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Trump Is Losing the Humor War
The New York Times ^ | Aug. 17, 2024, 7:00 a.m. ET | Leif Weatherby

Posted on 08/17/2024 12:15:19 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

Over the past decade, there’s one truth that liberals have been loath to admit: Donald Trump is funny. This aspect of his appeal prompts far less commentary than his far-right positions, his venality or his mogul’s bravado. But when you watch him at a rally, you can see he’s playing for laughs: jabbing at his opponents, doing crowd work, even being self-deprecating, sort of.

Cicero could write a treatise on Mr. Trump’s use of irony, as he’s proved himself a master of humorous misdirection. Liberals tend to think that irony is a type of wit that is aligned with progressivism. But for nearly a decade now, if you went looking for comedy in American politics, Mr. Trump would have been your best bet for finding it.

Now that magic is gone. Politics is about communication, and when Mr. Trump is on, his humor offers a clear outline of his worldview. These days, he looks lost. The fact that Mr. Trump is less sure-footed as a comedian may be a harbinger of a more significant uncertainty — an inability to land the punchlines because he can no longer identify the right setups.

Mr. Trump, a real-estate tycoon turned reality TV star, came to politics by way of humor. Whether it’s true or not that he decided to run in 2016 in response to President Barack Obama’s roast of him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, there’s no doubt that Mr. Trump’s rise through the Republican ranks was partly thanks to his uncanny insult humor.

From the start, he evidenced an ability to pierce the veil of political politesse. “Low energy Jeb” Bush and “Little Marco” Rubio fell by the wayside as Mr. Trump marched toward the...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: 4dchess; fakenews; leifweatherby
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Agree things are so bad for the left they are starting to cut themselves just to ease to ease the pain.


41 posted on 08/17/2024 1:18:55 PM PDT by Vaduz
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Hold fire until it’s too late for the Demorats to swap her out”
^

As one may have guessed—my gravest fear...


42 posted on 08/17/2024 1:19:53 PM PDT by Does so ( 🇺🇦.....Indoctrination WORKS...)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Trump Is Losing the Humor War

oh noes, oh noes, oh noes, oh noes, oh noes, oh noes, ad infinium

43 posted on 08/17/2024 1:38:13 PM PDT by chief lee runamok ( Le Flâneur @Large)
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To: Eccl 10:2

True indeed.


44 posted on 08/17/2024 1:40:13 PM PDT by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

His beloved country is losing to the commies and they keep trying to kill him.
And the NYT is complaining because he lost his sense of humor??


45 posted on 08/17/2024 1:42:33 PM PDT by zeebee
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To: chalkfarmer

I did not think it funny. Makes me blazing mad. I’m sure President Trump Dose not find it funny.


46 posted on 08/17/2024 2:02:01 PM PDT by WVNan
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The article only exists to push the headline.
It then becomes the narrative of the day.


47 posted on 08/17/2024 2:05:04 PM PDT by right way right (“May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our only true hope”)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Fake News is a joke.


48 posted on 08/17/2024 2:12:57 PM PDT by bray (It's not racist to be racist against races the DNC hates.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Heh, the NYT has long lost the believability war.
No sentient being gives a shi...er...an Obama what the hell those clowns say.


49 posted on 08/17/2024 2:34:15 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

A possibly government-sanctioned bullet passing within centimeters of someone’s head isn’t going to do anything for their sense of humor.


50 posted on 08/17/2024 2:40:06 PM PDT by bakeneko
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To: WVNan

That kid was pretty good at impersonating Trump.


51 posted on 08/17/2024 2:46:59 PM PDT by chalkfarmer (I)
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To: Beowulf9

There once was a time where they actually were more objective/neutral and did true investigative reporting.


52 posted on 08/17/2024 3:02:55 PM PDT by Red6
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Well, Kneepad Kammie and Tampon Tim are the biggest jokes.


53 posted on 08/17/2024 3:03:46 PM PDT by CodeToad (Rule #1: The elites want you dead.)
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To: Signalman

They have the news media.
They had big tech on their side.
They have Hollywood on their side.
They have the government bureaucracy on their side.
They have the international community (globalist interests) on their side.

Don’t under estimate them.

Even though Harris has town halls where a whopping 250 people show up, while Trump fills entire stadiums, has over flow outside and lines on the side of roads on the way there, there is a good chance Harris will win.

Elections are like a monopoly game which has rules and everyone is supposed to play by. The only problem is that in this game, the rules can be changed to benefit one player, sometimes in the middle of the game.


54 posted on 08/17/2024 3:08:49 PM PDT by Red6
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I didn’t care for his RNC speech, dragged on far too long. But he seemed to get back on the horse in his discussion with Elon: “Gavin Newscum,” “My red button’s bigger and it works,” “These criminals make our criminals look like nice people,” “JB Pritzker is a loser, they didn’t even want him to run the family business”


55 posted on 08/17/2024 3:11:52 PM PDT by funinthesun
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The Times is upset because Trump doesn’t have to slam Kamala-— Kamala is living proof that some jokes write themselves.


56 posted on 08/17/2024 4:54:06 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Perhaps he could fill a whoopie cushion with whipped cream for use during the next sit down interview


57 posted on 08/17/2024 5:17:29 PM PDT by Cowman
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To: Eccl 10:2

“Liberals have no sense of humor.”

I began to notice this when Obama was first running. For a man who was ostensibly the coolest guy on the planet, why was he never regularly funny? Then Hillary, then the 2020 primaries with Biden and Harris emerging. The only kind of humor they could use was canned, teleprompter lines.

My theory is that most good humor— the kind anyone can appreciate or relate to— normally includes irony or a mocking of circumstance. One must perceive reality to use either. Leftists see a distorted reality.


58 posted on 08/18/2024 6:54:04 AM PDT by Señor Presidente (Tyranny deserves insurrection)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Trump is holding fire on Camilla until after the Democrat convention when it will be too late to swap her out.

As well, it's encouraged Harris to state her policies without criticism from him which means she didn't change anything and now the RAT convention will be a week of price and rent control speeches. And just to put the cherry on the top of that particular sundae, President Trump also gave a speech in which he said it's the most dangerous time since the Holocaust to be a Jew in America and no Jew in his right mind should vote Democrat. That leaves that same RAT convention to either let his words stand and have Jews consider if they're in their right mind or take time out from all the price and rent control talk to appeal to Jews which will, of course, antagonize the substantial anti-Semitic element among the RATS.

59 posted on 08/18/2024 8:55:08 AM PDT by Dahoser
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