Cowen leads political stars in YouTube skit

HE MAY not possess matinee idol looks, or the drawl of Sean Connery, but Brian Cowen has emerged as an unlikely movie star in his own short biopic.

“Brian Cowen the movie” is literally an overnight success. Only uploaded on Thursday, by yesterday the four-and-half minute feature had already been viewed by over 1,000 people on YouTube, shooting it straight into the top 20 viewed videos in Ireland.

The “completely fictional” short is not for the faint hearted. It features a dishevelled, heavy-drinking “Taoiseach”, a psychotic gun-totting “Big ‘Willie’ O’Dea” and a bloodsucking ghoulish “Lenihan,” as well as an appealing Minister for Health, played by former apprentice contestant Jennifer Maguire. Her answer to an “outbreak of mumps in Laois” is “burn them, burn them all”.

Viewers are immediately warned of the film’s “F” and “over 18” ratings — that is “this economy has been rated Fecked” and “over 18s are advised to leave the country at the first given opportunity”.

But the movie, produced and directed by filmmaker Derek O’Connor, has a message of hope at the core of it’s “tale of terror”.

For “in the nation’s darkest hour...Only one man can save us all...” enter Brian Cowen, looking the worse for wear outside Dáil Eireann.

The action takes us from a pub, where Cowen is finding it difficult to “take it handy” as a knife wielding O’Dea, takes offence — asking “am I some kind of joke, some kind of ha, ha...”

Certainly not amusing is O’Dea’s “way of solving the unemployment problem”, nonchalantly shooting passersby. But the film also has emotion, as Cowen asks a picture of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern “why did they love you, and not me?”.

As the cliff hanging ending declares “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll pay taxes, lots and lots of taxes”.

Enda Kenny does not escape, appearing as Batman’s the Joker in a short cameo. But while the real Brian Cowen will not appreciate the film he may warm to the accompanying piece of original music “the ballad of Brian Cowen” sung by Maeve Sweeney.

The film was the brainchild of former executive director of Libertas, Naoise Nunn, who commissioned it for his Leviathan political cabaret.

The film has won plaudits in the political world with a “rapturous reception” when it was given its premiere on Wednesday night in Dublin. Among its first viewers were Labour leader Eamon Gilmore and SIPTU general president Jack O’Connor.