The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper Roasts Trump: ‘He’s a Baby’ Who Is ‘Afraid’ of Comedy
The Daily Show‘s Jordan Klepper told SiriusXM host and Salon interviewer Dean Obeidallah that former President Donald Trump is a “baby” who is afraid of comedy — and he should be.
On Friday, the host talked with Klepper for his Salon Talks interview series, and asked him to draw a parallel between Trump and Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin:
DEAN OBEIDALLAH: President Zelensky, who we all know is a comedian, was interviewed by the Atlantic and said over the weekend that Vladimir Putin, he fears comedy and, he said, because it’s accessible, it’s a tool that cuts through things. It’s a shortcut to telling the truth. I thought, what a great definition of it. But we also saw Donald Trump literally call for Sunday Night Live to be canceled as a candidate, and as president called for the FCC to investigate Saturday Night Live and he lashed out against the late night hosts, and even before that, he went after Jon Stewart and Bill Maher and other comedians. But do you think there’s a connection there? The idea that Putin, according Zelenskiy, fears comedy for his own reasons and that Trump, a wannabe dictator, objectively fears comedy for similar reasons, it might cut through. Or at the very least, he doesn’t want to be laughed at. He wants to be feared.
JORDAN KLEPPER: One. He’s a baby. That’s what a child does. A child with no empathy reacts more to the jokes aimed at them than they do the human suffering that he has a hand in affecting. That aside, I think it’s emblematic of how effective humor can be. LAUGHTER is a response of recognition. When you see a bunch of people laughing at a joke on SNL about Donald Trump, or supporting that, it’s because people see that B.S. that they see in Donald Trump, and they recognize it. And it’s it’s it’s a democratic response to bullshit, and Donald Trump isn’t immune to that democratic response as much as he tries to affect it in other ways. So, yeah, comedy is scary. It’s also, it’s the language of the people. People understand comedy. Satire heightens the B.S. and the blind spots that we see in society so that it’s palpable and understandable in the quickest, biggest possible way. And in a media landscape where everything is, you know, you’re in your own bubbles, it can get overwhelming by the influx of information. Sometimes you just need the clearest way of calling B.S. and a joke is often the fastest way to that. So, you know, it depends on how you wield that. But I have no doubt, I understand why giant men in power whose power is based on the way in which they can control the narrative and control the people who hear that narrative? Comedy is a great way to disrupt that narrative, and they should be freakin scared because these jokes are sharp, Dean. Sharp!
Watch above via Salon Talks.
