The Oldest Warning Sign: How History Links the Death of Comedy to the Death of Democracy
The past teaches us one truth: when laughter dies, liberty soon follows...
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett is refusing to apologize for saying Trump is following Hitler’s playbook. She’s right.
We’ve seen this movie before. Or at least our grandparents did. Dictators can’t take a joke.
On February 4, 1939 — seven months before their invasion of Poland kicked off World War II — the man with oversight responsibility for German media officially forbade five comedians from ever again performing in public. As the headline in The New York Times explained:
“Goebbels Ends Careers of Five 'Aryan' Actors Who Made Witticisms About the Nazi Regime”
Their crime, according to Goebbels, was publicly telling “brazen, impertinent, arrogant and tactless” jokes about the Führer.
Their humor, Goebbels told the press, only appealed to the “society rabble that followed them with thundering applause—parasitic scum, inhabiting our luxury streets, that seems to have only the task of proving with how little brains people can get along and even acquire money and prominence.”
The Times wrote that Goebbels and Hitler were particularly incensed that they caricatured and ridiculed Hitler’s followers and the loyal toadies in his administration:
“What amused the public most, however, and presumably roiled the National Socialist authorities most—although Dr. Goebbels does not mention it—is that they deftly, but unmistakably, caricatured some gestures, poses and physical characteristics of National Socialist leaders—sometimes with bon mots that made the rounds of the country.”
The Nazi leaders were furious, arguing that they themselves had, the Times noted, “a keen sense of humor that could kill opponents with ridicule.”
Instead of ordering the offending comedians executed, the Times added, they were simply rendered incapable of earning a living in their chosen profession.
“But as National Socialism proposes to remain in power 2,000 years it has neither the time nor the patience to apply that method to the ‘miserable literati.’”
FCC (“Federal Censorship Commission”?) Chairman Brendan Carr seems to be following in Goebbel’s footsteps, having implicitly threatened Disney/ABC and two groups of TV station affiliates with regulatory intervention to block multi-billion-dollar mergers if they didn’t take Jimmy Kimmel off the air.
CBS’s rolling over when Trump was offended by Stephen Colbert appears to have emboldened the administration to go after other comedians.
Trump himself, meanwhile, was blunt about how “illegal” it is for people on television to criticize him. And he wasn’t just talking about comedians, specifically calling out “newscasts” that will presumably be Carr’s next target:
“I’m a very strong person for free speech. But 97, 94, 95, 96 percent of the people are against me in the sense of the newscasts are against me. The stories are– they said 97% bad. So, they gave me 97, they’ll take a great story, and they’ll make it bad. See, I think that’s really illegal, personally.”
Meanwhile, Trump has sent soldiers into the streets of three American cities, purged federal museums of information about slavery and discrimination against minorities and women, and just posted what may have been meant to be a private DM demanding that Attorney General Pam Bondi begin prosecuting his political enemies.
Along those same authoritarian lines, three major federal buildings in Washington, DC now sport massive new banners with Trump’s face glowering down on people walking or driving by. Paid for with your tax dollars, the banners violate federal law according to a report released by Senator Adam Schiff. Georgia Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson was blunt in his critique:
“When I saw the banners hanging from federal office buildings last week, it reminded me of [the] Communist Party in China and banners hanging from federal offices—just totally inappropriate and a step towards authoritarianism. It’s another indication of the march that we’re on towards authoritarianism in this country.”
Will anybody on network television be willing this week to tell “brazen, impertinent, arrogant and tactless" jokes about the Saddam Hussein-like banners?
Stay tuned.
Louise’s Daily Song: “Dictators Can’t Take a Joke” (Let me know if you’d like to continue receiving this song as part of the Daily Take or not; you can just reply to this email.)
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"a step towards authoritarianism"
A step?? We're smack in the middle of it.
And what's up with the media's massive coverage of Charlie Kirk's funeral forcing people to listen to Hegseth, Vance, Rubio, etc, (I did not)? Kirk's non-acceptance of people who are not like him could not be further than Jesus' teachings. Turning his assassination into full-fledged propaganda to bolster Christian Nationalism is truly sickening....
With an assist from an AI illustrator I wrote about this in my Substack this morning: "Who will be the last clown standing? My AI had an ominous take on this question." Here's the link: https://halbrown.substack.com/p/who-will-be-the-last-clown-standing
This is how I began:
Comedy in America won’t really die, die as in dead, ceasing to exist, under Trump’s punitive censorship. By now those paying attention have seen clips of late-night comedians standing up for free speech and perhaps seen interviews with experts explaining why strongmen try to censor satire and humor which mocks them. You may have read articles like Why Dictators Don't Like Jokes, Dictators Seem Strong, But They Can't Take a Joke, and Comedy as a Revolution: Why Tyrants Have No Defense Against Laughter.
There’s no need to expound on the “why” related to Trump and his anti-jokester juggernaut. I use that word deliberately because it has been most often associated with the Nazis in modern times.