How comics around the world view Trump

He’s offended many with his remarks, but comedians from Germany to China still find humour in the candidate, reports Jennifer Armstrong.

Two light-haired, deadly serious anchors sit behind a news desk, delivering the latest on the race for the US presidential nominations in Finnish, with English subtitles: “Last week, after Powerful Tuesday, the Elephant Cowboys realised Mr Business Wig’s rage could not be stopped. He has such rage because his mini-hands lead to a mini-penis.” The two purport to be “Finland’s #8 News Team: the only source you need for the US election with the latest analysis of the GOP and Democratic contenders from a European perspective.” Though, in fact, the video came courtesy of the United States-based Funny or Die, a comedy site known for its parodies.

The Finnish-born actors – Ritva Dale and Steve Siltanen – helped refine the translation scripted by Funny or Die writers. It’s hilarious partly because beneath its silliness the sketch gets at a fundamental truth: the 2016 US presidential elections may look particularly ludicrous – some, including US Secretary of State John Kerry, would say downright embarrassing – to the rest of the world. And there’s no better way to tell what other countries think about the circus, led by Mr Business Wig himself, Donald Trump, than to look at the comedy they produce in response.

Comedians around the world have plenty to say about this year’s US presidential contest, from broader commentary on American culture (many contend US presidential debates are laughably superficial) to pointed criticism of Trump’s rise. Canadians can’t help but use the opportunity to jab at their neighbours – and offer possible refuge for those fleeing a potential President Trump. And Bassem Youssef – known as ‘the Egyptian Jon Stewart’ and banned for his political satire in his own country – will soon debut an entire web series dedicated to skewering the election, The Democracy Handbook, on Fusion TV’s F Comedy platform.

French comedian Gad Elmaleh, who normally doesn’t draw much on politics for his act, has been essentially forced to pontificate on the American race for president since he happens to be touring the United States. Known as ‘the Jerry Seinfeld of France’, he took an observational-comedy approach when discussing US presidential debates on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore: like many other American phenomena, he said, the debates are too focused on efficiency, and pleasing audiences with short attention spans, to be substantive.

He told Wilmore that US presidential debates look like “a game show” to him: “Just one minute for the answer. That’s too short! You know what I would do if I was a candidate and they would give me one minute to say something important to a big country like America? I would take this minute and offer it to another candidate, and say, ‘Take this minute and use it to really think about what you just said.’ Even on Twitter we have more characters than that!”

Many other comedians in Europe have been more than happy to call out the American people themselves for abetting the rise of Trump. On Germany’s Heute-Show, a Daily Show-like programme, Trump’s run has been a major source of fear-based comedy: host Oliver Welke has compared Trump with Donald Duck and opined that “Trump’s success should be a warning for us all… when large parts of the middle class become poor, then the hate towards establishment politicians becomes so large that people would rather vote for a maladjusted clown just to change something.”

In a segment about what 2017 would look like under a President Trump, Welke and correspondent Ulrich von Heesen imagined a future – facetiously, of course – in which hair loss is outlawed, the White House is made of pure gold, African-Americans have “apologized for slavery”, climate change “stopped immediately” because “global warming is afraid of Donald Trump,” “anything under a D cup is illegal,” and Viagra is in the drinking water.

But just in case the Heute-Show’s position on Trump wasn’t clear, in a different episode Welke gave Trump a “lifetime achievement dumbass award” for Trump’s alleged belief that “facts are for losers”. “Even the IS could learn something from him,” correspondent Christian Ehring said, referring to Trump’s declaration that waterboarding was just fine with him.

Irish comedian Clisare says that the Germans are right about Trump in her viral Facebook video comparing the candidate to a “bad boyfriend” in a “letter” from Ireland to America. She talks about Germany like a mutual friend, and in doing so implicitly compares Trump to Hitler: “Germany is worried about you. God knows Germany knows a bad relationship when they see it… now.” The video, shared nearly 4.8m times as of 1 April, comes from the perspective of a concerned friend: “I’ve just been chatting with all of the other countries, and we just really think that Donald is not right for you. We’d hoped that you’d come to this conclusion by yourself, but it’s looking like it needs to be said. Um, America, we all hate him.… I mean, he’s got really tiny hands and he’s a massive racist. And you deserve someone who is going to treat you right, all of you! You know, not just the white part of you.” She concludes that Trump is acting a bit obsessive: “I know you think it’s really romantic that he wants to build a wall around you to protect you, but that’s… borderline psycho behaviour.”

Laugh and the world laughs with you

Those who’d be on the other side of that wall – that is, Mexicans – have naturally taken Trump’s run a bit more personally, what with the candidate calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” in his presidential run announcement. A play called Los Hijos de Trump (Sons of Trump), staged by Mexican comedians, was one of the world’s first major Trump skewerings inspired by this election cycle. At the Aldana Theater in Mexico City in November, the parody play featured a wigged actor playing the candidate as the face of the $100 bill and calling the audience frijoleros (“beaners”). From there, the Trump character continues his reign of terror, stealing from blind people, throwing drinks at waiters, doing copious amounts of cocaine, and seeking impotence cures. 

The Chinese have been targets of Trump as well – so, naturally, Trump has been a target of their comic bloggers. Trump has called the Chinese “truly the dumbest people on Earth” and has ranted about them “stealing” American jobs. Satirical blogger Gu Da Bai Hua, who cites The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart as his role model, took to Weibo – China’s Twitter – to repost a mashup video of all the times Trump has said “China” while campaigning, and, naturally, made fun of Trump’s hair. Another Chinese Weibo blogger, Guanxin Sam, gave out the real phone number for Trump’s campaign headquarters in a fictional want ad for workers to build his Mexico border wall: “If any Chinese construction team is interested in taking this project, please contact them,” it says, going on to list the number.

The non-Trump US presidential candidates have failed to inspire nearly so much comedy around the world. Perhaps it’s just because they’re boring, or because they haven’t insulted other countries, or because they are, as the Finnish Funny or Die video’s subtitles say, “not so volcano on Twitter as Mr Business Wig.” Vitriol and culture clashes may not lead to world peace, but they do lead to comedy.

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