Trump's War On Comedy Could Be His Undoing

 This post is by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich:

The one thing Trump can’t take is a joke, especially one at his expense. 

Yesterday — one day after ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s show off the air “indefinitely,” after pressure from the chairman of Trump’s Federal Communications Commission — Trump said federal regulators should revoke broadcast licenses over late-night hosts who speak negatively about him.

 

“They’re giving me all this bad press, and they’re getting a license,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”

It was bad enough in the early 1950s when the U.S. government criminalized certain speech during Joe McCarthy’s communist witch hunts. Those witch hunts were directed at alleged members of the Communist Party who supposedly posed a threat to America (although the vast majority of them were loyal Americans).

 

Late-night comedians pose no conceivable threat to America. They make people laugh. 

But they do pose a potential threat to Trump.

 

CBS’s cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show was announced just days after Colbert slammed CBS’s parent company, Paramount, for giving Trump $16 million to settle Trump’s defamation suit — which Colbert called a "big, fat bribe” to get the FCC to allow Paramount to merge with and be acquired by Skydance Media. 

Colbert was correct, of course.

 

Trump’s response to Colbert’s cancellation? “I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.”

Kimmel was next, and it’s probably not coincidental that ABC has also been a target of Trump’s defamation ire, finally settling with him for the same amount, $16 million.

 

Trump’s response to Jimmy Kimmel’s cancellation this week? "Great news for America.” Trump then added, “[t]hat leaves Jimmy [Fallon] and Seth [Meyers], two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC."

What does Trump have against late-night comedians? 

For as long as anyone can remember, they’ve been a source of jokes about those in power. In the wake of Kimmel’s firing, David Letterman, the longtime late-night host, said he’d routinely beat up on president after president over the years, and “not once were we squeezed by anyone from any governmental agency. Everyone sort of understood [it was] in the name of humor.” 

But Trump hates to be the object of humor. Some deep part of his reptilian brain understands that humor can be a more powerful antidote to tyranny than any other form of criticism. 

Laughter doesn’t just entertain, it subverts. Humor undermines tyrannical power that relies on projecting an image of inevitability and invincibility, by making a tyrant appear weak and vulnerable. Check one against Trump.

Laughter also undermines fear, which is used by tyrants to maintain control. When the public laughs at a leader, his oppressive control weakens. Check two against Trump. 

Finally, humor can remind people they’re not alone. When a joke is widely shared, it reveals that opposition is widespread, which can encourage and validate resistance.

 

Check three against Trump. 

At some level, Trump understands this. 

It’s also true that Trump’s fragile ego can’t stand to be ridiculed. 

Anyone who watched the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner got a glimpse of how much Trump hates being mocked. President Obama and Seth Meyers spent nearly five minutes roasting Trump over his promotion of the "birther" conspiracy theory. The audience roared. But Trump appeared to seethe. Some of his biographers have speculated that this event was a key factor in his decision to run for president in 2016.

 

Finally, Trump seems constitutionally unable to recognize humor. 

Unlike John F. Kennedy, whose wit encouraged us to laugh with him, or Ronald Reagan, whose funny asides endeared him to many who disagreed with his politics, Trump is humorless. 

He doesn’t laugh. He rarely smiles. He occasionally tells a humorous story at the expense of someone or some group he dislikes but he is incapable of self-deprecating humor. 

We don’t laugh with Trump. We only laugh at him.

 

In 2018, during his speech at the United Nations, his claim that “in less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country” drew loud guffaws from world leaders. (Taken aback, Trump responded, “Didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s okay.”)

For all these reasons, Trump’s war on late-night comedians may be his undoing.

 

It’s one thing to declare war on crime or undocumented workers or even liberals. But everyone loves to laugh. 

As Letterman said, “the institution of the President of the United States ought to be bigger than a guy doing a talk show, you know You can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful [that they’ll get a laugh]. That’s just not how this works.”

A Lot Of Politicians And Journalists Can't Take A Joke

(This photo of Michelle Wolf, from USA Today, is by Tasos Katapodis / Getty Images.)

