Are we approaching "fiasco" level? [View all]

[EarlG]

Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to a re-run of a twenty year old This American Life episode called "Fiasco!" It's about an amateur dramatics performance of Peter Pan that goes terribly wrong, and it's hilarious. But it might also provide some insight into the current state of the Trump administration.

The episode explores the nature of a "fiasco" and "what takes our ordinary lives that extra distance into fiasco."

As the story in the podcast goes, most members of the Peter Pan audience were initially accepting and understanding of the errors that were unfolding in front of them. They had come to a play expecting to be entertained by the play in the traditional sense, and given that the actors seemed to be doing their best under difficult circumstances, the audience was initially on their side and remained polite as one mistake after another unfolded.

But at some point, a tipping point arrived. Suddenly the audience was no longer on the side of the performers. And once that point arrived, every single slight mistake, every error which might normally been ignored, was greeted by the audience with mockery. Because while the audience had initially been expecting one form of entertainment (a play) they eventually discovered that the play was so terrible that mocking it was more entertaining than the play itself.

The episode suggests that this tipping point separates what would have otherwise been just a bad play from a "fiasco." Once that tipping point arrived, there was nothing the performers could do to regain control.

Here are a couple of excerpts excerpts from the podcast which I found interesting in light of what's going on with Trump's recent polling numbers and the growing unpopularity of the policies he keeps doubling down on:

Ira Glass: And so now have we arrived at a turning point in our fiasco?

Jack Hitt: Yeah. Yeah, it's clear now that the audience is giving way. Something has been lost, some sense of decorum, that little bit of forgiveness that the audience has for the actors.

Ira Glass: And empathy.

Jack Hitt: And empathy. It's beginning to dissipate. Well, there was a split in the audience. Sort of the younger people who were the least forgiving, they started to go first, OK? So the high school students, couple of college students maybe, they started to laugh out loud. And I'll be honest, Ira, I might have been one of those first people to laugh. I was in the 10th grade. It was hard to not laugh at this.

Ira Glass: (LAUGHS)

Jack Hitt: But then whatever restraint that the audience had, it just evaporated at this point because there were a number of things that happened in quick succession that just made it impossible to hold any sense of decorum.

Jack Hitt: At this point, I mean, the actors are just falling apart. They are so frightened of the audience. There are just belly laughs rolling up to the stage from the audience. People are howling with laughter at every mistake. And now any small mistake just takes on these-- any instigation for laughter is just enough for this audience. And now the old people have given it up. Everyone has quit being nice. Now there's just this kind of frightening roar that comes from the audience every time there's a mistake.

Ira Glass: Well, what happened? At some point, the audience turned and realized, oh, wait. I realize what's going on here. This is a fiasco.

Jack Hitt: Yeah, this is a fiasco. And what's really interesting about a fiasco is that once it starts to tumble down, the audience wants to push it further along.

Ira Glass: Oh, they get hungry for more fiasco.

I realize that none of what the Trump administration is doing is laughable in the way that this performance of Peter Pan was. But this concept of a "fiasco" may suggest where the Trump administration could be heading in the eyes of the media and public.