Seth Myers, Jimmy Kimmel, and many other TV hosts and comedians have been taking jabs at politicians for years, even more so now post-2016 election. Either in skits or opening monologues, Donald Trump and his cabinet more often than not have their names mentioned. Some people may say that comedy and politics should be separate and have their own times and places, however, it’s kind of hard to do that when the country is being treated as a joke by the people in charge of it.
Donald Trump decided to not comment on the recent Waffle House shooting in Tennessee, but he had the time to tweet to Kanye West that his tweet was “cool.”
He tweets an antisemitic meme and it’s not even talked about on the news.
He repeatedly lies in his speeches, interviews, and tweets.
It’s almost impossible for comedians to not make a joke out of this.
But, even if it is alarming, it sounds like a sitcom, which are made to be laughed at.
As Katya Zamolodchikova once said, “Comedy is tragedy plus time.” It is a shared human connection of panic and disappointment turned positive. I don’t understand people who want to keep politics off the comedy spectrum. We’re all here, we’re all seeing how irresponsible many of the decisions of our leader are, we might as well bask in the light of the fact that he’s gone golfing way too many times. Should comedians just stick to, “You ever notice…” and “What’s the deal with airplane food” jokes instead of commenting on real events that are happening that affect everyone in the United States? Ignorance is bliss, I know, but are people so focused on the things they find important that they cannot realize how dumb the world can be most of the time?
As a Jewish woman, I know that Donald Trump doesn't respect me or the people I share those descriptions with. I know this from his defense of neo-nazis, I know this from the silencing of many women who have come forward claiming he had sexually assaulted them, and I know this because I have eyes and ears that work. That being said, living in a world where comedians cannot use their platform to bring awareness to how politics and politicians can be unbelievably ridiculous a lot of the time just isn’t a world I want to be in. Nothing needs to be serious when the president doesn't take anything seriously either.
