There’s an old saying that humor, especially sarcasm, is a step away from despair.
Many individuals that I know, and many communities, possibly a few nations are in, or are in dangerous proximity to despair.
If you remember the last American presidential election cycle in 2016, the late-night comedy shows were packed with mockery of Donald J. Trump.
My social media feeds were dense with headlines like “Trump obliterated by” fill-in-the-blank comedy host.
“Eviscerated” was another favorite word. Some of the comedy routines or SNL skits were funny. Some were provocative.
But for the most part, in spite of being publicly “obliterated”, “skewered” and “eviscerated”, Mr. Trump, and his supporters, won the election.
Mr. Trump has dominated the headlines — and the majority of conversations — ever since.
So, besides being a bit cathartic, what did humor accomplish?
There is not a “humor-based” constituency, as there is, for example a “faith-based constituency.
Trump supporters, besides being vilified and labeled as fascist, Neanderthal, bigot or worse, rule our country, write our laws and dominate our cultural and political discourse.
The late-night talk shows take pots shots at them, those at home or in the studio audiences laugh, but they convince no one but themselves.
Donald Trump shows little curiosity and even less appreciation for humor. He “does not kid”.
Humor, to work, requires insight and compassion. Mr. Trump shows little interest or knowledge in either.
Mr. Trump might be a cartoonish buffoon, a fool, or to use the picturesque Stalinist term, a “useful idiot” but he always has been, and for many apparently, that is why people love him so much.
Christians love him in spite of his crudeness, immorality and contempt for faith precisely because he is oblivious to the standard constraints.
He is obviously “chosen by God” precisely because no sane electorate would choose someone with so many scandals and failures as a leader. In other words, his sleaze and corruption are so far from a normal person’s that he must be, in some sense, at least, beyond human — divine almost.
Mr. Trump’s callow, tawdry and cruel character speak to a powerful strand of American, if not human, character.
There’s nothing “funny” about that, but if there is humor, it is the brittle cynical humor of the bully.
Humor with integrity is not condescending, offensive or demeaning. It does not make people laugh out of embarrassment or shock.
True humor requires insight and the ability to improvise — and sympathize.
Mr. Trump’s “humor” is vindictive and cruel, and his humor “is a thousand miles away from joy; it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect; and it excites no affection between those who practice it” as C.S. Lewis put it in book, The Screwtape Letters.
For those of us living it, even supporters of Mr. Trump, there is little to celebrate and even less to laugh about.
In the old days, in all of human history in fact, if a candidate or party won an election, they would be happy, they would celebrate their victory and actively work on their new agenda and programs.
Oddly enough, the Trump campaign, since its election, has had little to cheer about.
They blame and complain like the sorest of losers — except they were the winners.
Perhaps a generation from now, people will look back and marvel, and perhaps snicker, at a world power that chose, among all possible leaders, the smarmiest of television hosts, one known for scandals and tawdry fumbles with porn stars as their leader — with “people of faith” as his most solid base of supporters, if they could even get themselves to believe it, they will still be as horrified as amused.
It does take “faith” to believe in this president. No evidence, previous actions, values or relationships would give even the slightest indication that Mr. Trump would be a competent leader of even a neighborhood association, let alone a once great world superpower.
Who would want Mr. Trump as a neighbor, let alone as a president?
There is nothing funny about Mr. Trump, but he is, and has been for decades now, (and will certainly be known in the future as) the ultimate punch-line.
Dictators, hucksters and opportunists of all kinds will take note of yet another lesson of history NOT learned — history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
Trump is no Hitler. Hitler had a clearly defined belief system and strategy.
His manifesto, Mein Kampf, laid it out for the world to see.
Mr. Trump’s twitterized, bite-sized, manifesto, known as Me Trumph, is his collection of toddler-approved rants, complaints and pity-party asides suitable for an absurdist compilation of (un)presidential quotes.
Mr. Trump has no beliefs, no values, no vision and no strategy.
He is the hollowest man of all. He bellows and rants, and we all talk behind his back. He is America’s crazy uncle. From a distance he’s just an embarrassing old coot, up close he’s creepy.
For better or worse, the world will never forget him. But how he will be remembered is an entirely different question.
Trump U!
Much, if not all, humor that has emerged from the Trump Administration has been inadvertent — “Trump U”, for example, has become a derogatory term disconnected from the discredited university.
Many of his speeches transcend the “word salads” that Sarah Palin mastered — they attain a level of incoherence almost Zen-like in their reach and sprawl — but as to insight or humor? Not so much.
His words spill out like a sputtering robotic thesaurus stuck in the single-syllable chapter of superlatives.
Have you noticed that when he, or his audience, laughs, it is a brittle, caustic, hostile laugh full of the realization that if one does not “agree” with the “jest” one could easily become the next target of it.
His “humor” usually racially-tinged, fragments and divides when it should be unifying and inspiring.
True humor is shared, enduring and speaks a restorative truth to the challenges and difficulties of life.
True humor shows that there is more than the immediate, more than what is visible, maybe even more than what seems possible.
True humor reveals who we are, where have gotten ourselves and where we might go.
Humor that makes a difference acknowledges human foibles, contradictions and absurdities. It
Welcomes others and makes it clear that we, too, are human and can laugh at ourselves.
Laughing at a situation is a major step in taking mastery. Laughter eliminates fear and paralysis.
Humor is no cure-all, but it is a huge step toward taking control and regaining both power and perspective.
As I mentioned at the beginning, humor is a step away from despair. For our own mental and physical health, we need to move away from despair, one hesitant, but determined step at a time.
True humor is light — in both senses of the word; humor can lift the heaviness from our hearts and can begin to cast out the night that has fallen upon us and it can wake us, and open our eyes to a new appreciation, a new understanding, a new way, a way that strengthens and builds on our strength and unity — not fragments and divides.
True humor helps us see the way ahead. And it just might lead us there as well.
A Rabbi, an Imam and a Catholic Priest walk into a bar. They have a good conversation and enjoy each other’s company and respect each other’s faith traditions.
They like each other. They are not rude or hostile. They learn from each other.
The faith of each one gives them insight into the power of faith of the others. Each one’s faith strengthens the other.
Their conversation makes the faith of each one deeper, richer and more meaningful.
They discover, with each meeting, how much more they have in common than what separates them.
Each one realizes that if faith means anything, it means a belief in what could never be proven and if we don’t live a life of compassion, generosity and kindness, nothing else matters.
All the noise in the world, even all the money in the world, matters less than a good friendship.
If you don’t have any friends in the world, you have nothing.
All the fighting, all the power, even all the wealth is just a bunch of shiny distractions.
There’s an old saying; he who dies with the most toys wins.
But with or without toys, he who dies with the most toys still dies.
These three faith leaders take delight in, and inspiration from their own faith traditions — and those of their friends.
The world around them fights, and argues and even dies for the toys and distraction of the world, when the real treasures of life; friendship, mutual respect and good work are in front of each one of us all the time — and they don’t cost a penny.
Trump’s followers have chosen his incoherence as their hill to die on.
Now that’s funny…..
