Twitter was alight during the United Kingdom elections, with two words leading the trend: Lord Buckethead. That’s just two words, right?
Lord Buckethead was one of several people who ran for the Parliamentary seat for the county of Maidenhead, which happens to be the seat occupied by Theresa May, currently leader of the Conservative Party and more importantly, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
That meant that when votes were tallied in Maidenhead to determine who would retain the seat in the UK referendum election on June 8, May was on stage along with a guy called Lord Buckethead, waiting to hear who’d won. (It’s also worth noting that another candidate, Bobby Smith, was dressed as Elmo from “Sesame Street.”)
Lord Buckethead, as Buzzfeed UK noted, is an obscure villain from the 1984 sci-fi comedy film “Gremloids” (or “Hyperspace”), starring Chris Elliot and Paula Poundstone. Buckethead’s Twitter biography sheds slightly more light on who, exactly, the candidate is.
“Intergalactic space lord, running to be an independent Member of Parliament for Maidenhead. Enjoys planet-conquering, dominating inferior species, and Lovejoy,” the bio reads.
Lord Buckethead also created a manifesto of goals, should the Lord win election. It includes items such as “Buckethead on Brexit: A referendum should be held on whether there should be a second referendum,” and “The nationalization of Adele.”
Unfortunately for Lord Buckethead (and Elmo), May wound up winning her seat in Maidenhead with a commanding lead: 37,718 votes, to be exact. Lord Buckethead reported on Twitter capturing 249 votes on Twitter.
This isn’t the first time Lord Buckethead (or someone dressed as him) has run for office in the UK. A Lord Buckethead ran for Margaret Thatcher’s parliamentary seat in 1987, winning 131 votes. And either a Lord Buckethead or the Lord Buckethead ran in 1992, against Thatcher’s successor, John Major.
Despite losing the election, Lord Buckethead belatedly captured the hearts and minds of the Internet — mostly because photos of a villain from a 1984 movie standing with serious politicians is hilarious.
Lord Buckethead has arrived at the Maidenhead count. He's complaining about the state of his Pizza Express. #GE2017 pic.twitter.com/Fj5eYQ1Q6O
— Harry Yorke (@HarryYorke1) June 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/873001391970807808
https://twitter.com/NoLaughingMata/status/873001898164584449
https://twitter.com/scottbix/status/873014998179745794
@LordBuckethead This is what makes Britain so great..go buckethead! pic.twitter.com/EC4bHrZuy0
— MarianneShillingford (@m_shillingford) June 8, 2017
Other #GeneralElection results (seriously)
—Lord Buckethead: 249 votes
—The Official Raving Monster Loony Party: 119
—Bobby "Elmo" Smith: 3 pic.twitter.com/V1Hjh2JcZO— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) June 9, 2017
At the very least, running was enough to produce this photo of a person wearing a parody Darth Vader costume next to the UK’s prime minister.
https://twitter.com/LordBuckethead/status/873006103562473474