In February of 2017 (yes, right at the beginning of this long national nightmare), I wrote a Top Comments diary about the German phenomenon of ‘Verarschen.’ Verarschen in the Age of Drumpf. I still enjoy watching those videos (at least, those still available).
To me, in this context, it means “to make an ass of.” #asifworkwasrequiredtomakeanassofhim
As I wrote about it then, there were some delightful efforts to illuminate what an a$$ the asshole really is.
Of course, the picture has become clearer every day, since, as his staggering lack of qualification for his position has become ever more evident. Now, the measure of his qualification has diminished to successfully negotiating a ramp without collapsing or falling.
But the very pervasiveness of his incompetence seems to have made it more difficult to capture in comedy. No one is managing the challenge better right now than Sarah Cooper. Superstar.
More below.
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A NY Times article about the Sarah-phenomenon describes it thus:
Beyond capturing the moment, Ms. Cooper’s Trump says something about what makes a good political impression. Too often, people judge it by the Rich Little standard — how much you manage to look and sound like the subject.
Mimicry is a neat trick, but it’s not satire unless there’s an idea of the person, which can hit closer to the core than a pitch-perfect imitation. What Ms. Cooper and company are developing is comedy not as writing, but as a kind of live-action political cartooning.
I’ve loved Alex Baldwin’s withering characterizations, but those don’t always use exact words, and they certainly don’t use his despicable voice. Sarah Cooper goes beyond all that. Again, NYT (same article):
She captures her Trump entirely through pantomime. She crosses her arms and bounces on her heels, like a C.E.O. filibustering through a meeting while the staff suffers. Plenty of wags seized on Mr. Trump’s bleach prescription for easy jokes, but her performance gets at something deeper: the peacocky entitlement of the longtime boss who is used to having his every whim indulged, his every thought-doodle praised as a Michelangelo.
Her ‘political cartoons’ enable me, for the first time in many months, to listen to his voice. When people say he has a speech or a rally or a photo op coming up, I think, I’ll wait for the Sarah Cooper version. It makes palatable that which I couldn’t stomach in any other way.
I would like to include two more Sarah Cooper quotations (her words, not his, her voice, thank goodness!):
(From stltoday.)
Her distaste for Trump has fueled her comic sensibility: “It seems like we’ve been gaslighted for 3½ years. Now he’s saying ridiculous things that make no sense, but people are nodding, and no one is calling him out. That frustration is part of the reason why I wanted to do something like this.”
And:
When Trump in October 2017 launched one of his countless Twitter attacks against the mainstream media, saying, “The Fake News Is going all out in order to demean and denigrate! Such hatred!,” Cooper tweeted, “Fake news: Donald Trump has become unfit for office. Real news: Donald Trump was ALWAYS unfit for office.”
That response resulted in Trump blocking her from his millions of followers. One of the descriptors in her Twitter bio is “#blockedbytrump.”
#blockedbytrump! What a magical badge of honor that would be! Well done, Sarah!
Though she usually posts her impressions first on TikTok, she also now routinely cross-posts them on Instagram and Twitter, so we can see them as soon as they’re up.
If you would like to see her in ‘Sarah’ mode, here is a conversation she had with Jimmy Fallon on the remote-broadcast Tonight Show on Friday.
Our times are very dark in so many ways, with the daily if not hourly injustices coming from that administration, with the equally catastrophic injustices committed by law enforcement against our brothers and sisters, with the disease being so callously disregarded by so many people and politicians.
Sarah Cooper is, for me — and by a very wide margin - the brightest light in the 2020 firmament. She opens eyes that don’t seem openable in any other way, both to the destructive buffoon, and to the great breadth of argument that our black siblings are making so passionately and so effectively these days.
She makes my days easier, and my times watching full of sublime joy and inspiration. It’s hard for me to imagine a greater gift.
I will always be in your debt, Sarah. Proudly and humbly so.
On to tonight’s comments!
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From inkstainedwretch:
greblos reply to BubbaSan in Rikon Snow's Seattle police Mace 7-yr-old and then arrest man who caught it on camera is a top comment. There is frequently a mental pathology among thugs (Police or Republicans or ammosexuals), but they CHOOSE to harm others.
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