Editing If... (comic) (section)

==Caricatures==
Many of the political and other public figures who are lampooned gain [[in-joke]] characteristics, which often build into plot strands of their own. Examples include:

===Prime ministers===
* [[Margaret Thatcher]], depicted with a mad, staring eye, a pointed nose, wide neck, big hair and generally masculine features.
* [[John Major]], who began appearing with [[underpants]] on the outside of the trousers of his suit, when it was claimed that he tucked his [[shirt]] into them. Bell referred to this as "the badge of an essentially crap [[Superman]]". (This report was false, having been made up by [[Alastair Campbell]] during his late days on the ''[[Daily Mirror]]''[https://web.archive.org/web/20050405062605/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/02/13/do1310.xml]. Nevertheless, it fitted popular perceptions of Major's naive suburban incompetence so well that many people today still believe it to be true.)
*[[Tony Blair]], depicted with the same mad, staring eye as Margaret Thatcher and a very pointed head which, along with his ears, can be used to make any object (speed cameras, pylons, giant eye, poodle) represent him, playing upon his increasingly [[authoritarian]] image.
*[[Gordon Brown]], depicted as a grumpy ruthless [[Scottish people|Scot]] and can be used to make any object (bear, snail, lion, Stalin) to represent him.
* [[David Cameron]], initially portrayed as a jellyfish, later as a tumescent pink condom.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/oct/09/simon-hoggart-diary|title=What David Cameron said to Steve Bell|date=8 October 2010|access-date=8 July 2017|newspaper=The Guardian |last1=Hoggart |first1=Simon }}</ref>

===Leaders of the opposition===
* [[Neil Kinnock]], portrayed as a bald man in a suit spouting an endless stream of incoherent waffle.
* [[William Hague]], portrayed as a squat figure (sometimes a schoolboy) with a very bulbous head like a light bulb or the [[The Mekon|Mekon]].
* [[Iain Duncan Smith]], portrayed as a blank-faced [[zombie]].
* [[Michael Howard]], portrayed as a [[vampire]] owing to comments about his apparent sinister personality by [[Conservative Party (UK)|Tory]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) [[Ann Widdecombe]] and his ancestors being from [[Romania]].
* [[Ed Miliband]], portrayed as a badger or panda owing to the white streak in his hair.
* [[Jeremy Corbyn]], portrayed as [[Obi-Wan Kenobi]] from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' film series.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/sep/29/steve-bells-if-labours-obi-wan-kenobi-corbyn-gives-a-dire-warning|title=Steve Bell's If ... Labour's Obi-Wan Kenobi Corbyn gives a dire warning|first=Steve|last=Bell|date=29 September 2015|access-date=8 July 2017|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>

===Other political figures===

*[[Donald Trump]], portrayed as entirely orange, aside from his eyes, with tiny hands and a toilet seat and lid instead of a hairstyle.
*[[Ronald Reagan]], whose persona mutated from a bumbling, heavily stage-managed actor into a [[senile]] yet dangerous [[robot]] with a missile like pointed head, including being deployed in space as a component of the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]].
*[[George W. Bush]] as a [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzee]], ignorant of events around him. Inspired by the film ''[[Bedtime for Bonzo]]'', in which [[Ronald Reagan]] appeared with a chimp, Bell greeted Bush's election with a cartoon entitled "Bigtime for Bonzo", depicting Bush as Reagan's chimp. In war themed cartoons, the Bush-chimp sometimes appears dressed as [[Darth Vader]], complete with banana-shaped lightsabre. After the 2006 mid-term elections he was occasionally depicted as a duck with a broken leg and a crutch - an obvious reference to his second-term status as a 'lame duck president'.
* [[Michael Heseltine]] as [[Tarzan]] with a loincloth on, sometimes over his suit, due to an incident in the House of Commons when he picked up and brandished the Mace (symbol of the authority of the monarch in parliament). Subsequently [[Michael Heseltine]] was portrayed as Mad Mike, a reference to [[Mad Mike Hoare]] the notorious British Mercenary who operated in Africa. This was when [[Michael Heseltine]] was appointed by [[Margaret Thatcher]] as UK Minister of Defence and on one occasion dressed in an army camouflage parka for an inspection of a Cruise Missile Base following the police and military eviction of an encampment of anti-nuclear protesters.
* [[John Prescott]], as a dog called Market who Blair has had neutered, a reference to Blair's control over the left of the Labour Party.  More recently portrayed as [[Yoda]].
* [[George Osborne]], as a pig with a 'cute, curly tail' which voters seemingly like and, more recently, in a [[gimp suit]].  Has also been portrayed as [[Darth Vader]] (though called 'Lord Bumnose').
* Labour politicians [[Tom Watson (Labour politician)|Tom Watson]], [[Hilary Benn]], [[John McDonnell]], [[Ken Livingstone]] and [[Sadiq Khan]] have all been portrayed as characters from the [[Star Wars]] film series.
* [[Rebekah Brooks]], portrayed as [[Medusa]].