No Joke: Silent Jesters and Comedic Refusals

If there is a right, a privilege, or an obligation to speak out, must there not also be a right, a privilege, or an obligation to remain silent? Does not the one confirm the other? Are there not convergences of events, people, places, and times that demand voice; and others, the biting of the tongue?¹

In a segment on Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show, former host Larry Wilmore attacked the power of misinformation in political discourse. As evidence he offered Donald Trump’s years-long effort to promote the conspiracy that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Even after the president produced his long-form birth certificate from Hawai’i, Wilmore explained, a January 2016 poll showed that 20 percent of voters still believe Obama was not born in the United States. “I don’t have a joke for this,” Wilmore stressed. “I just want that shit to sink in.”² Real life already offers enough incongruity; he has nothing more to add than to punctuate the incongruity with comedic silence. The comedian and satirist, in the face of a confounding reality, bites his tongue.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and election as the 45th president of the United States has been fraught with moments of incongruity, shock, and disbelief. For some, these characteristics make Donald Trump fun to watch. He brings a flair for reality television drama to the political campaign and Washington, D.C. that has made his unlikely campaign—and perhaps his presidency, which at the time of this writing is less than a week away—simultaneously unpredictable, wild, and, above all, entertaining. For others, Donald Trump is terrifying. He incites violence. He stirs up racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia. He represents the worst of U.S. political discourse. During the campaign the Economist Intelligence Unit research firm rated a possible Trump presidency as one of the top ten risks facing the world.³ And after his election, Human Rights Watch named Trump a threat to human rights in the organization’s 2017 World Report, in part, because he speaks “in a way that breache[s] basic principles of dignity and equality.”⁴ Frank Rich captures the complex mixture of emotions, fascination, and confusion surrounding Trump’s campaign, asking, “How could a crass, bigoted bully with a narcissistic-personality disorder and policy views bordering on gibberish ‘defy political gravity,’ dominate the national stage, make monkeys out of pundits and pollsters, and pose an existential threat to one of America’s two major parties?”⁵ As Trump approached the Republican nomination for president, a report on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah attempted to explain “How the Fuck We Got Here,” a title that simultaneously expressed befuddlement at Trump’s success and denounced news media for giving him nonstop coverage, while promising to deliver the expected dose of snarky satire in the chorus of media attention.⁶

I have consistently joined with scholars who argue for the importance of critical comedy for political discourse, racial justice, critical public pedagogy, and more;⁷ but throughout this 2016 election and now facing the reality of President Trump, I find little worthy of laughter. Remarkably, many outspoken comedians share this position. Penn Jillette, comedian, magician, and a two-time contestant on The Apprentice, has warned against a Trump presidency. News satirist John Oliver dedicated a feature story on Last Week Tonight to broadcast Trump’s contradictions and business failures. And Louis CK emailed his fans: “Please stop it with voting for Trump. It was funny for a little while. But the guy is Hitler.... He’s an insane bigot. He is dangerous.”⁸ Noting the trend of outspoken comedians who have denounced Trump’s candidacy, Conor Friedersdorf asks: “Trump fans, shouldn’t you be worried that all these comedians are so ardently against your guy? Comedians aren’t, after all, a politically correct community. These are people who delight in traveling from town to town, grabbing a mic, and violating all taboos.”⁹ These warnings return me to Larry Wilmore’s disquieting alarm: “I don’t have a joke for this.... I just want that...