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There’s been a lot of weeping in this household lately. Tears have flowed freely, paroxysms have been exhausting.
It’s not grief or sorrow causing the run on tissues, nor the cutting of onions. It’s been laughter. Gales of it. Laughter so hard, it reddens the eyes and makes breathing difficult. And it’s all down to Donald Trump and the new golden age he’s ushered in.
American comedy is back, baby, and with a vengeance. In its sights, the most thin-skinned, thick-headed president in memory. The late-night chat show hosts are taking him apart, especially since CBS, owned by Paramount Global, committed the ultimate act of self-harm by cancelling Stephen Colbert.
Colbert, who will remain on air until next May, told his audience the gloves were now off. On live TV, he told Donald Trump, whose administration had to sign off on a planned merger with Skydance, to “Go f*** yourself.”
It was delivered with the exquisite comic timing for which Colbert is famous. Responding to a gloating Trump post – “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings” – Colbert stared down the camera.
“How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism? [Pause] Go f*** yourself.”
His one-time co-host Jon Stewart of The Daily Show didn’t hold back either. In an expletive-laden rant, he ripped into the cowardice of American corporations and institutions cowing to Trump’s bullying.
But all that seems like ancient history. The late-night crew has been handed truckloads of material, all thanks to Trump’s cack-handed and so far unsuccessful attempts to divert attention from the exhumed Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Newcomer to the rotating The Daily Show‘s lineup, Josh Johnson made a meal of the story that won’t go away. He took aim at House of Reps Speaker Mike Johnson for dismissing the House early. “Do you understand that they cleared Congress out for the summer like they found a dookie in the pool?” No points for guessing what a “dookie” is.
As for Trump accusing Barack Obama of treason: “The problem with this distraction is that it’s so old, Jeffrey Epstein wouldn’t date it.” Johnson’s right, of course. Trump’s been pathologically obsessed with Obama for decades.
Even the animated Millennial favourite South Park has joined the chorus of ridicule, infuriating the White House and its head honcho. The first episode of its 27th season featured a naked and clearly under-endowed Trump jumping into bed with Satan.
The president’s vision of a new golden age didn’t include comedy and satire, which has stepped into to fill an expanding void of commentary abandoned by the once powerful newspapers like The Washington Post.
Comics and cartoonists – Broelman and Pope, take a bow – speak more than truth to power, even if Jon Stewart insists the late-night comedians satirising the news only speak opinions to television cameras.
They have a way of speaking it to idiocy and hypocrisy as well.
We can expect an unconstrained Stephen Colbert to do that even more forcefully than he has been. We’ll laugh, and the sleepless Donald Trump will rage and fume on Truth Social, providing the comedian with mountains of fresh material to work with.
HAVE YOUR SAY: How important is humour in politics? Who are your favourite comedians, cartoonists and satirists? Have your opinions on an issue ever been shaped by cartoons or comedy sketches? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
– Rural communities will have fewer banking services as Bendigo Bank moves to wind down its agency model and step up e-banking across regional Australia.
– Australia and the United Kingdom have reaffirmed their commitment to AUKUS for the next half-century as US devotion to the trilateral security pact wavers.
– Workers could eventually be $14,000 a year better off if an upcoming roundtable is successful, Australia’s productivity tsar says, as competing interests draw battle lines over the summit’s priorities.
THEY SAID IT: “People say satire is dead. It’s not dead; it’s alive and living in the White House.” – Robin Williams
YOU SAID IT: Garry is mystified by a growing reluctance, especially among young Australians, to cook their own food.
“We still cook 90 per cent of the time,” writes Lee. “However, when I find something easy that we like, I print off the recipe and put it in a folder so I can access it again easily. I have raised five boys (all millennials, three with partners). They do most of the cooking in their families. I started teaching them to cook meals when they turned 10, and by 12, they were required to cook a meal one night per week. And it had to have veggies. This strategy worked a treat.”
Maria writes: “The 10 years or so between our ages must have created equal opportunity classes. In my day, girls were taught Home Ec, and boys did Woodwork! But as for me, it still didn’t stir in me a love of cooking – in fact, you’ll find my husband in the kitchen more often! And he learned from his mum, not at school.”
“I’ve worked to nine to 10-hour days most of my life, so some days I really don’t feel like cooking a meal when I get home, but I also try to eat healthily,” writes Stephanie. “Many years ago, I started making big batches of pre-cooked meals based around a bolognese sauce. It costs around $3 a serve and is ready to eat in less than 10 minutes.”
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