This is the perfect touch, the much needed bit of comic relief that we all can use. Donald needs it too, except he can’t stand laughter. Mark Twain said, “Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.” And especially not a bloated, 300 plus pound ego, with floofy combed over sprayed hair, leg braces, a catheter, edema, shoe lifts, and a burnt sienna makeup job. It’s common lore that Trump was so miffed when Obama teased him at the White House Press Correspndent’s Dinner back in the day that he decided to run for president at that time. For revenge. I’m sure Obama never dreamt of that result in a million years or he would have bitten his tongue. Anyhow, here is the best rendition of the Epstein saga that you’re going to find.
I love it. I positively love it. Andy Borowitz has a great take on this character defect of Trump’s.
When George W. Bush launched his War on Terror, I noted that it was the first time in history that someone had declared war on a human emotion. If Bush defeated terror, I wondered, what was next—shyness?
Now Donald Trump has declared a War on Laughter, and I suspect it will be every bit as successful as Bush’s crusade.
Trump’s fear of being laughed at is nothing short of pathological. For years he’s been a crybaby about his portrayal on “Saturday Night Live.” And it was Barack Obama’s mockery of him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner that reportedly impelled him to run for president. (Thanks, Obama.)
Like everything else rattling around in the commodious cavern of Trump’s brain, his fear of ridicule is unoriginal: he shares it with pretty much every dictator in the world. You might have noticed, for example, that there isn’t a thriving comedy scene in Pyongyang.
The autocrats’ anxiety is entirely justified. Comedy is their kryptonite. They rule by intimidation, and when we laugh at them, their power to scare us evaporates. As Mark Twain wrote in The Mysterious Stranger, “Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.”
Which brings me to Trump’s latest target in his War on Laughter: Stephen Colbert.
Earlier this week, Colbert roasted the quislings at CBS’s parent company, Paramount, for donating $16 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle a risible lawsuit he filed against them. Given that Shari Redstone, Paramount’s biggest shareholder since the death of her icky father, is desperate to keep the government from scuttling a merger that will make her even richer, Colbert was justified in calling the payment a “big fat bribe.”
Yesterday, Trump’s proxies at CBS dutifully canceled Colbert, issuing the following statement: “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
No offense to Colbert, but the funniest comedian at CBS is whoever wrote that statement. They might be the most hilarious words ever typed, with the possible exception of the phrase “Trump’s presidential library.”
I seriously doubt this is the last we’ll hear from the indefatigably creative Colbert, who will likely move to a new platform where he’ll enjoy more freedom and financial success than he had at CBS.
And as for Trump, he might think he’s winning the War on Laughter—but much like George W. Bush, he’s going to discover that his mission is far from accomplished. He can cancel all the comedians he wants, but he will never make us stop laughing at him.
And Trump can’t stand that. Trump cited the Lincoln Project in his lawsuit against Murdoch.
What Donald doesn’t get is that the world is an anti-Trump organization. The man is hated. And I think he knows that on some level. But he never, ever, in a kazillion years thought that his vaunted base would turn on him, his MAGAts. That’s where his real trouble lies.
Laughter really is tRump’s kryptonite. He hides from it in every shadow of denial and obfuscation he hurls at those who seek less to destroy him than to stand back and chuckle (cheer!!!) while he destroys himself. Which he seems to be doing, first in slow motion in the nine interminable years since his less than amusing descent on his gilded escalator, and now with ever-increasing alacrity as he hurtles through the Epstein Emergency. He brought this situation on himself by promising (once again) that which he most certainly had no intention of delivering, but which now, his beloved MAGAt followers are demanding. Their devotion to him appears to be crumbling and they will be satisfied with nothing less than a blood bath. Whose blood remains to be seen.
He can’t laugh at himself. Obama can. Obama describes himself as a “skinny guy with big ears that stick out.” I think Obama is handsome and so do most people. But Obama can make light of flaws that he may or may not have. Trump cannot. He can’t even admit flaws he does have, like obesity. He lies that he’s 234 pounds, 6’3″. Try 350 pounds and 5’10. That’s more in the ballpark.
hope Colbert’s band plays on…!
The Colbert issue is not done yet. Everybody is on CBS’s case. This is a PR disaster. I would bet good money that somehow, things will get rearranged and another “financial” decision will be made. I don’t see Colbert going into that dark night gently. I see CBS backing off.
$16 million for the ‘Presidential Library’ would seem more than enough to pay for one.
With a one acre grift shop selling ‘memorabilia’, the only other thing needed is a small room with two shelves.
One for the book.
One for the colored Sharpie pens.
I humbly suggest a repurposed ex phone box would suit.