Many readers my age and older remember the British comic duo “The two Ronnies.” This show was very popular in the 1980s. A classic comedy and sketch show featuring Ronnie Barker (who also often wrote the sketches, and who passed away in 2005) and Ronnie Corbett (who passed away last year).

When Joseph Muscat put together his extra-large cabinet he managed to include a pair of politicians who have become fodder for all the comedians performing in the local Pantos and Comedy (K)nights.

These are the two Mizzis - Konrad Mizzi and Joe Mizzi. Two very different characters who have become a constant, sad joke for all those who follow the political scene. There wasn’t one show this Christmas which did not feature either of the Mizzis, if not both.

Konrad Mizzi took top billing particularly for his role in the Panama Papers but I am sure that his latest stunt, when he increased the price of fuel after calendaring the complete opposite, must have had script writers making last-minute adjustments to the shows still on the boards in January 2017.

Joe Mizzi definitely came a close second to Konrad, as the Minister for Traffic who managed to create a much bigger chaos on our streets without proposing one, seriously realistic solution. At the popular Comedy Knights, an email was sent every evening with the most absurd proposals for Joe Mizzi to try to find a solution to the traffic congestion problem.

Their argument was, “No matter how absurd we are, we are just as absurd as the minister and at least we are proposing something.”

I don’t know if he actually bothered to reply to any of the emails but this week the issue of traffic took another turning. A new law will be presented in parliament to amend the traffic regulations... yet, this law was not put forward by Joe Mizzi but by Owen Bonnici.

Poor Joe, they won’t even allow him to fix his own mess!

I have had the opportunity to speak to some of the actors and script writers involved in the panto and comedy shows. They told me that this year script-writing was a huge challenge. What can you leave out? And when do you actually conclude the script?

Of course corruption, Panama and traffic remained ever present but changes were made daily to include the “Goverment” (sic) billboard for instance and Konrad’s season greetings video clip. It was tough to keep up with everything. Massive stories like Brexit and Trump were side-lined.

What worries me about all this is that we are all so quick to laugh at what is going on that we might have lost the true meaning of how very serious this really is.

In 2011, Labour took people to the streets to protest against the increase in the price of fuel. Today there is almost indifference. A four cents increase in the price of fuel means very little to people who know that this same government has over spent the last budget by some €250 million. People are not questioning critically anymore, and that could, sadly, become indifference.

As the educational philosopher Robert Hutchins put it, “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”

It is very healthy for us to laugh at ourselves but let us never become indifferent.