Who will be the last clown standing? My AI had an ominous take on this question.

 

Comedy in America won’t really die, die as in dead, ceasing to exist, under Trump’s punitive censorship. By now those paying attention have seen clips of late-night comedians standing up for free speech and perhaps seen interviews with experts explaining why strongmen try to censor satire and humor which mocks them. You may have read articles like Why Dictators Don't Like Jokes, Dictators Seem Strong, But They Can't Take a Joke, and Comedy as a Revolution: Why Tyrants Have No Defense Against Laughter. 

In “The Oldest Warning Sign: How History Links the Death of Comedy to the Death of Democracy” Thom Hartman wrote about the lesson of history and dictatorial censorship of comedy today.

There’s no need to expound on the “why” related to Trump and his anti-jokester juggernaut. I use that word deliberately because it has been most often associated with the Nazis in modern times.

Now it is used in reference to Trump:

Perchance AI seemed to have an opinion as to what was happening here in the United States with comics. Below is the first set of illustrations I got asking for “many dead clowns on the ground in a circus ring.”

As you can see it in the center bottom image there are seven clowns on the circus floor and eight in the dark in the background. I took one of the standing clowns in the upper right illustration and moved him into the one which I used to be the only featured clown still standing.

AI, the machine intelligence, put the clowns in the dark in the wings waiting to go on. I didn’t ask for this.

Attributing creative human thought to the computer, I’d say the “artist” wanted to convey the idea that the clowns behind the curtain are watching and waiting to see what happens to the daring performer before they go on.

If my brave clown goes down, who among those left will have the guts to take their place? See footnote 1

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1

I Include among the late light comics everyone writing satire and drawing cartoons mocking Trump.

Click above to enlarge image.

Trump has hissy fit over late night comics mocking him: "He's a fragile little snowflake"

 Trump can't stand it when the yolks on him:

Click above images to enlarge them.

By Hal Brown

This is from HUFFPOST today:

Trump Just Threw A Middle-Of-The-Night Tantrum Over Late Shows Mocking Him

By chance an ad for a new Amazon Prime show, The Burial, was placed in the story here:

The premise of the movie, based on a true story (from Wikipedia) is:

In 1995, Willie E. Gary, an unconventional personal injury lawyer with an impressive track record, helps financially troubled funeral home owner Jeremiah Joseph O'Keefe sue a large funeral home company, the Loewen Group, over a contractual dispute. Gary ultimately won a $500 million jury verdict and the Loewen Group filed for bankruptcy.

I like that the lawyer, Willie E. Gray, is played by Jamie Foxx because Trump has been having, to put it mildly, a lot of trouble with attorneys who happen to be Black.

Of course the placement of this ad is accidental (or is it?) but I like that it is just above the line about Jimmy Kimmel calling Trump a fragile little snowflake who can't handle a little humor.

Check this out:

Jimmy Kimmel Fires Back At Trump In Absolutely Blistering Monologue

A couple of the best lines:“You’d think the guy who fathered Eric and Don Jr. would know how to handle jokes” and “maybe this is why Donald and Melania sleep in separate bedrooms. She was laughing too hard at my monologue at night.” Another: "he's so fat they renamed the plane Air Force Wonder Bread." Not funny, Kimmel plays about a dozen clips of Trump defending free speech.

You can watch the 11 minute Kimmel monologue here.

We know that Trump is not only interested in watching people fawn over him on television but also in watching what his critics have to say about him. He's commented about what Joe and Mika say on "Morning Joe" and that he is especially sensitive to being made fun of by comedians.

There is ample material for mocking the megalomanical malignant narcissist but late night comic writers still have to be espcially orginal and sharp because they are all competing with each other to see if they get what must be a covetted attack from Trump in a social media post which will then be reposted in the media. Trump may not realize, or care, that when he attacks a late night comic he gives them free publicity.

For somebody who fancies and fantacisizes himself as a tough guy he seems oblivious to the fact that a real tough guy, that is someone (male, female, or other) who is secure in their identity, wouldn't be bothered by these jokes and if they are really comfortable with themselves they would be able to laugh at the better jokes.

At the end of 2019 the Trump campaign launched a website to help supporters "beat snowflake relatives in arguments *read article)" and both Trump and his MAGA army consistently call liberals snowflakes.

Wiki defines snowflake as a derogatory slang term for a person, implying that they have an inflated sense of uniqueness, an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or are overly emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions.

So, Mr. Trump, who's the real snowflake?

Since a real snowflake, a dry one at least, is fluffy and if caught in your hand will quickly melt, Jimmy Kimmel's calling Trump a fragile little snowflake is on point although I might have called him a large fluffy snowflake who melts into an insignificant puddle in the palm of the hand when he's made fun of.

Addendum: 

No offense meant to real snowflakes which are a marvel of nature and truly beautiful.

A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, which falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow. Each flake nucleates around a tiny particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets, which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate, and rime. Snow appears white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets of the snowflakes. ^Wikipedia

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