Political jokes: too early?
The answer from many quarters midweek was a resounding yes, days after an assassination attempt on former Republican President Donald Trump rocked the country over decades of political violence in the United States.
Several late-night shows that thrive on political comedy immediately changed their plans, with Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” canceling its Monday show and its plan to broadcast from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week. Its host, Jon Stewart, and his colleagues delivered somber monologues.
On Tuesday, comedy rock duo Tenacious D, consisting of Jack Black and Kyle Gass, canceled their performances. the rest of his world tour “and all future creative plans” After Gass delivered his birthday wish onstage: “Don’t miss it next time,” Gass apologized.
Democratic President Joe Biden, no stranger to mocking Trump, called his wounded rival, paused his political ads and messaging and called on the nation to “cool down” the rhetoric.
So if comedy is tragedy plus time, when is joking okay again? And who’s giving the thumbs up, since the shooter who took aim at Trump also killed former fire chief Corey Comperatore while protecting his family?
There is nothing funny about Saturday’s assassination attempt or any of the other violence plaguing the United States since the beginning. Trump got punched in the ear while speaking to protesters in Pennsylvania. A Trump supporter and the shooter were killed and two bystanders were injured. The attack sparked serious questions about security vulnerabilitiesIt was the latest episode of political violence in America, with attacks in politics dating back to at least 1798 when two congressmen from opposing parties fought each other in the U.S. House of Representatives.
History books are full of other examples, but this century’s list is shocking. Former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot in the head in 2011. Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, now House Majority Leader, was shot and critically wounded in 2017. A crowd of Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s election. Paul Pelosi was assaulted in his home in 2022 by a man who was hunting his wife, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Add that to the unyielding concerns about Biden’s fitness for office after his disastrous debate performance, Trump’s convictions for 34 crimes —and American politics in 2024 looks anything but funny.
But political humor is as old as politics and government.
It takes some of the edge off the democratic decisions before us and is a powerful weapon for politicians who want to allay concerns about themselves or raise concerns about their rivals. And in recent years, Trump has been the butt of more jokes than most. A 2020 study from the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University found that 97% of jokes made by late night hosts were about Trump.
“It’s never too early, unless it’s not funny,” Alonzo Bodden, a stand-up comedian for 31 years, said in a phone interview Wednesday. He’s not a fan of Trump but said comedians “will always make it funny, no matter what. That’s what we do. That’s how we communicate.”
“In this case, Donald Trump is such a character, and the fact that he wasn’t assassinated immediately started the jokes,” Bodden said. “And I don’t think he minds. He’s one of those people who, as long as you’re talking about him, you’ve won.”
Political humor may be the best way to make arrogant leaders seem more human, or at least self-aware.
To see “silly,” Trump’s mysterious tweet in the middle of the night in 2017 that went viral and prompted Jimmy Kimmel to complain that he’ll never write anything funnier. Or “ Make the cake higher,” a poem by the late Washington Post cartoonist Richard Thompson, consisting entirely of the jumbled statements of President George W. Bush and published on the occasion of his 2001 inauguration.
“It’s a very complicated economic point I made there,” Bush explained, with a nod to the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner a few months later. “Believe me, what this country needs is a bigger pie.”
Biden has tried to humorously broach the issue of age before the debate made it clear that the question is more about his cognitive abilities. “I know I’m 198 years old,” Biden said, to loud laughter and applause.
Humor is such a valuable campaign tool that candidates flock to the guest seats of late-night shows, which have increasingly gained political clout. But after the murder, there was a silence about everything, as Stewart’s earnest monologue on Monday makes clear.
“None of us know what’s going to happen next, except that another tragedy is going to happen in this country, of our own making, and then we’re going to have this feeling again,” Stewart said.
The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert described his horror at the attack, his relief that Trump survived and his “sadness for my beautiful country.”
“Although I might as well start the show complaining on the floor,” he said, “because how many times do we have to learn that violence has no role in our politics?”
Social media, as it should be, was less restrained. “I find it ironic that Trump almost died today by gunpoint because he was too far right,” comedian Drew Lynch said on YouTube. “OK. That’s all I got. I think my neighbors might be within earshot.”
___
Kellman reported from London. AP Media Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.