The news that Rufus Hound is planning to stand as an MEP for the pro-NHS National Health Action Party makes him the latest in an increasingly long line of comedians dipping their toes into stormy political waters. In February last year Italian comedian Beppe Grillo received the most votes in his country's general election. In Iceland Jon Gnarr fronts the Best Party and is the current Mayor of Reykjavik.

Russell Brand might be encouraging us not to vote, but comedy seems to be directly engaging with politics more and more. Last year comedy writer John O'Farrell stood - albeit unsuccessfully – as a Labour candidate in the Eastleigh constituency. In his 20s O'Farrell had a brief bash at standup before landing a much more respectable job writing gags for Have I Got News for You. All that brushing up against bashful MPs in the green room seems to have been infectious. 

In recent years the line between these two careers becoming increasingly blurred, with politicians playing it for laughs and comedians on the soapbox. When Lembit Opik lost his seat at the last general election, he had a bash at stand-up. Not surprisingly, after all those years on the hustings, he was good at talking onstage. But he was less good at coming up with serviceable punchlines. From the other side of the fence, meanwhile, Eddie Izzard has regularly spoken about his future political plans.

Someone who seems to combine both careers, however, is Boris Johnson, who manages simultaneously to be both London mayor and zipwire-swinging buffoon. He was even voted second wittiest man in Britain in a poll a couple of years ago. Admittedly the winner was Bradley Wiggins, which somewhat takes the shine off the accolade. But whatever you think of his policies, Johnson does have a way with words and a haircut that might hold him in good stead down the Comedy Store on a Saturday night. This is the man who once said: "My chances of being PM are about as good as my chances of being reincarnated as an olive." 

Maybe it is the cult of personality. Maybe politics really is becoming so parodic that it is beyond satire and the only conclusion is: if you can't beat them, join them. Maybe, if the Graham Norton Show had been on in the 1950s, Churchill would have appeared on it, delivering those nuggets of wit on the BBC sofa rather than in Westminster.

The two worlds are clearly on a collision course. Charlie Brooker might have had this in mind when he wrote the Black Mirror episode in which a foul-mouthed blue cartoon bear stood in a byelection for a joke and ended up being taken so seriously he became a global tyrant. Rufus Hound seems to be way too nice to have such megalomaniacal ambitions. But a whiff of power can be very seductive…