Michelle Wolf: 'It's weird that Trump doesn't have a sense of humour' - good read [View all]

[malaise]

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jun/01/michelle-wolf-its-weird-that-trump-doesnt-have-a-sense-of-humour
<snip>
Like many people in Britain, I’d never seen Wolf before she got to her feet in Washington and caused a global sensation. We meet three weeks later, in the New York offices of Netflix. If her comic persona is mildly awkward, in person she is unexpectedly glamorous – a sleek, feline column of New York sass topped with a corkscrew mane, more Debra Messing than the “grownup orphan Annie” character Wolf used to play for Seth Meyers. The cartoonish voice is unmistakable, however, simultaneously shrill and rasping. She had a joke in her HBO routine about inhaling helium only to discover her voice remained entirely unaltered, but apparently this was absolutely true.

Wolf’s self-image seems to be firmly that of an outsider. She doesn’t have political friends in Washington, or inhabit the paparazzi-ed world of public celebrity; her social circle consists chiefly of New York comedians, such as Dan Soder, and revolves around work. There is no boyfriend, her name does not trouble the gossip columns, and there is nothing elite about her biography. Likewise, there was nothing cosy or clubbable about Wolf’s correspondents’ speech, so I wonder whether she worries about humour creating a comfortable illusion of subversion, while actually functioning as a safety valve. By laughing at Trump, are we enabling him?

We keep tuning in to everything outrageous that’s happening. We’re not watching the news but a show

“I think there’s never a bad time to make a joke.” She laughs mischievously. “I mean, there are definitely times where I’m like, I know I shouldn’t make a joke right now, but I’m going to remember this joke I have and tell it to my friend later. You know, when someone just said something really sad and you’re like, I’m going to comfort them as a person – but later I’m going to tell them the joke that this made me think of. So I don’t think it’s weird that we’re making jokes. I think it’s weird that Trump doesn’t have a sense of humour. It’s so alarming never to see someone laugh. It makes me feel sad for him. Just have a go at it! But I just don’t think he would understand a joke.

“So it’s fine for us to laugh, and it’s fine to make jokes and stuff. But also: vote, you know? Remember why we got into this, and how we can get out of it.”