Legs-it! Boris Johnson’s EU socks run away from him as Brexit is lampooned alongside Donald Trump, Facebook and other famous faces at annual German carnival
- The annual Rose Monday carnival parade in Dusseldorf, Germany, attracted thousands of spectators
- The satirical floats are designed each year by Jacques Tilly and are kept a secret until the day of the parade
- Tilly says he gets his inspiration from British comedies like Spitting Image, Monty Python and Little Britain
Advertisement
A street carnival in Germany today featured a series of satirical floats lampooning political leaders from around the world including Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.
The annual Rose Monday parade attracted thousands of spectators who came to see the hotly-anticipated floats designed each year by Jacques Tilly, Germany’s leading carnival float designer.
Tilly, 56, admits that his countrymen are not known for their grasp of humour and says his main influences are classic British comedies including Spitting Image, Monty Python and Little Britain.
He keeps his designs a closely guarded secret each year until they are unveiled at the famous carnival in Dusseldorf, an annual event that coincides with parades held in towns and cities across Germany to mark the end of ‘carnival season’ which runs from November 11 until Ash Wednesday.
This year’s events were overshadowed today when at least 15 people were injured after a car ploughed into crowds at a parade in the town of Volkmarsen.
Witnesses said the Mercedes swerved around safety barriers before driving ‘full speed’ into the crowd. The driver was arrested at the scene.
Thousands of spectators gathered to watch the Dusseldorf parade with its satirical floats which included a figure of Prime Minister Boris Johnson with kilt-clad legs and EU socks marching away from him.
Another depicted US President Donald Trump snuggling up with Iran’s Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei with the slogan: ‘Make love, not war.’
Facebook, German far right politicians and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg were also the butt of jokes.
Tilly said: ‘Germany and humour, it’s complicated. We have always been very obedient to authority. Humour is always also criticism, and criticism has always been regarded here as corrosive to the state.
‘You were always labelled as a social pest when you criticised anyone like the Kaiser or the Führer.’
He told The Times: ‘The Germans have only just learnt that criticism is a crucial part of forging public opinion. That’s new and it’s only happened in the past few decades.
‘The Brits have always been ahead of us there. I try to go in the direction of British humour to bring in a hardness, an uncompromising quality, a courage that you hardly ever get here. Things are always a bit tamer in Germany.’
A dig at Brexit: PM Boris Johnson is left looking glum as his Scottish legs march off in a kilt and EU socks – a jibe pointing out that Scotland voted Remain in the Brexit referendum and could potentially rejoin the EU if it broke away from the UK
A burning kangaroo emblazoned with a map of the world and the slogan ‘Australia is everywhere’ warning that the recent bush fires exacerbated by global warming could strike elsewhere
A figure at the Rose Monday carnival depicting Facebook as a monster that spreads ‘hate’ and ‘radicalisation’
Make love, not war! US President Donald Trump snuggles up with Iran’s Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei
One float had this figure of Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg dangling an older couple, labelled ‘parents generation’, by their ears and the slogan: ‘Finally do something about the climate catastrophe’
Carnival revellers cheer during the Rose Monday carnival parade in Dusseldorf that attracted thousands of spectators
Figures depicting an angry coronavirus bug being mocked by a jeering ‘carnival virus’ bug on the back of a Rose Monday float
This float has the word ‘racism’ on the barrel of a gun coming from the mouth of an angry man and the slogan ‘from words come deeds’. Underneath is a list of terror attacks by far right extremists including the recent attack on shisha bars in Hanau
Carnival revellers cheer during the Rose Monday carnival street parade in Dusseldorf
A figures depicting the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party leader Bjoern Hoecke giving a Nazi salute being held up by CDU and FDP party leaders
A figure depicting an Alternative for Germany (AfD) supporter apparently talking out of his backside with the slogan ‘everything goes wrong in Germany’
Carnival revellers cheer during the Rose Monday carnival street parade in Dusseldorf
A figure depicting Brazil’s President Jair ‘Bolsonaro’ as ‘climate killer’ is pictured during the Rose Monday carnival
A carnival float depicting German composer Ludwig van Beethoven holding a sheet of music ‘Ode to Joy’ dressed in the flags of the EU
Carnival revellers cheer during the Rose Monday carnival street parade in Dusseldorf
A carnival reveller attends the ‘Rosenmontag’ (Rose Monday) parade in Dusseldorf