The Weekly Discourse: Dying Gasps Of Trump-era Comedy

The Trump presidency officially ended today and Joe Biden was sworn into office. In addition to today marking the end of one of the most chaotic presidencies in American history, it also should end the deluge of god-awful Trump-related political satire that has been a scourge on comedy for half a decade. From Drumpf to covfefe to Alec Baldwin on SNL, political comedy in the past few years has been hampered by self-righteousness and a reality that was practically too insane to parody.

Of course, not everyone agrees with that assessment of Trump-era comedy. In fact, to many, there was simply nothing funnier than saying "Donald Trump" and making a fart noise. This led to the careers of Randy Rainbow and Sarah Cooper, two top comedians of the Trump era who entered the spotlight by doing musical-themed parodies of the Trump administration and lip dubs of Trump's rants, respectively. Both comic's general schtick found an audience with the Debra Messings of social media, the sort of well-to-do liberal who enjoys patting themselves on the back for being on the right side of history, and Cooper even somehow was able to parlay lipdubbing Trump into a Netflix series. With Trump gone, one wonders about the future of their careers.

In the last week of the Trump era, Rainbow and Cooper returned to give their final, cringeworthy jabs at the President before he leaves office and the Trump satirists potentially disappear from public consciousness. Perhaps we'll see Rainbow and Cooper pivot to Avengersposting to keep their careers going.

Seasons Of Trump

In a just world, we would never be aware of Randy Rainbow, but he crossed into the political arena when he praised Andrew Cuomo's authoratative daily updates on the COVID-19 Pandemic in the gratingly horny Cuomosexual, a song fawning over the New York State governor set to the tune of "Sandy" from Grease. The song found an audience with wealthy liberals who believe an appreciation of musical theater is a personality trait, so it was inevitable that Mr. Rainbow would dig into the well again for the end of the Trump era. And boy, did he.

Of course it's "Seasons of Love." "Seasons of Love" from Rent is the scourge of the musical theater community. It's what middle schoolers get together and sing off key for talent shows. It's what college theater kids riff on as they walk through dormitory hallways. Whatever power the song once had in the original show has been stripped by decades of ill-fitting parodies that turned it into a cliché. Still, one would be hard-pressed to find an occasion as ill-fitting for "Seasons of Love" as the end of the Trump administration.

"Seasons of Love" is a celebratory song marking the passing of a year. Rainbow's rendition is not so much a celebration of the Trump administration but a bunch of jokes awkwardly fit into the tune's melody. In a way, it's a more fitting end to the Randy Rainbow era than it is to the Trump era.

Sarah Cooper's Epic Burn

Speaking of the end of eras, this may well be the end of the Sarah Cooper era. Cooper became a liberal comedy figure by simply lipdubbing bizarre Trump speeches in TikTok videos. Somehow, this earned her a following large enough to get her a Netflix show, but she has also been a figure of intense scrutiny from people who prefer comedy to be funny. In many ways, Cooper embodied the frustrations many had with how comedy was unable to rise to the moment. Parroting Trump and making funny faces wasn't parodying the President so much as amplifying him.

In one last "epic roast" for the road, Cooper envisioned a moment where Biden totally freakin pwns Trump's daughter Ivanka.

This is like the text of a Facebook aunt Minion meme. It's so completely implausible from top-to-bottom that the joke falls apart. Like, maybe it would work with Pete Buttigieg or Amy Klobuchar, but there's no universe where Biden would offer Ivanka any kind of position. So, to answer the implied question, it is indeed very likely that Cooper is the only person who wants Biden to do that freaking epic bait-and-switch.

One Of The Most Elaborate Liberal Avengers Fanfics Yet

The past two weeks have brought us some truly great examples of Liberal Avengersposting, but none have been as detailed as comedian Mike DiCenzo's epic thread imagining what The Avengers would do at the Capitol Riot.

Found it pic.twitter.com/GyMSt8Emrs

— Max Jack Blankenship (@MaxJBlankenship) January 20, 2021

The stunningly elaborate thread, deleted after what Dicenzo called "toxic responses," is more than a simple comparison. He wrote a whole script imagining each comic book superhero making quips during one of the darkest moments in history. Some choice cuts include:

CAPTAIN AMERICA – tells Falcon, “I fought Nazis once before. They’re extremely dangerous.” They then see the guy scaling the Capitol wall fall into the shrubs.
Falcon: “You sure these are the same Nazis?”

IRON MAN – lands by the guy carrying the podium. Says, “Mind if I borrow this?” then tosses it to Hulk, who swings it like a bat at the mob. Guy: “Hey, that’s MY podium!” Iron Man: “Actually it’s the Speaker’s. And technically, it’s a lectern.” Then punches him through a wall.

BLACK WIDOW – enters hotel room where Jack Dorsey is tied up. Rips duct tape off his mouth. Jack: “I’ll do anything you want!” BW: “Disable POTUS’s Twitter. NOW!” Jack fumbles with his phone. “Done. Anything else?” BW: “Yeah. Trim your beard for God’s sake.” tosses him clippers

Perhaps the best quip in Dicenzo's fanfiction is when The Hulk literally kills Ted Cruz.

HULK – grabs a selfie stick from one of the guys and beats him over the head with it. Deeming it too small, he grabs another guy’s Confederate flag and takes out a whole swath of rioters. He then tosses the flag to Cap, who uses it as a javelin to impale a fleeing Ted Cruz.

What's fascinating about Dicenzo's thread is he was a professional comedy writer for The Tonight Show, and he contributes to The Onion. He is clearly an "online guy," and must know that every liberal Avengers fanfiction gets criticized to hell on Twitter. Yet, he charged on unabated in a massive thread, and got the drubbing that all Avengers fanfics get online.

It's remarkable that these sorts of posts continue to pop up on Twitter despite the loud distaste for them. It's impossible to know when the pandemic of Avengersposting will end, but on the bright side, at least it gives Twitter something to do all day.

The Weekly Discourse is a look at some of the spiciest hot takes on Twitter from the past week that may not have generated memes but were definitely bonkers.