a “traitor” in a September episode — he insisted he won’t be giving up his creative role if voters elect him Nov. 28.
In an interview with POLITICO, Nicholson revealed he’s planning a Victorian election special episode.
“Politics makes me angry, but the cartoons take the edge off and remind me that it is kind of silly sometimes,” he said.
“These cartoons mean a whole lot to me, and even if with a full time job in parliament, it’s just going to have to be a hobby. I’m going to pour my heart and soul into these things because I absolutely need it. Otherwise, I think I’d have a panic attack.”
Nicholson was approached by James Ashby, One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson’s key adviser, to create satirical cartoons in 2021. Nicholson and his partner at Stepmate Studios, Sebastian Peart, pitched six. Ashby asked for 20.
“Please Explain” episodes have since racked up an average of 500,000 views, and become must-watch content inside federal parliament.
‘They’re just corrupt and pathetic people’
By pilloring figures across the political spectrum — outside of One Nation — Nicholson has routinely offended Australia’s political elite and won begrudging respect for the ingenuity of the cartoons.
The first episode featured former Liberal leader Peter Dutton as Voldemort. United Australia Party chair Clive Palmer has since featured as a Jabba the Hutt-like figure munching Tim Tams, and Energy Minister Chris Bowen as a peanut.
22-year-old Sen. Charlotte Walker was recently appeared as a “tiny little girl boss” strapped into a baby car seat and drinking a “baby cino.” Walker was voiced by Peart’s 2-year-old daughter.
Before joining One Nation, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was also portrayed with a beetroot for a head.
“Albo is by far my favorite [to create]. I’ll be so upset when One Nation kick him out of the Lodge,” Nicholson said.
Figure of controversy
Joyce quickly apologized to Hastie — who has been targeted by the party’s supporters for testifying against alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, after last month’s episode branding him a “traitor.” Hanson instead defended the cartoon, saying: “It is a satirical cartoon, for Christ’s sake.”
Nicholson said the label referred to Hastie’s support for the Albanese government’s hate speech laws, which the cartoon-version of Hastie branded “evil.”
It wasn’t the only time Nicholson has drawn controversy or divided Hanson and Joyce.
His pledge to lock up former premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan “by Christmas,” made at One Nation’s Victorian election launch Oct. 3, also appeared to split the pair.
“We’ll leave people going to jails to the courts,” Joyce said, while Hanson told right-wing streamer Avi Yemini she agreed with Nicholson: “If we take Victoria back, then we can lock them up.”
Nicholson has been burnishing his campaigning credentials outside the production studio throughout 2026.
After campaigning for David Farley, One Nation’s winning candidate David Farley in the Farrer by-election, he delivered Hanson’s welcome speech to a raucous victory party crowd.
Nicholson, also regular panelist on “News24 After Dark,” insisted creating satirical politicians with “pathos for our characters” had sharpened his instincts.
“You have to go through a process of investigation and actually trying to understand the character, and you become more intimately aware of them. They become real,” he said.
“It’s given me a better understanding of the people in politics, which is good because I then also understand that they’re just corrupt and pathetic people.”
Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories
