People with Trump Derangement Syndrome lack a sense of humor
Do they really not get that Trump is joking when he’s joking? Or do they just not get the jokes themselves? Or are they pretending not to understand, in order to criticize him all the more?
WaPo was dumb enough to tweet, “Trump tweets doctored photo of his head on Sylvester Stallone’s body, unclear why.” Most responses seemed to be laughing at WaPo for saying that what was obviously photoshopped was “doctored” — as if something hard to detect and sneaky was going on.
But Team Trump was witty enough to say, “Washington Post claims – without evidence – that @realDonaldTrump shared a ‘doctored’ photo.”
That’s not — as Newsweek imagines — a dispute of WaPo’s “claim” that the photo did not show the real body of Donald Trump. It’s making fun of WaPo for saying what didn’t need to be said.
I believe it is also intended as mockery of the use of the phrase “without evidence” in reports on the impeachment hearings.
Of course.
Here’s the photo in question:
It’s funny, folks. You know, as in “meant to be humorous”? Those who detest Trump don’t need to actually find it funny. But they should know it’s intended to be.
If I had to guess, I’d say that Trump’s most vociferous critics do not believe he has any ability to make a joke about himself. So they are always taking him seriously and are outraged at just about anything he does or says. After all, joking about oneself is a somewhat advanced thing to do, in the sense that one has to step back from oneself and be able to entertain at least a smidgen of self-mockery.
With this photo, Trump is combining self-promotion with a bit of self-deprecation. He knows his torso isn’t ripped like that of Stallone as Rocky. Au contraire, Trump’s rather pudgy. He also knows that the press thinks he’s delusionally narcissistic and doesn’t even realize what his own body looks like. So he’s teasing them, daring them to do exactly what they have done, which is to fail to see the humor.
At the same time, he’s portraying himself as a hero, a fighter. Also an underdog – isn’t that what Rocky was? It doesn’t hurt, either, that Trump has a background in professional wrestling – not as a wrestler, but as a character. I know that Rocky was a boxer, not a wrestler, but Trump is using the image of his own head on Rocky’s body to send a message as in WWW, which is to play a character:
Trump has had a sporadic relationship with professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment since the late 1980s; in 1988 and 1989, WrestleMania IV and V, which took place at the Atlantic City Convention Hall, was billed as taking place at the nearby Trump Plaza. He has appeared in several WWE storylines, including a scripted feud with WWE owner Vince McMahon leading into a proxy hair match at WrestleMania 23 in 2007 and a storyline in 2009 in which Trump “bought” and later “sold” Monday Night Raw. In 2013, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the weekend festivities surrounding WrestleMania 29. McMahon and his wife Linda – who later served under President Trump as the Administrator of the Small Business Administration – have also made donations to Trump’s endeavors, including a combined total of $5 million to the Donald Trump Foundation after Trump’s WWE appearances in 2007 and 2009, and $6 million to his presidential campaign in 2016.
The press is the last to detect and/or acknowledge Trump’s humor. Somewhere I read a comment observing that the press is playing Margaret Dumont to Trump’s Groucho Marx:
Margaret Dumont was intentionally funny in those roles. The press is not.
Both sides. Obama’s comment about 57 states was obviously a joke but his critics took it as literal and, frankly, beat it to death.
What’s just as weird as the “Trump has no sense of humor” thing is the “Trump is a coward” thing. I’m not saying Trump is some badass Green Beret because…you know…he’s not, but he did make his bones in the New York City real estate market. I can’t imagine that’s an environment which tolerates weakness.
Mike
Congressperson Hank Johnson (D-GA) was *not* joking when he worried that the island Guam was becoming sufficiently populated, that it might “tip over and capsize”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q
It’s only a two-minute clip, but if you’re in a hurry, it’s at 1:20-1:32.
I was never sure whether Obama’s “57 states” was a weak joke or a tongue slip. I didn’t care either way.
I can’t remember many Obama jokes. His mispronunciations of “corpsman” and “Orion” seemed genuine ignorance.
After Obama was elected I had an idea for a sitcom in which Bill and Hill, for some reason, have to live in the White House with him and are always scheming and causing trouble. Obama is Ricky Ricardo and they are Lucy and Ethel. However, only the Brits could have done comedy that crazy.
