A Washington Post writer observed last week that while the presidential election campaign “has been a late-night host’s dream come true,” that does not necessarily mean it has been everyone else’s dream come true. The late-night TV hosts—Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Chelsea Handler, etc.—were united in their scorn for Donald Trump, and their “whooping and barking” audiences approve “the rant, the tirade, the cutting quip” on cue: “Laughter has been replaced by shrieking assent.”
Yet the jokes are indistinguishable from each other, Hank Stuever observes, and the responsive audience sounds tend to be “prolonged Beatlemania-like squeals of agreement. . . . The fun’s all going to end—or at least shift considerably—in a few days, and then what?”
Well, The Scrapbook’s considered view is that if even the Washington Post finds the uniform “satire” of election-year comedy disconcerting, and more than a little tedious, imagine how unimaginative, unengaging, and unfunny it must be! And if Hillary Clinton should win the election—you may well know the answer by the time you read this—these stale late-night pantomime artists will be even less inventive and funny than usual, if that’s possible.
Which brings The Scrapbook to the silver lining of this clouded presidential season: the relative absence of show-biz, rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop, stand-up, pop culture campaigners for either candidate. As always, the Republican nominee earned the allegiance of a handful of (decidedly uncool) entertainers such as Wayne Newton and Ted Nugent. But as the New York Times ruefully noted in a recent story—”Pop Musicians Get on the Bus (Mostly Clinton’s)”—enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket was remarkably muted. Hillary Clinton has some fervent supporters out there in showbizland—pop stars Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez, for example—but a surprising number of otherwise ubiquitous celebrities were either absent, offering tepid endorsements, or still licking their wounds from the Bernie Sanders campaign. They don’t like Trump, but they’re not especially enamored of Hillary, either.
In The Scrapbook’s opinion, this is a source of relief, not concern. Readers with self-punishing memories will recall the evangelical fervor surrounding Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency: There were videos of actors and hip-hop musicians staring soulfully into cameras, bemoaning the horror of American life; there were rallies and giant concerts with star-studded casts and heartfelt pleas for hope and change. We remember, with particular delight, Stevie Wonder’s a cappella rendition of an original hymn—presumably entitled “Barack Obama”—the lyrics of which consisted entirely of the candidate’s name.
This year, there’s none of that. As we say, showbizland has been nearly united in its disdain for Donald Trump and his followers—indeed, as usual, for Republicans in general. But this has not translated into equal fervor for Hillary Clinton. In 2016 there have been no neoclassical stage settings with the Clinton family bathed in soft light or videos featuring a series of comedians getting serious about voting for Hillary. No one has witnessed Tim Kaine sitting in with this-or-that baby boom band or Bill Clinton playing the tenor sax, surrounded by HBO stars. Even Stevie Wonder has been uncharacteristically reticent. And for that, if for nothing else this curious year, we can be thankful.
