You're just trying to equate humour to populism, but I'm not buying it. You're doing it so much that you inadvertently are giving his direct opposition - Nigel Farage, an actual extreme populist - a pass, just because he's wearing a suit and tie.

Your comparisons are distasteful and strike me as someone who doesn't really know the man, and just tosses out preconceived notions at him. His messaging doesn't have any undertones of "look how much I'm better and superior than the bureaucrats, I'm just like you guys!". Frankly I'd say he's less like the average person than an average politician. Neither is his humour cheap, nothing like shrieking for 6 year olds that you automatically accuse him of.

He presents himself this way because it's what he's good at. He's a highly educated comedy and satire writer. Also, he runs as a single candidate and probably doesn't really expect to win - but he does take the political system seriously and wants people to be engaged with it.

Humor has always been with us. I don't see what makes it so horrible. If a story can drive a point through it, why can't political messaging? Why is making pertinant jokes about the current situation worse than reading bullet points off a list regardless of the argument being made?

It's not automatically horrible. But it's not a feature and it's suspicious. Hiding behind irony is very easy. It lets you puff platitudes and get cheap wins with the audience.

If you have real proposals, it will be interesting enough without the "ha-ha, I'm so quirky, I'm so random" costume.