◆The Barbaric Yawp Project

Whatever It Is, I'm Against It Let me tell you something about this country. I've been watching it carefully and I've come to a conclusion. Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped. Actually both may be true simultaneously. That's the beauty of the current situation. I know this type. I have played this type. Rufus T. Firefly. President of Freedonia. Appointed by a wealthy widow who found him charming. No qualifications. No experience. No discernible interest in the welfare of the nation he led. I played him in 1933. I thought I was playing a satire. It turns out I was playing a documentary. The only difference — the only difference between Rufus T. Firefly and what I am currently observing is that Rufus T. Firefly was funnier. And I wrote Rufus T. Firefly to be as unfunny as possible. The con man has certain tells. He talks faster than he thinks. He changes the subject when it gets inconvenient. He insults the people pointing out the con and calls the insult a compliment until nobody can remember which is which. He surrounds himself with people slightly less intelligent than he is — which in this case has required remarkable casting. He confuses the performance of confidence with the possession of it. And he believes his own material. That last one is the dangerous one. The con man who believes his own material is no longer a con man. He is a true believer in himself. And a true believer in himself with access to the apparatus of the state is not a con man anymore. He is Rufus T. Firefly with nuclear codes. I never belonged. My family came from nowhere. We performed in theaters the respectable people didn't attend. We made people laugh who needed to laugh because their lives were hard and the world was not arranged in their favor. I know what it means to be looked at as not quite right, not quite the kind of person the club wants as a member. Which is why I said I would never join a club that would have me as a member. America was supposed to be the club that took everybody. The bouncer at the door was supposed to be the Constitution. It doesn't care if you're the right kind of person. It just asks: can you live by these rules. Someone has had a conversation with the bouncer. The bouncer has new instructions. Outside. Looking in. That's where I always was. And from outside you can see things the people inside can't see. What I can see is this: The house is on fire. The people inside are arguing about the drapes. Some of them are saying these are the best drapes we have ever had. The most beautiful drapes. Everyone says so. The drapes are on fire. I've spent my whole life making people laugh at things that deserved to be laughed at. The pomposity. The pretension. The self-important fool who has mistaken the sound of his own voice for the voice of God. But I want to say something now that I did not say enough when I was alive. Laughter is necessary. Laughter is not sufficient. You can laugh a fool off a stage. You cannot laugh a tyrant out of office. The tyrant doesn't care if you're laughing. The tyrant has the apparatus — the loyalty tests, the stacked courts, the managed truth, the fear. The tyrant doesn't need your approval. He needs your compliance. And a population that is laughing is a population that has not yet understood the difference between a fool and something considerably worse. I understood it in 1933 when I made Duck Soup and the critics said it was too cynical, too dark, too unwilling to resolve into something comfortable. The fool and the tyrant can wear the same costume. For a while. And then the costume comes off. Pay attention to what is under the costume. Not the greasepaint. Not the cigar. Not the walk. What is under it. That's the whole bit. That's always been the whole bit.