In these benighted and uncertain times, I’m thinking of those I wish were here. In 2015, when Jon Stewart left Comedy Central, I remember thinking what a loss he was to us in the fraught months leading up to the 2016 election and its aftermath. We had Colbert, albeit in a different role, but I still missed Jon.
I am so glad he returned to The Daily Show last year. While I mostly but not always agree with him, I absolutely value the need for his brand of humour. Jon’s charm, intelligence, and sharp wit are the ingredients of an antidote to the venomous right. It doesn’t completely neutralise the poison but his brand of truth-telling does make the relentless propaganda less impactful.
Unlike Jon, there are three satirists among the all-time greats who will not be making a return appearance in this lifetime. The first of these is the legendary Dorothy Parker (1893–1967). She began her writing career as a poet but then branched into theatre criticism for Vanity Fair, book reviews for The New Yorker, stage plays for Broadway and screenplays for Hollywood.
In “Dorothy Parker and the Art of the Literary Takedown” The New Yorker, Nov 1, 2024, Sloane Crosley wrote:
She was adored, emulated, and compensated in her time (for someone who loved to complain about money, she made a ton of it). I will only add that she invented American comedy as we now deploy it. She did this by making it beautiful. She refined the wisecrack, and in particular she packed the aside with meaning.
Parker became more politically aware and active in 1927 when she began what would become a lifelong commitment to activism. In 1933, when informed that famously taciturn former president Calvin Coolidge had died, Parker remarked, “How could they tell?”
But not all politics earned her acerbic wit. She was a great admirer of Martin Luther King Jr’s work with civil rights groups. In her will, she bequeathed her estate to King and, upon his death, to the NAACP.
With witty one-liners like these:
imagine what she would have made of Phony47 and the Lone Husk. What an asset this avowed Leftist would have been if we’d had her with us now.
Next on my list is national treasure, Molly Ivins (1944–2007). After seeing Kathleen Turner’s theatre portrayal of “this six-foot tall, red-haired Texan who spoke truth to power”, filmmaker Janice Engel said, “She went after stupidity and she was fearless, and man, she was funny.” Engel went on to make Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins (click on the link and watch the preview with sound), a documentary released in 2022.
From Kera News, March 2022:
Ivins amused or enraged her fellow Texans for decades with comments like this:
“Texas has always been the National Laboratory for bad government. I mean, if you want to see a bad idea tried, we’ve tried it.”
Or her cheerful opening for a Dallas Times Herald column: “Happy May Day, comrades.”
Kaye Northcott, Ivins’ friend and editor at the Texas Observer, recalled that when she came to her job interview at the Observer, she brought a case of beer. She got the job.
Ivins is remembered as a staunch feminist, an outspoken liberal who’s frequently quoted for such lines as her description of Patrick Buchanan’s “culture war” speech at the RNC in 1992: “It probably sounded better in the original German.”
Another of my favourites was recently quoted by Andy Borowitz of The Borowitz Report:
Molly Ivins’s quote about Dan Quayle applies equally well to Donald Trump: “If you put that man’s brain in a bumblebee, it would fly backwards.”
Ivins used humor to mock; this was political satire, a scourge of the powerful. But she also used it to cheer up her readers. In the rough and tumble of politics and punditry, she was a happy warrior. She didn’t want readers to lose hope.
This is why I miss her presence now. You see, not all warriors are armed with swords or guns. Molly was a warrior and her weaponry was words. We can all be warriors too and fashion weaponry from our strengths. Knowledge can be a weapon and even compassion when you’re faced with callousness and disdain.
Like Molly, I don’t want my readers to lose hope. I want to give you real hope in the form of accessible actions you can take that are empowering and purposeful. And you should have humour too.
The third in this celestial trio of satirists is John Clarke (1848–2017). John was born in New Zealand where his career took off with a beloved character called Fred Dagg. He relocated to Australia in 1977 which opened him up to a wide range of new opportunities and he took full advantage of them.
He’s best known for his collaboration with Bryan Dawe. Clarke and Dawe developed an unusual but very simple format that worked extraordinarily well. Brian played the interviewer and John the interviewee. Neither changed their appearance or voices for their various characterisations and each interview lasted between 2 and 2.6 minutes. It shouldn’t have worked but it did, for 28 years.
Rather than try to explain it further, I’ve chosen some of my favourite C&D interviews to show you.
The half-hour documentary commemorating his work is called John Clarke: Thanks For Your Time. It’s hosted by Bryan Dawe and showcases the extraordinary variety of his career from his earliest days in New Zealand.
I miss John’s humour, the sharpness of honesty he injected into satire, and his genuine affability.
