Satire
The Marsh Family have pioneered a peculiar brand of topical musical satire, raising smiles (and sometimes hackles) about political events, personalities, and subjects. They disagree with the idea that children shouldn’t be involved in politics, and try to stay open-minded about the objects of their songs – even though the global collapse of integrity and governmental competence in recent years has inevitably slanted much of the content.
2024 started with songs about dubious Honours Lists and the Postmasters Scandal, and have since poked fun at both the Tory and Labour leadership. Spring satires took on questions of the Freedom of the Press, the London Mayoral Campaign, and General Election topics, accruing over 2.5 million views in May and June 2024. They released three songs in the lead-up to the American presidential election, including one about JD Vance who had commented disparagingly about the UK and two on Donald Trump. In 2025 they have offered musical commentary, satire, or solidarity on subjects including scandals such as AI, Elon Musk’s political influence, the Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, SignalGate, Tariffs, Epstein, pressure on US media outlets, claims about Hitler’s socialism, Pam Bondi, Rockets and PR stunts, Prince Andrew, Portland protests, flags and social media patriotism, Gaza, RFK Jr., Nigel Farage, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and more.
They have sung songs about climate change, vaccination, politicians’ comings and (mostly) goings, pandemics, journalism, culture war topics, inflation, sewage, international conflicts, and more besides. Many of the most popular satires are relyriced adapations of existing songs – though some draw on folk, Christmas, or original writing. The kids always have a veto on what is sung about, and there is always a competition over who gets the funniest lines.
Besides accruing some millions of views in the last year (including on Boris Johnson’s resignation, Gary Lineker’s battle with the BBC, and Rishi Sunak’s U-turn on climate policies) – their songs have featured or been talked about in political and satirical podcasts such as Americast (BBC Sounds), The Rest Is Politics (Alastair Campbell), been a commonplace ‘pudding’ on The Trawl (Marina Purkiss & Gemma Forte), and The Skewer (Jon Holmes). They have also featured on Alex Jones’s InfoWars, been blocked by James O’Brien, irritated Andrew Tate and Tommy Robinson, and aggravated a number of GB News presenters. The Spectator recently described them as “a combination of two big fads of the 70s, The Partridge Family and Jonestown.”
Puppets on a Kremlin String
This version of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” reprised a topic that the family has sung on multiple times: solidarity with Ukraine in the wake of Russian aggression and invasion. It summarised in particular the inflammatory Oval Office meeting in early 2025.
MTG Has Broken Cover
This song addressed the relationship fallout between two giants of the MAGA movement in the US in autumn 2025: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump, using the disco pulse of Michael Jackson’s iconic “Billie Jean” to poke some fun.
Vance VP
This twist on “Dancing Queen” by ABBA reflects on the hypocrisy and positional flex of the man who’d just been nominated as running mate for the big US 2024 election, JD Vance, and was partial to sharing critical views of the UK and Europe.