One of the partisan Democrats we’re acquainted reposted a meme retailing a quotation from one Werner Herzog (who is evidently some person on the German arts scene). “Dear America: you are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while the other 1/3 watches”. A menu of people he knows endorse this sentiment. It is, of course, quite mad. The man retailing it is about 70 years old, has three degrees from selective institutions, and was for over 30 years a salaried employee working in higher education (not faculty). No, I don’t think he gets the joke. Any joke.
I have been noticing Trump’s sense of humor for a long time now. I laughed out loud when I saw him, at a campaign rally, asking the Russians to please provide Hillary’s emails. Leftists took this as a serious request, which was nuts.
Art Deco: Even Snopes has busted that Herzog quote.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/werner-herzog-germany-quote/
Herzog is a well-known German film director. Not my cup of meat, though Herzog has a sense of humor — on the occasion of losing a bet that a friend would never finish a film:
“Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGcWTIWYDMQ
He also played the Zek, quite chillingly, in the first Jack Reacher movie with Tom Cruise.
Re the 57 states – I took that remark as one made while Obama was experiencing campaign fatigue and used “states” instead of “contests”. There are 50 states, District of Columbia and five US Territories – that’s 56 contests. I’m not sure how the Ds handled the ex-pats and whether they were given a vote at the convention.
What I am not sure about is the Biden finger-sucking episode. Looking at a still photo of the incident is disturbing, but later, I saw a video and it looked like he was laughing about it. Joke on his wife or something else? I saw one online comment about the “rooting” reflex of infants may be an indication of early stage dementia.
It was still weird.
The brave citizens in the real resistance movement in Hong Kong have been holding up placards with that Trump-as-Rocky-Balboa picture in their street demonstrations, where their lives were at risk.
Regarding self-deprecating humor, those who lack self-confidence cannot do it, nor can they understand it when done by others.
Art Deco: Even Snopes has busted that Herzog quote.
Snopes says the source is a college professor from Michigan schooled at Harvard University. Does that make this better or worse?
Our intelligentsia is plain awful.
Another example of leftist humor-fail occurs today in Lisa Page’s attempt at a makeover as Trumpian victim (also failed), accusing Trump of faking her orgasm during a speech, when it was quite plain he was merely mocking the Page-Strzok communications ardor (and did so quite well, by most accounts I’ve heard).
The ‘without evidence’ bit needs to be mocked endlessly. It is used in all kinds of different sectors of the media against Trump but magically never against Democrats.
Not that I need prompting but it is an absolute tell that the story is questionable BS.
Does that make this better or worse?
Art Deco: It makes the quote not by Herzog.
I do find it interesting how often libs pass around fake quotes from real people like Gandhi, Goethe and Mandela. I haven’t noticed this on the right.
Re: Lisa Page…
I recall speculation that Page might be flipping in a DOJ investigation. Now I’m reading speculation that Page’s current displeasure is to get out in front of the Horowitz report due on Dec. 9 (or so we are told).
Well, that covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself.
You better beat it – I hear they’re going to tear you down and put up an office building where you’re standing.
You can leave in a taxi. If you can’t get a taxi, you can leave in a huff.
If that’s too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff.
is to get out in front of the Horowitz report due on Dec. 9
Yep, pretty transparently so, as are the rest of the bullshit stories popping up. Pathetic.
I first saw the Marx bros. when I was maybe 14 years old. I got the slapstick, but puzzled over Dumont. Why does she just take that crap? Eventually, I figured out the she was the “straight lady foil.” The elegant but pompous representative of the establishment. Most of the movies defy belief, so suspension of disbelief isn’t a concern.
I never did understand back then, the talent involved in being a good straight foil. I wonder if there is an analog between that and our modern politics.
Obama may have been referring to the 57 Muslim countries, you never could tell what was going on in his mind.
One thing I haven’t seen noted and/or commented on is that it appears to me that in the Rocky mock up that the belt buckle appears to me to be a large trident like the one he he just returned to the Navy Seal.
I’m not a Rocky fan, so maybe I’ve just missed something, but I assumed that the joke was that Trump was a Rocky defeating those who were working to prosecute Gallagher.
Re. Herzog.
