Trump the Comedian

A commentator I watched recently predicted that Trump would dominate Bloomberg on a debate stage. The reason, he argued, is that Bloomberg has no sense of humour, while Trump is spontaneously funny.

He pinpointed another Trump superpower, that I had overlooked. Trump is actually a first-rate improvisational standup comic.

That is the draw at his huge rallies. He goes on without a script, and he is consistently funny. He is doing a monologue.

This is another proof that Trump cannot be, as so many claim, a narcissist. Narcissists lack a sense of humour. They cannot relax enough for that. They might laugh at a pratfall, but they cannot make a spontaneous joke.

People who are not narcissists can lack a sense of humour; but if you have one, you cannot be a narcissist.

A sense of humour can be faked, it is true, by hiring a speechwriter and reading the lines. But Trump is clearly not doing that.

Is there any evidence of a good sense of humour among the Democrats?

Biden quips like “You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier” do not seem to me to qualify. They seem more like slightly masked abuse. This is actually a typical narcissistic “joke”: an insult, but one disguised as a “joke” so that you cannot respond without opening yourself up to further abuse.

You will protest that Trump also uses insults; that they are his typical joke.

But there is a difference. He jokes about people in their absence, so the immediate point is not to abuse them. He also seems scrupulous in not insulting anyone who is not a declared enemy, and so fair game. Biden was speaking to a supporter. 

Trump’s insults are also artful, like those of Don Rickles. They are enjoyable on that level. Pete Buttigieg as Alfred E. Newman? Kim Jong Un as “little rocket man”? There was nothing artful or intrinsically humorous about calling a female supporter about whom he knew nothing a “lying dog-faced pony soldier.” It was evidently just a memorized line, a stock insult.

The only Democrat I have noticed who will sometimes seem to say something spontaneously funny is Bernie Sanders. He can sometimes give a funny response to a question. Asked if Hillary Clinton was right to say that nobody in the Senate liked him, he responded, “on a good day, my wife likes me.”

These might be scripted too, but at worst, he has good timing. That suggests he gets the joke. There is a reason why so many popular stand-up comedians began as comedy writers.