By Cara Burke
“Tonight, we will present to you The Great Dictator, and of course you all know why…”
For about the twentieth time that day a reference to the new President of the United States came up, and like every other time it sent a ripple of laughter echoing through the room. Trump’s name wasn’t springing up throughout the day for no reason though ; this was the 2017 Slapstick Festival in Bristol which I was very lucky to be able to attend, and it was the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. I sensed that for many this day would bring about great fear or anger, and most definitely tension, but at the Slapstick Festival Donald Trump was the butt of every joke, and the mere mention of his name would invoke laughter through the crowd. Of course, he isn’t a joke. He now really is the President of the United States. So what does this comedic response to him mean about comedy during times of political tension?
Comedy has no means to reverse political decisions, but being at the Slapstick Festival did make me think about what significance it might have. One of the main events was the showing of “The Great Dictator” by Charlie Chaplin, a comedy parodying Hitler as a dictator called “Hynkel” made just at the start of World War 2 in 1940, and there was no pretence as to why they were playing it now. It was a last minute decision to show it to an audience, and not only did the pamphlets mention Trump in their first few sentences, but those who presented the film – Robin Ince, Grace Petrie, and Neil Innes amongst others – made it even more clear that the film was being shown because of Donald Trump’s inauguration, as not only was his name mentioned, but songs of coming together, peace, and anger in want for human rights were played.
The film itself was powerful as well as funny. It showed ‘Hynkel’ to be comically childish in his want for power, and the scene where he dances with a balloon world with the hope that he would one day rule it is especially good, as it depicted him not as a strong political leader but as a comical man obsessed with the globe as though it were his lover. The most moving part of the film comes at the end, where the ‘Jewish Barber’, as they call him, gets an opportunity to speak to the masses about not bowing down to these dictators and rising up together to live in kindness and help each other. Whether or not it is fair to compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler the film was clearly sending a message as well as giving people something to laugh at. An example of this comedic parodying with Donald Trump is Alec Baldwin’s hilarious impersonation of the man, which was not only for comical effect but also sending out the message that he would not be a competent president ; it showed him as a little stupid by not knowing that people could see his tweets, hypocritical and fickle, and also highlighted his racism by showing him being afraid of a black man and his sexism with a skit on his ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’ remark. These skits were clearly made to make people laugh, but they were also about sending a message and expressing a point of view.
I also had the amazing opportunity to watch Barry Cryer talk about Tommy Cooper, a very famous comedian-magician in the 70s. He briefly mentioned how Tommy Cooper used to entertain others during the war. In this situation comedy was used as a means of coping, and whilst I am in no way comparing today’s political situation to that of World War 2, there is a lot of political tension at the moment and many articles cropping up about whether comedy will be the thing that gets us through. Certainly, finding joy and laughter in comedy during times of tension is wonderful.
I decided it would be unfair to write this article without consulting someone who, unlike me, does support Donald Trump, and ask them what they think of comedy at his expense. They said that they didn’t really care about the comedy, that most of it was founded on no truth, and that there was no point in getting upset about it – democracy has spoken, and comedy would not change the result of it.
Honestly, no matter what you think of Trump comedy will not change the fact that he is President of the United States. It can, however, be a means for people to express themselves, and for someone such as myself whose more than a little scared for the situation we find ourselves in, it’s just nice to have something to laugh at and to know that there are many people standing together in solidarity during this time of unease.
