21 of the Most Absurd Political Scandals in History

Most of us in this corner of the internet really only pay attention to current American politics, because that’s the only part that Twitter is usually throwing in our faces. And if that’s the case for you, it’s easy to get the impression that Washington might be more comfortable underneath a big, colorful tent with a guy out front luring people inside to eat peanuts and watch the show. (Clowns. We’re calling them clowns.) There was one recent president in particular who produced a headline that could be its own sitcom every other day. We were begging for a boring leader.

But if you search back before you were politically aware or in other parts of the globe, you’ll find stories that are just as — or perhaps even more — absurd than anything seen on modern Capitol Hill. From crack-smoking mayors to honest-to-God faked deaths, when user No-Wolverine-2321 asked r/AskReddit, “What political scandal was so absurd it seemed like fiction?,” political history buffs from all around the world related tales of bureaucratic slapstick.