Barry Soper: Has John Key gone a step too far?

All I want for cringe-mass: John Key sings the Mariah Carey Christmas classic - and it made some people feel uncomfortable.

The trouble with John Key is that he likes to be liked. He'll bend over backwards to accommodate, be it posing for duck face derpies with university students, publicly planking, or poncing along a catwalk showing his metrosexual side in a Rugby World Cup volunteer's outfit.

Key's the most unusual, off-beat person to hold the office of Prime Minister for several decades, if ever. Big Dave Lange did push the boundaries at times, once flashing his nukebuster's T shirt to bare breasted maidens in the Kenyan highlands and severely offending the White House which he was never invited to, but he came nowhere near the current incumbent.

John Key frequently over steps the mark and even embarrasses himself, like he did when he regularly pulled a waitress' ponytail, clearly not intending to cause offence but apologising for overstepping the behavioural boundary.

More recently he took part in an extraordinary breakfast radio interview where he was asked yes or no questions and said he didn't think the Virgin Mary was a virgin, said he didn't trim downstairs but admitted he had peed in the shower and had stolen something at some stage of his life.

He denied ever having sent a dick pic which the widely watched British host of Last Week Tonight in America John Oliver chortling that when you're Prime Minister John Key every pic of you is of a dick.

Does John Key go a step too far? His latest outing was to a couple of commercial radio stations. At the first one he was asked to enter a cage in the studio, which he reluctantly did after asking the show host whether he looked like a zoo animal.

Once inside he was asked to pick up a bar of soap, and to the uproarious laughter of the station's staff, he did. Apparently it's a reference to prison rape, which of course Key wouldn't have been aware of. When he observed the soap smelt bad and was greasy, he was told it was from a urinal.

LISTEN: Michelle Boag and Deborah Russell debate whether Key is an embarrassment

At the next station he was given a choice, pulling the ponytails of staff who'd lined up outside the studio or performing a karaoke. He did the latter and performed an out of key Mariah Carey rendition of All I want for Christmas.

All he needs for Christmas is a good break and perhaps a bit of time to reflect on how he can avoid putting himself into cringe making situations.

But then again his unusual antics don't appear to have done him any harm, so perhaps that's what he'll be reflecting on!

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