I’ve tried to watch Aguirre Wrath of God, a couple of times. Couldn’t sit through the whole thing.
Same with Fitzcarraldo.
Trump is being Trump, it’s that simple, he throws it out there whether it makes much sense or not and he dominates the media for days and days with silly crap when they, the lefties, take the bait. He did it for a year and a half when he won the election the first time, by himself without help from Russia or the GOP.
The day the President tweeted this (11/27) was the anniversary of the release date of Rocky IV.
The one where Rocky defeats Ivan Drago.
A Russian.
Make of that what you will.
I’ve tried to watch Aguirre Wrath of God, a couple of times. Couldn’t sit through the whole thing.
Same with Fitzcarraldo.
DNW: Those were the only Herzog I watched too. They didn’t make me a believer.
My efforts to watch European films were absolutely dismal experiences. I think back to Fassbinder, Wertmuller, Varda, Wenders, Antonioni (except for “Blow Up”), Von Trier etc. and shudder. Eventually I resolved not to watch European films period — a vow I have kept with a few exceptions.
Herzog did make a film in 2005 about that idiotic couple who camped next to a group of grizzlies for a summer until … chomp! I am curious about that one.
I’ve tried to watch Aguirre Wrath of God, a couple of times. Couldn’t sit through the whole thing.
Same with Fitzcarraldo.
DNW: Those were the only Herzog I watched too. They didn’t make me a believer.
My efforts to watch European films were absolutely dismal experiences. I think back to Fassbinder, Wertmuller, Varda, Wenders, Antonioni (except for “Blow Up”), Von Trier etc. and shudder. Eventually I resolved not to watch European films period — a vow I have kept with a few exceptions.
Herzog did make a film in 2005 about that idiotic couple who camped next to a group of grizzlies for a summer until … chomp! I am curious about that one.
The sweetest is all the commedians who supported this are finding they cant work
one went so far as to have the audience choose to sign a NDA or get a refund..
I love love LOVE Rocky Trump! (If you wanted too, you could also read into it a deliciously nasty dig at macho-man Putin. –Who, me? Perish the thought!)
.
oh what the heck i’ll post this,
I love ’em! Especially the last one …
What Edit?? –So I’ll just rewrite it all.
…
I love love LOVE Rocky Trump! (If you wanted to, you could also read into it a deliciously nasty dig at macho-man Putin. –Who, me? Perish the thought!)
.
Commenter “oh what the heck i’ll post this”:
I love ’em! Especially the last one …
2 Scoops of Ice Cream. That’s when I knew for sure they were nuts.
And someone needs to Photoshop Trump killing a terrorist with a Narwhal Tusk. The sooner the better.
Francois Truffaut supposedly said there are three kinds of movies: “American movies, American movies, and American movies.”
When everything is political, including humor, nothing is “allowed” to be funny.
Trump retweeted the photoshop somebody else made.
I liked it when I first saw it on Trumps Twitter feed — all voters should be looking at Trump’s twitter (almost the only twitter I see, since my account was suspended after one retweet of a pro-Trump tweet.) It’s better to see what Trump tweets by reading his tweets than by listening to Dem media say what he said or, most often say what they wanted him to mean — so they could attack his meaning.
I’m glad Trump’s making fun of them — with lots of evidence!
I kinda liked Herzog, even before getting to Europe. He likes to work with Klaus Kinski, who does a great “white Wildman” job as actor.
I recently watched, with my 14 y/o son, our Slovak/Czech dubbed “A Few Dollars More”, which I hadn’t seen in many decades. Had not really remembered it.
Starring:
Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté, Mara Krup, Luigi Pistilli, Klaus Kinski, Josef Egger, Panos Papadopulos,
Kinski did a good job as a “white Wildman” among the Mexicans (Italians?).
Of Herzog, try his (early-ish 1974) The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, or Every Man for Himself and God Against All, or his later documentaries (2010) Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Happy People: A Year in the Taiga. The latter two for stunning beauties, mostly.
Of artfldgr’s particular concern, try Bertrand Blier’s 1976 Calmos, marketed in the US under the title Femmes Fatales. For an hilarious gas, merely.
