The notion that Trump has killed political comedy has been bandied about somewhat carelessly for at least the past three years, IMO. I'm largely in disagreement with the premise (most of those...
The notion that Trump has killed political comedy has been bandied about somewhat carelessly for at least the past three years, IMO. I'm largely in disagreement with the premise (most of those shows being cancelled isn't proof of Trump being impervious to satire, it's more like those shows just weren't all that funny), but I think the real value to the article is in its second half, reframing Trump as humorist-in-chief and understanding how he represents the right's sense of humor. One quote in particular gets to the heart of the performative nature of much contemporary political discourse:
Today’s right is at once more willing to say what it doesn’t mean for a laugh and more ready to frame what it does mean as a joke.
I thought the article was pretty solid in its explanations for changes in comedy, but saying Trump killed it is an overstatement, I agree with you on that. Liberal politcal comedy moved into a...
I thought the article was pretty solid in its explanations for changes in comedy, but saying Trump killed it is an overstatement, I agree with you on that. Liberal politcal comedy moved into a safer zone to practice where you can't misread a joke as anything but a joke. If we look at Trump as the Humorist in Chief, particularly the comparison to Don Rickles, we get to the main point: At least you could typically tell when a character like Yiannopolous was making a joke, even if a fair amount of them were bad. If we take his word for it, he was done in by one that simply didn't land (but, a really messed up joke). I thought he could be funny, when he wasn't saying truly messed up stuff (not trying to defend him at all).
The notion that Trump has killed political comedy has been bandied about somewhat carelessly for at least the past three years, IMO. I'm largely in disagreement with the premise (most of those shows being cancelled isn't proof of Trump being impervious to satire, it's more like those shows just weren't all that funny), but I think the real value to the article is in its second half, reframing Trump as humorist-in-chief and understanding how he represents the right's sense of humor. One quote in particular gets to the heart of the performative nature of much contemporary political discourse:
I thought the article was pretty solid in its explanations for changes in comedy, but saying Trump killed it is an overstatement, I agree with you on that. Liberal politcal comedy moved into a safer zone to practice where you can't misread a joke as anything but a joke. If we look at Trump as the Humorist in Chief, particularly the comparison to Don Rickles, we get to the main point: At least you could typically tell when a character like Yiannopolous was making a joke, even if a fair amount of them were bad. If we take his word for it, he was done in by one that simply didn't land (but, a really messed up joke). I thought he could be funny, when he wasn't saying truly messed up stuff (not trying to defend him at all).