By Tony Deyal
The movie, “The Joker is Wild”, came out in 1957 when I was twelve years old. Now, 67 years later, the Joker, instead of reaching the heights, has reached the depths of disgust, especially in the US where there is a fight to the finish. Either the entire country falls if Trump wins, or there will be a better and renewed United States if Kamala Harris becomes president. In many ways, the closest to Trump as a president was Richard Nixon. I was studying Journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada when Nixon was the US president. The Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, and our journalism teachers, made it clear that we and everyone else in Canada should always know what was happening in the US, especially the politics, because “Canada’s relationship with the United States was like sleeping next to an elephant…”
Nixon was caught in the Watergate scandal and responded with a public speech “I am not a crook.” He was not a total gook either. As one journalist said, “It was a clever defence. No one was accusing him of being a crook. They were accusing him of abuse of power and other misdeeds. It’s like a boy who stole the cookies protesting that he didn’t hit his brother. It fuzzes up the issue.” It even “fuzzed” up what he was. There are still Nixon jokes like, “What did Nixon say when asked to help with the presidential dinner? I am not a cook!”
It is said that Richard Stone, who worked in the campaigns of both Nixon and Trump, supposedly had Nixon tattooed on his back. That way, inmates at the jail where Stone was sentenced for 40 months for lying to Congress, would get to see a criminal and a liar no matter which side of him they were facing. Interestingly, he was later freed by Trump. In wondering whether that made Trump better than Nixon and the greatest of all US presidents, George Washington, the difference, as we learned in school, was that Washington couldn’t tell a lie . Nixon couldn’t tell the truth and Donald Trump cannot tell the difference. In fact, Amazon sells a T-shirt which says on the front, “I am not a crook” and below a picture of Trump, “compared to Donald Trump.”
Actually, the US bobsled team put Donald Trump’s picture on the front of the sled because nobody else can make America go downhill faster. Despite this, Trump has a huge following. In fact, when asked how many Trump supporters take to change a light-bulb, the answer is, “None! Trump says it’s changed and his supporters all cheer in the dark.” As a 79-year-old, I just found out that Trump just turned 73 and that makes him the first President of the US whose age surpassed his IQ.
When Trump was impeached, the response by many people was, “Finally, something he’s earned.” What we all found out earlier this week is that with all the many others in the world, especially the people of Puerto Rico, when it comes to Trump’s jokes his Republicans don’t think they’re funny, For them all that Trump says or does is gospel. On the other hand, and perhaps rightly so, Democrats don’t think they’re jokes. For them, not just Trump but also his staff and selected jokers are just as bad as he is. After last week’s performance by one of his humourists, if it is at all possible, worse.
I remember reading the Jamaica Gleaner’s “Political Memes” when Donald Trump won the presidency over Hillary Clinton. The Gleaner said that the world might be shocked but as Jamaicans, they know what their people always say, “Sometimes youh affir tek bad things mek joke.” In other words, “We are always joking and having a good laugh over any bad situation.” Unfortunately, Trump went far beyond Jamaica and after hitting Puerto Rico with a double or triple-whammy, ended up where he should always be- in the deep, depths of the Sargasso Sea.
Maybe he was in Elon Musk’s car, but the guy who drove the car and told the jokes for Trump and his fans, would not get any of Musk’s $1 million or even a good morning. What happened is a question every writer should be able to answer, “When is a joke a joke.” Or when is joking not a joke. A joke is supposed a display of humour to make people laugh.
Calling something a joke doesn’t grant it immunity from offence. Hiding behind a “joke” does not help when you’re telling racist, sexist or demeaning jokes. Trump’s humorist, Tony Hinchcliffe, went after all so-called Trump enemies, hoping to get laughs, which he did, but only from some Trump supporters. Others, like all the Democrats and others who know the Puerto Ricans and what they stand for, were disgusted.
It is not that Hinchcliffe was unknown in terms of what to expect from him. He was always expected to follow his performance name “Kill Tony” on the stage, and as Trump’s “Joker” when he was on the ball. So with Trump’s biggest crowd ready to rumble, the “Joker” started with, “I want to migrate to the United States of America. I want to migrate to the US with open arms…” and he started shaking his arms with a huge, “No! No!”
In other words, none of those wanting to migrate to the US were not wanted by Trump and his supporters. “Kill Tony” continued, “It’s absolutely wild! We’re right there by a wide open border. Where are the mosquitoes tonight? You can see what I mean. It’s wide open and there are so many of them. A floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico. Ok!” Then he went to town on Puerto Rico, “There’s a lot going on. Like, I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Later, Hinchcliffe said the Latinx/Hispanic community “loves making babies, too.” He added: “Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”
No race got away from Trump’s joker. He compared a black man in the audience with a watermelon and called Jews “cheap” and Palestinians “rock throwers.” When he heard that the Democratic vice president-elect, Tim Walz was upset about his jokes, Hinchcliffe responded, “I’m a comedian Tim…might be time to change your tampon.” An American female politician, Ocasasio-Cortez, who was speaking to Walz, replied to “Kill Tony”, “Can’t get over this dude telling someone else to change tampons when he’s the ones (p)itting bricks…for a Trump rally and feeding red-meat racism alongside a throng of other bigots to a frothing crowd…”
What the crowd and all Trump supporters will never know is what a fun joke can be even when dealing with politicians. For example, my advice is, don’t steal, don’t lie and don’t cheat. Trump hates competition.
*Tony Deyal was last seen saying that despite what so many people think, Trump is nothing like Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany. There’s no way he could write a book.