Oh, come on. Who said they don’t have a sense of humor?
https://www.theepochtimes.com/pelosi-and-company-hightail-it-to-warming-conference-as-impeachment-flounders_3162434.html
(H/T: Instapundit)
Listenening to Nicolle Wallace and Adam Goldman spin away here I’m beginning to think there may be a rich vein of some sort of bizzaro humor inside these loons waiting to get out after all.
Or no . . . . . .no . . . . . Nevermind. It’s just rich in the usual way, wholly unintentionally.
https://mobile.twitter.com/JohnWHuber/status/1201646838186676225
Back when meetings with NK were starting President Trump said (paraphrasing here): Some have questioned whether we should be dealing with a madman. Well, I’d say that’s their problem.
They always told me not to find humor in anyone unfortunate or somehow stricken, so I’m not sure—-oh what the heck:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7747647/Hunter-Biden-blows-court-hearing-child-support-lawyer-abruptly-quits.html
Key graf:
“Earlier this week, DailyMail.com revealed [Hunter] Biden filed a request to seal all financial records to spare himself public ’embarrassment’ amid claims of ‘significant debts’….”
Hi timing needs a bit of work, but he’s almost as funny as dear old dad!!
Humans don’t even get why I use the nickname Trum for Trum, the current US President. They got so triggered or offended, that at first they assumed it was a misspelling. When I corrected that misapprehension, they would then naturally think it is an insult.
So they are always taking him seriously and are outraged at just about anything he does or says.
That is because they perceive a threat or danger from Trum or Republicans. They think they are fighting the good fight, just as you think you are justified in your actions because of your beliefs or your “house”, Neo. For Trum supporters at least, they have nationalism, AMerica First, the economy, and various other fears about Demoncrats to motivate them into adhering to band wagon philosophies. It is similar to why the Tea Party and American conservatives took everything Hussein, your last US President, seriously at every little thing or glance or finger poke. It was possible for me and others to use this fear to direct them to climbing the stair case of disbelief. People refused to believe that their country was going to die or be embroiled in a civil war, they refused to recognize, fear, or hate the traitors inside their own nation, but they could fear/hate a single President, Hussein. The same goes for Leftists. THey can be controlled by making them do the 2 minute hate/fear against Trum. And the opposing side then thinks that the AUthority of Trum is disrespected by a single person online called Ymar, that refuses to kiss the Ring and bend the knee.
Conservatives at least can comprehend the logic, even if their emotions prevent them from agreeing with it. Which is why they stop talking as time goes on over this subject, they repress it and put it into a closet. But it will eventually erupt again, when they get distracted by something and fail to support Trum in whatever Trum tweets on twitter about draining the swamp.
You know, for such an easy thing his supporters claimed here, that Trum would easily drain the swamp, perhaps they should have listened to more cautious advice and helped Trum realize it wasn’t going to be so easy as he thought. This AIn’t the Apprentice, son.
Almost the exact same thing happened with the personality cult around Peterson. It is not Peterson or even Trum tryuing to create this. It is their followers who have so much fear, they will hug the thighs of these “Hero kiongs”.
Angelo Codevilla, American Greatness Mag.: A Deplorable Strategy Beyond 2020
Waiting for the cult of Yammer to emerge, so much wisdom in one place, concise and yet profound.
I’m not sure they’ve totally lost their humor: https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2019/12/03/if-media-is-criticizing-melanias-fashion-then-im-doomed-n2557388
Liz, your comment about the 56-57 contests instead of states makes sense. What’s interesting is that the Obama camp never cleared that up – which worked in Pres. Obama’s favor.
I personally didn’t find the Trump-as-Rocky image hilarious, but I don’t see it worth making a big deal over either.
I DO find it significant that the Hong Kong protesters like the poster!
I likewise agree that those screaming about the image are humorless scolds. What they SHOULD have done was to Photoshop the same head onto a different image — say, skinny Steve Rogers, or a flamboyantly gay leather-and-chain-bound bodybuilder.
In other words, “two can play this game”. (They might then even start to realize that Trump has been saying exactly that from the beginning. Trump is not fighting; he’s fighting BACK.)
“And someone needs to Photoshop Trump killing a terrorist with a Narwhal Tusk. The sooner the better.” Yes, yes, yes!
