You failed to name one of the funniest politicians of all, Tony Abbott.
Tony could be characterised as actually being an ironic polarity. Critical, credulous, meaningful and absurd, I find myself asking 'is he real or illusory'?

>> When tolerance is diminished so too is irony. When the left are right, they like to take the credit. When they're wrong, they like to blame everyone else. Wonder if they see the irony in that? <<

Says Richard Stanton with a big scoop of irony. Gotta love that.

Surely our Politicians are humourous ?

They must be ,for collectvely,they are a Joke

Richard claims that the Fairfax media are completely humorous. Perhaps so!

But with the exception of Emma Tom's spot in the Weekend Australian, and the Wry Side, ALL of the rest of the Australian is completely devoid of humour, and painfully so.

Richard also criticizes Fairfax and the Greens for their "attacks" on the West. Never mind that there are countless hundreds of books and magazine articles that "attack" the West. And there has been for for ever and a day.

Never mind that anyone who is in any sense sensitive to the state of the world knows that the world altogether is in hell-deep trouble. There is of course wide-spread disagreement as to the causes of this trouble, and what, if anything, can be done about.

Why not try Ill Fares the Land by the urbane and deeply cultured Tony Judt or any of the authors featured and promoted at Tom Dispatch, Counterpoint and Alternet.

Meanwhile this essay provides a very sobering assessment of the state of the world altogether, how we got to here, and what,if anything, can be done about it.

http://www.beezone.com/AdiDa/reality-humanity.html

Tragically, ironically, those on the right side of the culture wars loudly champion all of the negative features pointed to in this essay (and in the book from which it is taken).

Basically under the banner of "there is no other way".

But where does the now toxic argument "culture" come from?

I would suggest that Deborah Tannen via The Argument Culture provides some good explanations. It is about the USA but I would argue that we have inherited this toxic "culture" from the the USA.

David Brook via The Republican Noise Machine, and Blinded By The Right describes how this toxic methodology was deliberately cultivated by the right in the USA.

I would argue that the Liberal party here in Oz-land has deliberately used this method.

Some people who study and teach politics as a profession have argued that such is indeed the case.

Which side of politics has suggested that Julia be placed in a bag and dumped in the sea?
Which side of politics first used the term un and anti Australian?
Which sides of politics specializes in the politics of binary exclusions?
Using terms such as cafe latte inner-city, urban "elites" who are supposedly out of touch with, and even hostile towards, the interests and well-being of ordinary Australians.

Is there any alternative to this now toxic argument "culture"?
I would suggest that Alfie Kohn, via his book No Contest, suggests that there is.

In the realm of day to day politics here in the land of Oz it would be very hard for either Julia or bob Brown to maintain a sense of humour.

Why?

The OZ is on public record as being purposed to destroy the Greens. Julia is the leader of a minority government faced with Tony whose sole purpose is to bring down the government - his only policy is NO, and shout louder.

Julia, as with any PM is at the mercy of the now 24/7 media circus, wherein one suspect action or idea can be blown completely out of proportion, taken out of context, and repeated again and again thereafter

Speaking of the complete absence of a sense of humour I would suggest that Gina Rinehart is fits the bill perfectly. As far as I know she is now a leading sponsor of barrel of laughs called the IPA

...I think the “irony” of Australian politics is that we (the subjects) manage to live our lives in the “unaffected lane” reasonably successfully by turning a deaf ear to the political media “rant”; afterall, there is little irony in sport- the massive "media alternative".