I don’t watch late night talk shows, but these days I read the newspaper’s recaps of their opening monologues to appreciate pointed jokes at Trump’s expense.
My enjoyment of their making fun of the President – often ridiculing him – leaves me feeling a bit guilty. First, because none of what he is about or what he is doing is a laughing matter. And second, because we’re not supposed to laugh at people. Of course, with all his puffed up, humorless vanity, Trump could be the exception to that rule too!
You know the adage “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”? It’s usually pitched towards social justice movements, the press and preachers. Could it also be the public’s best stance against out of control politicians?
Laughing at Trump is a way to deal with him. Yes, he is threatening. Running amok. Doing horrible damage (literally taking lives daily). It’s not funny. Wanting to be feared, he doesn’t mind being recognized as evil. Humiliation, deprivation, lawlessness and death are his bag of tricks. Jesus teaches that the truth will set us free. Laughter goes along way towards freedom too.
Humor is one way to cope with our fear and dread. Laughter can dismantle fear. OTPOR, a Serbian student organizing group, took a sarcastic response to regular police beatings by joking, “It only hurts if you’re scared.” Their attitude wasn’t cavalier: it was tactical. They refused to grow fear.
Journalist Masha Gessen writes that jokes “reclaim the power to define – and inhabit – reality.” Laughing at Trump cuts him down to size. And humor releases tension, communally even. Trump as a bad joke is not ultimately the best way to deal with him, but while we have little choice, it’s A WAY to deal with him.
And humor normalizes resistance. You don’t have to ‘disrupt and disobey’ or get tear-gassed. Non-violent non-cooperation is powerful, but so is laughing along with millions as Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Jimmy Fallon skewer Trump’s daily nonsense. I also find myself chuckling over the antics of protesters in Portland – people in blow up costumes and seniors with ukuleles and their heartfelt choruses of “This Land Is Your Land.”
Jokes at the expense of authoritarians, political scientists tell us, are an effective tool because humor subverts the leaders’ authority, exposes and highlights their flaws and unites people against their oppressive power. Authoritarian power relies on projecting an image of invincibility and inevitability. Jokes undercut that by making leaders appear weak, vulnerable, ridiculous, absurd. Meeting Trump’s over-the-top pronouncements and endless “Executive Orders” with humor, even gallows humor, and you undermine all his crazy claims.
Laughter also breaks down the culture of obedience; it deprives authoritarians of their power to cultivate deference and fear. Comedians and satirists not only question the leader’s credibility; they invite and inspire audiences to join them. As popular social critics, they end up act as crucial defenders of free speech, and they create connections and solidarity among the opposition. “Hey, I’m not the only one feeling this way!”
Trump’s pique over the late night monologues isn’t surprising. He’s a comic’s dream; the material he feeds ‘the joking class’ would be unbelievable, if it weren’t true. My fave: Trump’s wordy run-on, ridiculous exaggeration that he was going to bring down drug prices as much as 4000%! Good news to the person I know paying $18K a month out of pocket for his cancer medication: the pharmaceutical company will pay that patient $720,000 a month for the meds he needs to stay alive!
After the Smothers Brothers apologized to Lyndon Johnson for going after him on their show with anti-establishment and anti-Vietnam War jokes, the President wrote a public letter back to them: “It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.” Can you imagine Trump finding the emotional space, humble sense of self or poliical acumen to laugh at himself, much less invite the rest of us to?
Join us Saturday at the ‘No Kings’ protest to march with the church (we’re meeting up in front of Arch Street Methodist, 55 N. Broad at 11:30 am): protest signs are often quite clever, sometimes hilarious. And they and all the marchers will drive Trump nuts.
In faith and courage,
Michael