The White House Correspondents' Dinner was held on Saturday night. For the second year in a row, Donald Trump skipped it. Other presidents have attended, taken the barbs from speakers, and then gave some of their own. It's a yearly occasion where presidents, journalists, and politicians show they can take a joke.

Unfortunately, Trump's narcissistic personality won't allow him to take a joke (even when given the opportunity to shoot back). He can't stand to be criticized, even when everybody knows it is a joke.

But Trump doesn't seem to be the only one that can't take a joke. The comedian delivering the main routine this year was Michelle Wolf (pictured). She took shots at Trump, his family and members of his administration, Democrats and Republicans, and journalists. Some of her jokes (and language) were a bit raunchy, but I thought she was very funny.

However, listening to the cable news pundits after the affair, you would have thought she spent the hour killing babies. A lot of journalists and politicians seemed to believe her jokes were inappropriate and over the top. I've never seen so many think-skinned people!

These people need to learn how to take a joke (even a bad one they may not like). Frankly, I think if politicians and journalists get upset over a few jokes, then they're in the wrong business.

Here are some of the jokes they considered to be too harsh and offensive:

On Sarah Huckabee Sanders:

“I have to say I’m a little star-struck. I love you as Aunt Lydia in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.‘ Mike Pence, if you haven’t seen it, you would love it.

“Every time Sarah steps up to the podium, I get excited, because I’m not really sure what we’re going to get. You know, a press briefing, a bunch of lies or divided into softball teams. ‘It’s shirts and skins, and this time don’t be such a little bitch, Jim Acosta!‘”

“I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful. She burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”

“And I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you know? Is it Sarah Sanders, is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is it Cousin Huckabee, is it Auntie Huckabee Sanders? What’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Oh, I know. Aunt Coulter.”

“She has the perfect last name for what she does, Conway ... You guys have got to stop putting Kellyanne on your shows. All she does is lie. If you don’t give her a platform, she has nowhere to lie. It’s like that old saying, if a tree falls in the woods, how do we get Kellyanne under that tree? I’m not suggesting she gets hurt. Just stuck. Stuck under a tree.”

On Ivanka Trump:

“There’s also, of course, Ivanka. She was supposed to be an advocate for women, but it turns out she’s about as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons. She’s done nothing to satisfy women. So, I guess like father, like daughter.”

On the White House correspondents’ dinner:

“This is long. This has been long.”

On being 32 years old:

“10 years too young to host this event and 20 years too old for Roy Moore.”

On being a woman:

“It’s 2018 and I’m a woman so you cannot shut me up. Unless you have Michael Cohen wire me $130,000.”

On the media:

“I know there’s a lot of people that want me to talk about Russia and Putin and collusion, but I’m not gonna do that, because there’s also a lot of liberal media here and I’ve never really wanted to know what any of you look like when you orgasm.”

On Trump missing the dinner:

“Of course, Trump isn’t here, if you haven’t noticed. He’s not here. And I know, I know, I would drag him here myself, but it turns out the president of the United States is the one pussy you’re not allowed to grab.”

On Trump’s wealth:

“People call Trump names all the time. And look, I could call Trump a racist or a misogynist or xenophobic or unstable or incompetent or impotent. But he’s heard all of those and he doesn’t care. So tonight, I’m going to try to make fun of the president in a new way, in a way that I think will really get him. Mr. President: I don’t think you’re very rich. Like I think you might be rich in Idaho, but in New York you’re doing fine.”

On euphemisms:

“(Trump) loves white nationalists, which is a weird term for a Nazi. Calling a Nazi a white nationalist is like calling a pedophile a ‘kid friend.‘ Or Harvey Weinstein a ‘ladies man.‘ Which isn’t really fair. He also likes plants.”

On the vice president:

“Mike Pence is what happens when Anderson Cooper isn’t gay.”

On Democrats:

“Democrats are harder to make fun of because you guys don’t do anything. People think you might flip the House and Senate this November, but you guys always find a way to mess it up. You’re somehow going to lose by 12 points to a guy named Jeff Pedophile Nazi Doctor.”

On the Trump administration:

“I did have a lot of jokes about cabinet members. But I had to scrap all of those because everyone has been fired. You guys are going through Cabinet members quicker than Starbucks throws out black people.”

