In another episode of the continuing series: You Don’t Hate the Media Enough,” The Washington Post (Where Journalism Went to Die) is all over a major news story: Trump’s Al Smith Dinner jokes. Who wrote his jokes? And when did he know it?…
No, I am not kidding. Trump “killed it” on Thursday. I mean, his jokes and delivery were excellent. He Killed. My buddy Jennifer Oliver O’Connell wrote about Trump’s best moments:
The Al Smith Dinner is a tradition as honored as the State of the Union and raises money for all the good causes Catholics hold dear. Vice President and selected Democrat nominee Kamala Harris decided she would not be in attendance, something a major candidate had not done in 40 years. Harris’ refusal to attend only heightened the fact that she was not there. She was literally the elephant in the room—without even being in the room.
Trump might have also killed the Harris Campaign because Trump showed up. Harris didn’t. Well, ok, she showed up on tape with a retread of a retread that was so unfunny the pro-Harris and pro-Democrat crowd were moaning in pain — pain for the lack of humor and pain for the Harris campaign. And a bit of pain for the crummy and clumsy delivery. Kamala’s team of “mean girls” (yes, the joy campaign is gone) decided to pounce on Trump:
You might not think my tweet is funny but it is orders of magnitude funnier than Kamala’s Al Smith taped comedy. She is remarkably bad — at everything.
Comedy is, frankly, hard. You can either deliver or you can’t. Trump delivered, and people laughed. They laughed because the jokes were both funny and delivered well. Trump told the jokes. And — pro tip — someone else wrote the jokes. I know, quite the scandal. BREAKING NEWS…or something.
Do you know how many top-shelf comedians write all of their own material? Zero. Bob Hope had a cadre of joke writers. He would sit with them and pick from dozens of jokes, weeding out the ones he didn’t want. He saved all of the jokes written for him in filing cabinets and if he thought a joke he read could be used, he would pull it from a file and use it. He didn’t write his own material. For an Al Smith Dinner, no politician is going to write their own material. Trump is naturally funny, but he’s not “that” funny. Trump doesn’t have time to write his own jokes – but apparently, the fact that he had joke writers is a national scandal of some sort. A story worth the time of the Washington Post.
It’s hard to make this stuff up. Harris is a massive “joke” because she is bad at everything. Walz is a “joke” because he can’t tell the truth to save his soul. And the media is a massive joke because they are in a panic that their preferred candidate – the pick of the DNC, the nominee that NO ONE VOTED FOR, is bombing on the biggest stage. And they are super upset that Trump had a joke writer who made fun of Harris and Walz. The scandal. The horror.
We are not quite at the stage of people watching Joe Biden at his debate with Trump and mouthing “WTF?” but we are close. And media like The Washington Post are pondering, with dismay: Who wrote Trump’s jokes and why?
Will WaPo bring back media muckraker Taylor Lorenz to do an exposé on Trump’s Al Smith joke writers? Or will they be “doxed” for writing funny jokes for Trump?
Probably.
Stay tuned for the next episode of: “You Don’t Hate Media Enough.”
