Perhaps we shouldn’t take Trump so seriously. What would happen if we just laughed at his latest outlandish claim? After all, isn’t much of what he says comical? Calling himself “like really smart”, “a stable genius”, and bragging about how well he did on an evaluation to determine dementia, which he mistook for an IQ test, is side-splittingly hilarious!
So, why aren’t we laughing at him?
Nothing gets under the putrid mass of orange marmalade’s thin skin more than being the butt of jokes. It’s alleged that Trump got the idea about running for president when he was roasted by President Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondence Dinner. He has ripped into late night hosts who made fun of him, demanding they be fired. He even wanted his Justice Department to investigate what measures they could take against the writers on Saturday Night Live for their Alec Baldwin portrayals of him.
In typical, whiny, poor me fashion, Trump has lamented that he is the only one to be subjected to such ridicule. He’s obviously ignoring Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford, Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush and Tim Meadows’ Barack Obama, to name a few. Unlike his predecessors, Trump is unable to take a joke.
Being able to laugh at yourself is a sign of emotional maturity. It’s a capacity Trump lacks, thus a major reason he lashes out at the slightest perceived ridicule. It’s a character flaw that those who lack empathy possess. This makes him inherently dangerous.
Comedians have been using political figures as fodder for eons. The role of the Fool came about because no one wanted to speak truth to power lest they face execution. By turning commentary into comedy, the Fool was able to subtly point out a leader’s flaws.
The Trump administration had no shortage of clowns, but what they lacked was an actual fool. No one was willing to point out his mistakes. No one was brave enough to tell the emperor that he had no clothes.
Mark Twain and Will Rogers regularly skewered politicians. In the movies, Charlie Chaplin mocked Adolph Hitler in The Great Dictator. It was also a movie that concluded with one of the greatest speeches in cinematic history. Woody Allen lampooned Fidel Castro, right down to his trademark beard, in Bananas. And the current state of affairs, where the poorly educated hold the greatest power, mirrors the lot of the movie Idiocracy.
So, making fun of politicians is as American as apple pie.
If we all started laughing at Donald Trump, wouldn’t this take away his greatest weapon; the ability to bully and intimidate people into doing his bidding no matter the consequences?
And let’s face it, he’s given us plenty to laugh at. There’s the bizarre joke that the border wall would stop illegal immigrants from entering the country, and the even more ludicrous boast that Mexico would be paying for it. There’s the suggestion that we could nuke a hurricane to prevent it from inflicting damage on the American mainland. He took his show on the road and threw paper towels to hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico. And then there’s Sharpie-gate where he “jokingly” stretched the area covered by hurricane warnings by using a Sharpie to extend the supposed reach of the storm. Apparently hurricanes are a mainstay of his comedic repertoire.
(Editor's Note: Waldron forgot to mention Trump's advice to drink Clorox or a similar substance to cure Covid. Just saying...)
But why limit our laughter to just Trump? The Republican Party is filled with so many other jokers. How else would you explain the attention-grabbing antics of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz? These Three Stooges of the House are comic gold!
And let’s not forget those who seem to to mirror the screaming style of the late Sam Kinison. How else can you explain the rantings of Jim Jordan, Rand Paul and Josh Hawley. If they aren’t doing it for laughs, what’s the point?
Considering all the laughter these clowns have the potential to offer, we should all be rolling in the aisles. If only it weren’t so deadly serious.
Author’s Note: From this point on I will no longer be referring to particular members of the government by their respective titles. So, I won’t be citing senator this or congresswoman that. Instead, I will just refer to them by name. They don’t respect the offices they were elected to hold, so they don’t deserve to be referred to by a title they aren’t using.