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Boris Johnson has arrived at the G20 Summit and everyone is comparing him to Benny Hill

Boris Johnson has arrived at the G20 Summit and everyone is comparing him to Benny Hill

The idiom ‘when in Rome’ didn’t seem to apply to Boris Johnson when he arrived in Italy for the G20 summit on Saturday.

As the prime minister stood for the usual photocall of all the world leaders, he displayed a smirk and a demeanour which Twitter users have since compared to the late comedian, Benny Hill – the entertainer most known for his “Yakety Sax” theme tune.

The two-day summit concludes on Sunday, the same day that the Cop26 climate conference gets underway in Glasgow.

Mr Johnson has already held private meetings with Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.

In a joint statement with French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Angela Merkel and US president Joe Biden, the UK prime minister expressed a “grave and growing concern” over Iran’s “escalating nuclear program”.

Yet with social media, it isn’t the diplomacy of international conferences which catches people’s eye, of course, but rather any opportunity to ridicule our politicians – this time around, comparing them to an esteemed performer of slapstick.

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We’d join in with comparing him to a practical joker, but we feel the word ‘practical’ does a lot of heavy lifting.

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