Wolfs routine was only as obscene as the Presidency itself.

[orangecrush]

Wolf’s monologue—sharp, unflinching, and pointedly unfunny in places—called bullshit on the role laughter has been performing in Trump’s America. Over the last year and a half, much of the culture has sought relief in humor in much the same way as citizens of extremely repressive countries. Back in the early nineties, in her book “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed,” the Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulić described laughter as the ultimate personal triumph over the daily humiliations of life under Communist rule. In today’s Russia, people make jokes about the fear Vladimir Putin inspires (he opens the fridge and the jellied meat begins to quake, but he reassures it by saying he is getting the yogurt) or the suicidal nature of Russian foreign policy (we’ll retaliate against American sanctions by bombing the Russian city of Voronezh), the same way that they used to joke about Leonid Brezhnev’s inability to talk or stay awake during official functions. Jokes serve a transparent purpose: they reclaim the power to define—and inhabit—reality. They also reclaim the goodness of laughter, for regimes weaponize laughter to mock their opponents, creating what the cultural theorist Svetlana Boym called “totalitarian laughter.” Its opposite is anti-totalitarian laughter.




https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-michelle-wolf-blasted-open-the-fictions-of-journalism-in-the-age-of-trump/amp

[BigmanPigman]

1. The moron's presidency is far more insulting and vulgar than any

comedian's routine could ever hope to be, even if they tried their very best.

[mythology]

2. As somebody who thinks her routine was unfunny and boorish, this is correct

As a candidate Trump openly mocked a reporter with a disability. He bragged about committing sexual assault. He is racist and bigoted. Etc, etc.

He's the bloody president of the United States and has the temperament of a spoiled toddler.

[orangecrush]

3. Fact