Comedian Jordan Klepper, formerly of "The Daily Show," has spent the last three months running an Alex Jones-style`parody to try and examine the minds of conspiracy theorists. Now, Klepper thinks that his show "The Opposition" has given him a kind of psychological, telepathic line to the brain of President Donald Trump.
According to a Politico Podcast interview, Klepper explained that Trump's narcissism means that he sees himself as a famous person that has achieved every thing he's attempted. Therefore, Trump is “the most famous person that has ever lived, and he wants a little credit,” Klepper said.
“As a human, there are two things that I am desperately scared of: I’m desperately afraid of being called unkind and I’m desperately afraid of being called not smart,” Klepper said. Yet, every word that comes out of Trump's mouth sounds as if the president thinks, “‘you’re trying to delegitimize me and you’re trying to make me look dumb and not as popular. I’m not dumb; I’m popular.’”
When Trump tweets out things like his "very stable genius" remark or seems to forget the National Anthem, Klepper explained that it puts him, as well as other comedians, in a position in which they must parody someone who already behaves as a parody. Part of the goals for Comedy Central funny news shows is that they try to "heighten the thing that already feels so absurd.” Klepper asked how that's even possible with Trump.
“I think you can take the logic that got to that absurdity,” Klepper said, “you find … the tactics and … the ways in which they’re finding the crazy and use that in the premise and shake it up and multiply it by 10.”
According to Klepper, Donald Trump is the commonality that all Americans are living through whether they like it or not.
"There is that connection, and I think that helps with writing comedy because we’re all starting from that similar place,” Klepper said. “But we’re all looking at that as comedians, and I think that’s what’s really frustrating. It’s hard to find that nuance. It’s hard to continue to go after this. It would be nice to be able to choose what you cover as opposed to what you cover choosing you.”
That doesn't mean he finds it funny, however.
“I find it mostly scary,” he said. “I sometimes get afraid that I get too complacent in how commonplace it becomes.”