On Mitch McConnell:

“Mitch McConnell isn’t here tonight. He had a prior engagement. He’s finally getting his neck circumcised. Mazel.”

On CNN:

“The most useful information on CNN is when Anthony Bourdain tells me where to eat noodles.”

On Fox News:

“Fox News is here. So you know what that means, ladies. Cover your drinks. Seriously. People want me to make fun of Sean Hannity tonight, but I cannot do that. This dinner is for journalists.”

On MSNBC:

“I watch ‘Morning Joe’ every morning. We now know Mika and Joe are engaged. Congratulations, you guys. It’s like when a #MeToo works out.”

On Megyn Kelly:

“What would I do without Megyn Kelly? Probably be more proud of women. Megyn Kelly got paid $23 million by NBC. Then NBC didn’t let Megyn go to the Winter Olympics. Why not? She’s so white, cold and expensive, she might as well be the Winter Olympics. And by the way, Megyn, Santa is black. The weird old guy going through your chimney was Bill O’Reilly.”

On newspapers:

“I’m not going to go after print media tonight because it’s illegal to attack an endangered species.”

On the media:

“You guys are obsessed with Trump. Did you use to date him? Because you pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you. He couldn’t sell steaks or vodka or water or college or ties or Eric. But he has helped you. He’s helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster and now you’re profiting off of him. And if you’re going to profit off of Trump, you should at least give him some money because he doesn’t have any.”

Trump's Resignation Letter (Ready To Tweet)

(This caricature of Trump is by DonkeyHotey.)

The following satirical letter is from USA Today. It was written by Ben Carter, and first appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Everyone knows that if President Trump resigns, he’ll do it on Twitter. Richard Nixon resigned in a letter to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, so here’s a letter of resignation from Trump to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. It's about 4,338 characters that he can copy and paste into about 32 tweets any time he’s ready. Preferably sooner rather than later.

Dear Secretary Tillerson, 

Before I make Mike Pence the next president — he will be a great president — probably almost as great as me. Before I make him president, I want to thank my many admirers for their support. To the HUGE majority of Americans who trusted me to be president, thank you. I am deeply humbled by your faith. No one has ever been more humbled.

I have rewarded your faith with tremendous accomplishments and hard, hard work. I haven’t been golfing since my historic victory. And, I definitely haven’t been making taxpayers pay for the Secret Service to rent golf carts from me to protect me at my golf courses. Believe me.

No president has ever worked harder than I have. My administration has done more in less time than anyone else. And, we did it all with NO HELP from the losers in the press and crybabies in Congress and showboaters in law enforcement who are RUINING America.

The vast majority of Americans know that my victory last November — record-breaking, really, a landslide, the largest election victory in history — my victory and policies are moving this country in the white, I mean, right direction again. America is GREAT again!

And, folks, FOLKS: We are still going to have health care. Big, beautiful health care — best in the world. I promised that everyone would be covered and they will. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that my bill will increase costs and cause 23 million people to lose insurance. The CBO is FAKE NEWS, just a bunch of Democrats with slide rules.

You may have heard that my budget eliminates funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission. It doesn’t. Believe me. My budget director can’t know everything that I’m doing and thinking — I’m moving very fast. We are going to go to Congress and get MORE money for the Appalachian Regional Commission. I love Eastern Kentucky. West Virginia. Real Americans. Beautiful people.

With Mike Pence as president, we will continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT. He and Mitch McConnell are working hard on tax relief, rounding up and deporting people, scrapping net neutrality rules, privatizing prisons, unwinding stupid regulations on banks and industries. LAW AND ORDER.

Speaking of law and order, as my last act as president, I am pardoning some members of my campaign staff and administration. First, your next president of the United States, Mike Pence. I’m pardoning him even though he did nothing wrong. Noth-ing. No one did anything wrong, but especially not Mike.

