The Insult Comic-in-Chief

[Marcuse]

Glitchy link.
[link:https://medium.com/@ericjscholl/donald-trump-is-the-most-successful-insult-comic-since-don-rickles-8f70aa10faae|

Eric J Scholl
Mar 12, 2018 · 3 min read

That’s why we think Trump’s low approval ratings are a lot of bunk.

Because there are an awful lot of people out there who absolutely do not approve of Trump and a lot of the things he’s doing and saying, but will vote for him anyway. They already did. Lots of Trump supporters we know did not approve of his demeaning the Gold Star family. They still voted for him. Even more did not approve of his “pussy grabbing” comments. They still don’t. They still voted for him. And would again.

Our Trump friends say things like “he’s just plain cruel” and “we can’t stand all this craziness every single damn day”. Sometimes they seem as exhausted and exasperated as we are. But they also still feel invigorated by the President and that more than makes up for it.
So if someone asks them if they approve of the President, they’d say “no”. Yet he’d still get their vote.

Why? Partly because while he’s demonstrably lied about all kinds of things, and broken promises time and time again, he’s kept his one biggest promise: to shake things up. (We’d argue he’s kicked up more dirt than actually shaken anything up, but that’s a subject for another column).

And perhaps more importantly: he’s a great entertainer, a terrific showman. Which is an utterly under-recognized key to his success. (The mainstream media seems to be just catching on, a little, almost 3 years after Trump declared he was running for President.)

He makes people feel better about themselves.
And Trump is keenly aware of it too. “Is there any more fun than a Trump rally?” the President asked an adoring crowd outside of Pittsburgh this weekend.

Even though the event was supposed to be a rally endorsing a Republican candidate for the House in a special election (see below for more on that), of course Trump made it almost all about Trump. Politico described it aptly as “Trump endorses himself”. Which was just fine with the crowd.

Watch Trump expertly riff here about what it means to be “Presidential” and why what he does is so much harder than that. “If I came like a stiff you guys wouldn’t be here tonight” Also listen for the audience member shouting out “you’re one of us!” (Click on the photo to play):

Trump’s “genius” lies in recognizing the power of the put-down. Which is why we compared him in the headline to the legendary comedian. It isn’t a fair comparison: Rickles was infinitely more clever. But Trump doesn’t need to be. All he needs to do is make the audience feel like they’re the “insiders”, not the Washington and Hollywood power brokers:

Representative Maxine Waters: “Very low IQ individual”.

NBC’s Chuck Todd: “Sleeping son of a bitch”.

Oprah: “I know her weakness…I know her weakness…[Running against me] would be painful for her.”

Martha Stewart: “Failed when she did ‘The Apprentice’ and I kept chugging along.”

And later, but along the same lines: The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman: “No nothing Hillary flunky.”

One big difference between Don Rickles and our President: Rickles always directed his insults at people who were right in front of him; right in their faces. Trump takes the cowardly way out: aiming at people who are literally miles away, and to most people in Trump’s audience in a different, elitist, universe.

That was key to Rickles’ act: the audience knowing deep down that he was not actually a cruel guy. Trump is cruel. And while it’s working for Trump anyway for now, if he “jumps the shark”, that’ll also be why.

[Kingofalldems]

1. 2018

[tblue37]

2. Fixed link:

https://medium.com/ericjscholl/donald-trump-is-the-most-successful-insult-comic-since-don-rickles-8f70aa10faae

[Walleye]

3. One more big difference, Rickles was funny

[leftieNanner]

5. I never thought he was funny

Nor did I ever like Bob Hope.

But there was no cruelty in what they did. That is a huge difference.

[tblue37]

4. You have to remove the @ sign to get Medium links to work. With the @ sign it sends

you to the home page, not to the article.

[Marcuse]

6. Thanks for the education!

[tblue37]

8. You're welcome. nt

[unblock]

7. personally, i always found joan rivers to be *way* better than don rickles

rickles came across as an angry ass. some of his insults were just mean. there's really no humor in calling someone a hockey puck. at least, there's nothing clever about it. the article said that "deep down" you knew rickles wasn't really a cruel man, but i think we're only guessing at that. his delivery certainly didn't hint that it was all just an act.

rivers, on the other hand, made insult comedy fun. it helps immensely that she laughed with us, as opposed to rickles' angry schtick. plus, for the most part, she insulted famous people, particularly those full of themselves, more than generic groups of ordinary people. then again, maybe my recollection is skewed because the most recent stuff i saw of hers was fashion police....

anyway, comparing donnie to a famous comedian is like comparing a klutz who knocks over a can of paint to rembrandt. there is *zero* humor in anything donnie does. people laugh because that's sometimes that's how people respond to inappropriate displays of cruelty. but don't mistake it for humor.

[tulipsandroses]

9. If they are entertained by his infantile insults then they need to grow the fuck up!

Thats not it. They like his cruelty. Period. Because at heart, that is who they are too. They like his hate, because they hate too.

No mature, well developed mentally adult finds his schtick funny.

I expect to hear grade school insults from children. Not a grown ass seventy something year old man.

And especially when he has nothing of substance to offer to the people. In a national crisis, he cannot even mourn the citizens we lost.He spends more time congratulating himself and insulting reporters for doing their job. This is not normal and anyone that finds his grade school insults entertaining is not normal.

[abqtommy]

10. Well, tRUMP makes me feel better about myself. Every day when I wake up my first thought

is "At least I'm not tRUMP". But I've never voted for him and never will. That's because I have a
thinking. progressive brain...