One of the things we do enjoy without the help of flashbacks is the humour of politics. "We don’t like to laugh at ourselves, only at others," says Arshad ‘Circuit’ Warsi, the newest star of this newly resurgent comedy industry. And politicians seem like the best loved, most real entertainers as their every misstep, every fight and every backtrack becomes fodder not only for news shows but also in the slightly twisted world of news comedy shows. With many of India’s most colourful personalities entering Parliament, from the bombastic Navjot Singh Sidhu to Dharmendra and Govinda, politicians are not far behind. Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati’s high voltage rants, Laloo Yadav’s never ending one-liners, complete with amnesia about what he said outside Parliament, Vajpayee’s long pauses or Sonia Gandhi’s accent, all make for readymade entertainment without trying too hard. So, Polkhol, Star News’ surprise hit, has a team that watches all the news channels, replaying all the misspeaks at primetime. "There’s so much entertainment in politics, these days. All we do is hold up a mirror to that," says host Shekhar Suman.