Ymarsakar:
Perhaps you’re confusing this site with another. Trump’s supporters here prior to his nomination and even after that and in the early days of his presidency were few and far between. There were more who were reluctant voters for him who only did so because they felt Hillary was worse. What’s more, I don’t think people who did support him here said he would EASILY drain the swamp. They said that he would try to do so. There was and is a large amount of skepticism about how far the effort could go in terms of success.
Re. European (in this case German) films, try The Lives of Others. Moving, vastly consequential, and a directorial and authorial debut rivaling Welles’ Citizen Kane. A bracing reminder of all that film can be, this masterpiece, in a wiser world, would be required viewing, particularly for adolescents and young adults.
“Dear America: you are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while the other 1/3 watches”. A menu of people he knows endorse this sentiment. It is, of course, quite mad. [ArtDeco]
Hmm. I admire your confidence!
Le Mot Juste: I did make an exception from my European opt-out for “The Lives of Others” and while, I, huxley, approve this message, which is consequential, I found the film a snooze and in no way comparable to “Citizen Kane.”
De gustibus and all that. I am glad the film has attracted a wide audience.
huxley:
I really liked “The Lives of Others.” I found it riveting.
But you and I don’t always have the same tastes, do we?
Have you ever seen “The Emigrants” and “The New Land” by Jan Troell? They are magnificent and exceptionally beautiful visually, IMHO. They are slow, though. Here’s a description. Do not watch the dubbed versions, though – they are awful! Subtitles only.
neo: I do like some, not many, European films. Jacques Tati’s “Monsieur Hulot” films are brilliant and hilarious. I admire Bergman’s “Wild Strawberries” and “The Seventh Seal” though not enough to see them more than twice. Bertolucci’s “The Conformist” and “The Last Emperor.” Truffaut’s “Day for Night” and “Jules and Jim” (at least up to the obligatory suicide scene in Euro films).
Then there’s Louis Malle’s “My Dinner with Andre,” which I love, but is a bit hard to call as a Euro film.
I’ll give some thought to Jan Troell, though the 3+ hour running times sound daunting.
Subtitles are the only way to go.
From link posted by Barry:
For one Washington Post contributor, she did not enjoy the first lady’s tour because she could not avert her eyes from Melania’s “ridiculous” coat.
“More than a silly fashion folly, the coat is a distraction – a discomforting affectation taken to a ludicrous extreme,” WaPo’s fashion critic Blahdie Blahvan writes. “In a video intended to celebrate the welcoming spirit of the holiday season, that simple flourish exudes cold, dismissive aloofness.”
Other supposed fashion critics have called the first lady’s wardrobe “macabre.”
“This is terrifying. Trump and Melania exude coldness to Conan the hero dog. Melania, whose coat is slightly macabre (to me, but others may find it lovely), moves away from Conan multiple times.” –JoanWalsh
LOL — thank God they have nothing else to do with themselves! They could have been working on the high-tolerance machining line!
huxley:
And watch them on the biggest screen you can find. The cinematography is wonderful. I saw them in movie theaters when they first came out.
huxley:
As a young child I saw and loved “Mr. Hulot’s Holiday.”
neo: If you haven’t seen “Playtime,” Tati’s third and final Hulot film, consider putting it on your list. It takes Hulot to a grand symphonic level. Hard to describe.
(Just checking wiki, I see Art Buchwald provided some of the English dialog!)
neo and Huxley:
Your thoughts on Marcel Pagnol’s films?
Jean de Florette, Mannon of the Springs, My Father’s Glory, My Mother’s Castle
Question from an unsophisticated viewer.
Jean de and Manon are both beautiful and fascinating to me. Haven’t seen the others.
om:
I saw the first two and liked them. Didn’t love them, but liked them.
I saw Jean and Manon too. Pretty, character-driven films and that’s all I recall.
Well Kai, looks like we’ll just have to give Mollie Hemingway the last word—um, laugh—on this one:
https://twitter.com/MZHemingway/status/1201862301369942017 …
…Just keep on scrollin’ (it’s really good for your health…but if you’re drinking anything, make sure to put it down first!).
Salena Zito got it right the first time.
Trump is type 1 error made golden-coiffed, glorious flesh.
The True Hypothesis, rejected.