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Snl mocks liberals11/18/2023 If satire is always an ironic representation, then under Trump it became an ironic representation of an ironic representation. In fact, the most significant Trump effect on satire was to produce ironic irony. Yet, the effect was not the end of irony but, rather, a reinvention of satire’s primary mode of representational defiance. The audience watching Trump handle the crisis knows that the ending won’t go well but also knows that they are stuck in the same play. Such a claim was deeply tragicomic: Trump-the deranged buffoon-threatens the health of the nation. If satirists’ invective is their hammer, how were they to use it on a figure who was already a bombastic bully? If another of their skills is parody, what to make of someone who already was parodic? After Trump was elected, New Yorker satirical columnist Andy Borowitz explained: “We’re living in an age that defies satire.” 9 Think, for example, of Trump’s suggestion that drinking bleach might offer protection from the coronavirus. Because Trump was both absurd and terrifying, because he was both parody and credible threat, he created a unique situation for satirists, one where many of the common tools they carry in their comedic toolkit didn’t work. The story of Trump’s relationship to satire is not just filled with similarly surprising anecdotes rather, the complexities of the Trump figure itself created an unusual situation for satire, one that required it to adapt and change in novel ways. 7 But the critical point is that Trump did more than complain he actually looked into whether he could find avenues to restrict political comedy targeting him. His anxieties led to debates over how conservatives could defend themselves against liberal bias in late-night comedy. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion? 6 It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. His Twitter response to the skit revealed, though, that Trump wanted to go further than just complain about jokes he wanted to shut them down:Ī REAL scandal is the one-sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live. 5 In it, everyone has a better life if Trump isn’t in office unsurprisingly, he wasn’t amused. One SNL skit from December 2018 parodied It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946). Throughout his 2016 campaign and after, Trump made a habit of complaining about jokes he felt were critical of him, regularly taking to Twitter to grouse after seeing a joke on late-night comedy. 4 Whether or not Trump could “get” a joke, one thing is clear: he didn’t like being the butt of one. Seth Meyers once reflected on working with Trump as a guest host of Saturday Night Live and wondered if Trump even had the capacity to process comedy. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.” 3 But Trump displayed none of that good-natured self-mocking. Jimmy Carter quipped after leaving the White House, “My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. 2 Ronald Reagan made jokes about his age. In fact, one common trait of many US presidents has been the capacity to launch self-deprecating jokes-a move that often undercuts any similar jokes lobbed at them. Typically, it is autocrats, not democratically elected leaders, who display such thin skin. 1 The fact that Trump would melt down, usually on Twitter, after he saw satire critical of him had been surprising enough. In June 2021, the story broke that Donald Trump had asked advisers and lawyers to investigate whether the Department of Justice could probe sources of satirical late-night comedy, like Saturday Night Live, that made fun of him. From Film Quarterly, Winter 2021, Volume 75, Number 2
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