Next, I’m pardoning Michael Flynn, a great American. Wish I’d never let him go. The DEEP STATE wants you to believe that Michael Flynn took hundreds of thousands of dollars from Turkey and failed to register as a foreign agent. Didn’t happen. They want you to believe that he advocated for Turkey-friendly policies during my transition because he had received over half-a-million dollars in lobbying money. They claim he “lied” on paperwork and “lied” to Mike Pence about talking with Russian agents. FAKE NEWS. The real liar is CROOKED HILLARY. Lock her up!

I’m also pardoning my son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has been treated very unfairly. The kid is big league. Did I ask him to set up a secret back channel line of communication with the Russian government using equipment in the Russian Embassy? I don’t know. But, you have to admire his spunk and smarts. Zero foreign policy experience and he already knew enough not to trust his own intelligence agencies.

Finally, I’m pardoning myself. My lawyers have told me that I may not have the authority to pardon myself. But, it’s not a conflict because I’m president. My lawyers — I have the best lawyers — have also told me that I don’t need to pardon myself because I didn’t know enough about how the federal government works to have intentionally obstructed justice. It’s true: Me and my people asked other intelligence services to pressure the FBI to stop investigating ties between my campaign and Russia. It’s true: I fired that showboater James Comey to put an end to the Russia stuff, FAKE NEWS. Just in case, I hereby pardon myself.

I have been badly mistreated. It’s abuse, really, but I was willing to take it because I love America. Big, beautiful America.

I know all the elite-coast Democrats and crooked media people are dreaming of impeaching me, of the day they can turn to me and say, “Donald, you’re fired.” Well, guess what? THEY’RE FIRED. I resign.

President Trump

Colbert / Stewart

Social Commentary From A Great Comedian

Comedian Bill Hicks passed away a couple of decades ago at a very early age, but his words live on. And like Molly Ivins, George Carlin, and Lenny Bruce, his humor doubled as social commentary. He didn't just make people laugh -- he made them think. Here are some of his immortal words (the way he usually closed his act):

Is there a point to my act? I would say there is. I have to.

The world is like a ride, in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real, because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down, and round and round. It has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud and it's fun. For a while.

Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: "Is this real, or is this just a ride?"

And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, and they say, "Hey, don't worry. Don't be afraid, ever. Because this is just a ride."

And we . . . kill those people. Ha-ha!

"Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride! Shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real."

It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And we let the demons run amok.

But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride, and we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort. No worry. No job. No savings and money.

[It's] a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one.

Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, into a better ride: Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defense each year and, instead, spend it feeding, clothing, and educating the poor of the world - which it would do many times over, not one human being excluded. And we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever. In peace.

Please Tell Me This Is A Joke

Could this possibly be true? The world's most famous "C" student and worst president in the history of this country, George W. Bush, is writing a book. That's what the New York Times tells us. That's right. The ex-president who has trouble even speaking the English language is going to write a book (in English). But that's not the worst part. There are proof readers working for publishing companies, who can work tons of overtime hours translating Bush's book into readable English.

The really crazy part is what the book is going to be about. In his book, George is going to tell America how to solve its economic problems. Yes, you read that right. The man who inherited a budget surplus and turned it into the nation's largest ever deficit, sending this country into the deepest recession since the Great Depression, is going to give us his advice on how to boost economic growth. Here is his economic record:

* Inherited a budget surplus and turned it into a deficit of over $4 trillion.

* Presided over the biggest Wall Street crash since 1929 (costing investors trillions of dollars), and then spent $700 billion to bail out giant Wall Street banks (while hundreds of smaller banks across the country went under).

* Between 2001 and 2007 (before the crash and the recession) the Bush economy had the worst economic expansion of the post World War II era.

* In the first seven years of his presidency, Bush had the smallest job growth of any administration since World War II (and then many millions of jobs were lost in 2008).

* The Bush administration experienced the lowest GDP growth of any administration since World War II (and this is true even when the recession year of 2008 is not counted).

* Household income growth under Bush was negative for the first time since it started being tracked in 1967 (except for the 1% and the corporations, who did very well under Bush).

Is this really the man we want to be taking economic advice from? If this book is written, published, and purchased by bookstores for re-sale, it would be a crime to put it in the economics section. Maybe there'll be some room on the shelves dedicated to comedy. That's where it would belong.