Not before time, the nation had cause to ponder the obvious: Education Minister Christopher Pyne as a creature from another planet.

It took an American comedian, an American-born Nobel Prize winning physicist, and Q&A -  the ABC's Monday night exploration of the deeper, stranger recesses of our national psyche - to bring us to this necessary point.

The education minister was penned on one side by Professor Brian Schmidt - a smartypants accredited as such beyond any measure of which a smartypants MP might dream - and on the other by Ruby Wax, a performer possessed of the kind of acid, sassy tongue one imagines Christopher Pyne practises in his bathroom mirror on his days off.

You might have thought the withering wit of Wax and the brain power of Nobel-bearing Schmidt would tame the brio of the man we now know as "the fixer". But late in the hour, when talk turned to life on other planets, it was Ruby who summoned the mental picture of Christopher, Klingon from another galaxy - or as Wikipedia describes the species, an "extraterrestrial humanoid warrior".

"On the other planet," inquired Wax of Schmidt, "do you think there are people like him?"

"I'd go," she continued with an exuberance and affection unfamiliar in recent conversations about the controversial minister.

Enamoured of his hitherto hidden charm, Pyne - recent star of a YouTube Star Wars parody - piled on: "We can go together."

Never let it be said that this Jar Jar Binks of the Abbott cabinet would let a one-liner pass unmined for another gag. It was a spectacle that rendered his Labor sparring partner at the other end of the table non-plussed. "I'm still reeling at Ruby's joke ... Is there one of him there?" was Penny Wong's thought on life on other planets.

And with that, The Fixer was off: "What about Ruby and I have a child, didn't you hear that bit?"'

Wong: "I missed that bit."

Pyne: "Don't tell my wife, she'd be very embarrassed."

Hard to imagine, minister. Very hard to imagine.

 

This endgame on Monday's Q&A was of a piece with the good-humoured debate that had preceded it. Left-field questions were the order of the night - there was an audience inquiry about mental health as it related to the air tragedy in France; and another about the recent employee-biffo scandal involving sacked Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson.

This latter question gave rise to a discussion about bullying, which prompted Wax to note: "The way that politicians bully each other ... We're seeing it here."

This was a reference to the DNA of Q&A: the standard pitting of politicians from the major parties on almost every program panel, with predictable results. But on Monday night, Minister Pyne gave the game away: we can mostly take the contentious to-and-fro on our screens with a grain of salt.

"This is just banter," he jovially assured us of his clashes with Senator Wong. "We've known each other since uni days."

Then, a further question about conflict in the standard party-room meeting drew this candid response: "Is there more intra-party fighting than fighting between parties? It's a very interesting point. I've been around parliament for 22 years, Penny for not quite as long as that but at least 15 or more. Intra-party fighting can be just as intense if not more intense than party fighting."

It was an honest - and given the times, almost other-wordly - answer from a politician whose own party currently fits that very description. Well done, Commander Pyne - but your observation may not go down well on Planet Earth. If they ask you again, best zip your lip and head back to the Mother Ship.  And may the force - or whatever it is you're on - be with you.