Trump Was A Joke! Countering Trump's Absurdity with Satire w/ Prof. Sophia McClennen (G&R 233)

Trump’s public life has long been a target of comedians and satirists. His notorious thin skin often led to him lashing out on Twitter and Truth Social at the likes of Alec Baldwin and Seth Meyers. Like other authoritarian, or wannabe authoritarians, humor become a strategy to confront the Trump regime. As some experts say, comedy is an incredibly important method of non-violent protest and satire can be a way to energize and mobilize a mass of people resisting politicians like Trump. In our latest, we talk with Prof. Sophia McClennen (@mcclennen65) about how comedians were able to counter Trump's absurdity with satire and humor. We also talked about how it's used to undermine authoritarians in other parts of the world. And we discussed political comedians Tina Fey, Michael Moore and Al Franken. Bio// Sophia A. McClennen is Director of the Center for Global Studies and Professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA. She's the author of numerous books, including “Trump Was A Joke: How Satire Made Sense of a President Who Didn’t.” She’s also a regular contributor to Salon.com ------------------------------------------------------------- Outro- "Green and Red Blues" by Moody Links// + Prof. Sophia McClennen: https://www.sophiamcclennen.com/ + "Trump Was a Joke How Satire Made Sense of a President Who Didn’t" (https://bit.ly/3qSrkXc) + Salon: The news media is blowing Trump coverage again (https://bit.ly/3JmC4TY) + Salon: Sick of Trump? Try laughing at him (https://bit.ly/3PuICng) Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠ ⁠ +G&R's Website: https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠ +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠ + Have you follow us on Discord yet? Just click this invite: https://discord.gg/SyUBxVNB Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at ⁠https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast⁠ +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠ This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). “Green and Red Blues" by Moody. Editing by Isaac.