Laughter challenge

Dear reader, we confess. The world has not been the same since the megaphone was taken away from Donald Trump, former POTUS, current social media pariah. This is a crisis especially for third edit writers, those creatures of the newsroom who are tasked with conjuring up levity and light even on days the world, cheered on by demagogues and autocrats, is going to hell in a handbasket. (In 2021, that means just about every single day). In the “unpresidented” years of the Trump presidency, one had only to look at the leader of the most powerful nation of the world for the LOLs. He had “the best of words”, even if he mixed up 9/11 with 7/11, or rechristened a certain Asian country Thighland, or snarled at “negative press covfefe” and hit out at all the “losers” conspiring to bring him down. For snarky satirists in “s**thole countries”, chortling at the daily spectacle of the leader of the “most powerful democracy” in the world was postcolonial catharsis. It was, as they say, “yuge”.

All of that was cut short when America managed to veer back to the boring normal by voting for Joe Biden — not before a fancy-dress coup bid at the Capitol, though, which ended up in Trump being deplatformed from Twitter. Humourless regimes that worship strongmen have always been good for sarcastic takedowns. The 21st century has brought the added plot twist of elected leaders turning into performance artists of authoritarianism.

But just as the Trump-shaped hole was compelling a turn to other great leaders, came a blast from the past. The former POTUS has found a way out of his Twitter wilderness. He has been launching tweet-length emails into inboxes of journalists. On Easter, he resurrected the good old days, with a message: “Happy Easter to ALL, including the Radical Left CRAZIES who rigged our Presidential Election, and want to destroy our Country!” And the third edit wrote itself.