Actress Elizabeth Banks tried so hard to be funny during her speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, but had it rough from the start.
She came out, fog billowing, to “We Are the Champions” as GOP nominee Donald Trump did during the Republican National Convention, looking rather awkward and unnatural in her swaying movements.
Banks herself confirmed this once she took the podium. “You know, I don’t usually say this about Donald Trump, but that was over the top. I confirmed it just now. The Trump campaign is so hard up for money I just bought that fog machine on eBay for 30 bucks. I don’t feel good about it, I don’t,” she said.
“It’s night two! Who’s pumped up?” Banks declared after her joke fell flat. A few more attempts finally got the crowd going.
Her joke comparing Trump to her role as Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games movies received slightly more laughter and applause.
“Part of me really likes being up here joking around, but the other part of me knows that this election is too important for jokes,” Banks said. Her jokes falling flat may also have had to do with it.
The rest of her speech discussed her family and the hard work her parents did to provide her and her siblings with opportunities. They were able to do so, thanks to Democrats, Banks noted.
One of her dates with her now-husband, Max, involved a rally in 1992 for Bill Clinton. “Hillary Clinton rocked my world,” she said about her experience at the rally, whom she called “a fighter for women and children, cops and first responders, health care, and girls around the world.”
Banks mentioned the focus of the evening, “the fights of her life.”
The Associated Press suggested “nomination fatigue” since “Clinton had just received the party nod.” Or, it was that the audience could have done without a good portion of her speech, especially if Banks’s purpose there was to introduce these fights.