In 2017, during the first reign of mediocrity and multifarious mistakes, I realised that human beings need humour; that it is essential for our wellbeing. But in the years 2017-2020, humour was in short supply and we suffered for it psychologically and emotionally. As we wade through the morass of this second reign of horrors, please monitor your personal humour meter and boost your levels whenever you have the opportunity. It’s just as important as having sufficient amounts of oxygen, Vitamin B12 and cortisol.
Clever satire has multiple benefits. In addition to boosting your immune system and improving your psychological and emotional health, it exercises the brain, sometimes adding to your knowledge and providing a new perspective. Make a mental or written list of those who tickle your funny bone and visit with them regularly. Seek out new sources of laughter like Michael McIntyre’s Silent Letter Day, Jim Jeffries’ Gun Control Part 1 & Part 2, and Eddie Izzard’s Death Star Canteen and Joining The Army. Share your favourites in the comments.
Spread humour around. It’s good for you; it’s good for all of us.
Michelle is also the author of the weekly Furkids column: From The Beatles With Love
You can follow Michelle on Blue Sky: @michelleelle.bsky.social
You are so right, Michelle! We need humor for our mental health. During the first occupation, at least we had the huge, inflatable baby. We need something along those lines now.
I’ll talk to Claude from Mad Dog PAC. I’m not sure if he has an inflatable baby but he does have the T-Rat and I’ll ask about their plans to deploy it.
T-Rat
I think he is still doing billboards… FWIW
It’s been noted that Lincoln, who had some awfully dark times in life even before becoming President had a physical and psychological need for laughter. It seems few realized it, but he was lucky that he had Gov. Seward at his side. Seward initially had grand plans to usurp Lincoln but ole Abe gave him rope to hang himself with politically. Seward came to admire him in fact because he realized Lincoln was not only far smarter than everyone (including himself) had thought but used people’s understimation of him to great advantage.
I can’t imagine the burdens Lincoln bore guiding this country through the Civil War. How crushing it all was and as someone who’d experienced long bouts of full-on depression that rendered him non-functional during his pre-President life he surely came close multiple times. It was Seward who could recognize that and renew/lift Lincoln’s spirits. Seward would start in hitting Lincoln with “stories”, one after the other. I put stories in quotes because they were really long-winded and complicated jokes. (frequently ribald in nature) He’d keep at it until he broke through and Lincoln would go through one of those long, full ‘belly-laughs’, the kind we have that are so robust we’re almost gasping for air as we wipe our eyes.
It always did the trick. Lincoln’s will, spirit and determination were restored.
I think you’ve pointed out something important. We ALL need a good dose of laughter. Great satire towards the flaming orange human shaped rectum we know as Trump, as well as those around him is something this country and the free world desperately needs. Like all dictators or wannabe dictators Trumpty-Dumpty HATES being mocked or made fun of. I keep hoping that Mel Brooks, who’s long past the ability to create a full “thing” has jotted down some notes and talked with someone he believes has the ability to do a “Blazing Saddles” number on Trump. And that said person has the skill and guts to get it done.
I’m a fan of ShowerCap and his once a week Friday night blog. It’s too bad that back in 2017 HE didn’t get to meet and hang out with Brooks for a while. Between the two of them they could have outlined several projects, and Brooks could well have found folks in Hollywood that could get them made. Oh well.
Thank you, Michelle, for providing Clarke & Dawe. I was not familiar and these are hysterical. 🤣
I once had the great good fortune to meet Molly Ivins at a book-signing here in El Paso. She was exactly as wonderful as you would imagine. Before opening a person’s book to sign it, she engaged in conversation so she could sign a truly personal little statement just for each one of us. I told her that I was eager every month to leap to the back page of The Progressive Magazine to read her column. But, I admitted I looked for her second because my first stop was the No Comment page where the 6 or 8 strangest news items from around the US were located. Molly winked at me and said that was always her first stop because she got so many good columns from those snippets. She might have been fibbing about that, but it sure drew me closer to hear her say it! She was the best!! 🥰
Between Molly Ivins and Ann Richards, Texas has produced some top rate talent.
And Barbara Jordan
Unlike Lincoln, I am of the belief that trump is incapable of laughter, though no doubt he is wont to laugh at AN Other’s misfortune. He must be moving into ecstasy about all those caught up in the current chaos
Tom.Meyer and That Was the Week That Was. Cancelled two soon. We could use that now.
Michelle, thank you for your column on humor. Were you pulling our leg when you wrote that John Clarke died at the age of 169? Many people are challenging Elon Musk’s story that a 150-year-old was drawing Social Security benefits; I was among them. If you were being serious about Clarke’s longevity, I may have to give Musk the benefit of the doubt long enough to give him time to back up his claim.