One Nation Leader and Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson has released her very own animated web series. So far, the series consists of two short clips posted to social media on Friday. Allegedly, the series, titled  Please Explain,  will be made up of 20 episodes, and is designed to appeal to the 18-35 demographic of voters who have thus far not shown much interest in Hanson’s platform, ideology and approach to politics.

The series features Hanson as herself, in what could loosely be termed her acting debut. The first episode sees Hanson as the teacher in a classroom consisting of many politicians, including Barnaby Joyce as a beetroot, and Peter Dutton as Lord Voldemort. It also features Prime Minister Scott Morrison turning up late to class in a tropical shirt and Hawaiian headpiece, a reference to the Prime Minister’s poorly-timed holiday to Hawaii during the catastrophic bushfires during the summer of 2019/20.

Presumably, by poking fun at both sides of politics, Hanson hopes to attract young people who are tired of the two-party system and the politicians within it, as many of her supporters have expressed similar sentiments. However, the series seems likely to appeal only to those who already support Hanson; it’s not likely that many others would seek her out on social media just to watch animated clips of her making fun of her colleagues.

Unsurprisingly, throughout both short clips Hanson is presented as elegant and calm; a leader in a room full of immature misfits. The second episode in the series features Hanson explaining preferencing to a room full of politicians, and depicts the politicians as preschoolers, scribbling with crayons and covering themselves in paint. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is shown eating glue.

Anthony Albanese and Adam Bandt, leaders of the Labor and Green parties respectively, are shown asking each other to nominate the other as their second preference, which prompts Scott Morrison to ask if the pair are “sharing preferences just like you share bodily fluids”.

Writing for  The Guardian,  Dr Tom van Laer, an associate professor of narratology at the University of Sydney, expertly summarised the issue with the series: “The concern is that her surprisingly deftly produced content could draw in unsuspecting viewers, and it can be expected that Hanson will dial up the polemic in her next video.

“In the vacuum of the current political landscape, Hanson aims to paint herself as a moral and skilled teacher. If you look carefully though, you will find that her interpretation of South Park may appear to leave satirists out of a job, but it does not fool anyone: a vote for her remains a vote for xenophobia.”

Image: Pauline Hanson