Stephen Colbert skit on Donald Trump is much more than mere jokes
There is nothing like truth masquerading as comedy. Likewise, there is nothing like schooling masquerading as comedy. It makes it easier to digest. It is like adding juice or sugar to medicine in an attempt to disguise its terrible taste.
When I video edit intelligent comedy from the likes of Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Larry Wilmore, and George Carlin, I like to take out the audience laughs, claps, cheers, and the comedian/satirist’s fortuitous words. What one is generally left with is the real message to be digested.
Stephen Colbert did not disappoint in this new skit. He was able to get across two important realities. First, the insanity of a media concentrating on the stupidity that Donald Trump brings to the body politic, the political debate. Secondly, he provides the perfect analogy. We all love funny things. There are foods that are manufactured to be addictive. Oreo is like crack to our palates — we cannot seem to get enough. So is Trump for entertainment to many.
Watching the news or TV in general brings to mind this skit from Salt Lake City Move to Amend. We are fed entertainment and cheap food to keep us occupied. That way we leave all the serious business of pilfering the middle-class and the poor to the plutocracy unabated.
I must admit, I do not watch shows like Jerry Springer or reality TV because inasmuch as I know these shows are silly and valueless, as Al Pacino said, ‘they pull me back in’. The media should avoid the Donald Trump crack. But as Stephen Colbert alluded to, they won’t. We must.
(h/t Full skit at YouTube)