Boastful men who get their
just rewards for big audience laughs have been a comedy staple for centuries. Moliere’s The
Bourgeois Gentleman is a very funny early modern play that still works
for us because the Gentleman is a proud fool who gets suckered over and
over again by a pompous scholar, using big and impressive words. Cervantes’ Don
Quixote is another famous example. Mark Twain used the boastful dunderhead
motif for the two con men in Tom Sawyer, a phony Duke and an even
phonier Dauphin…….
(Full text at link below)
Enter Donald Trump, and now the big, big question is whether he’s
dropping his media bombs as a trickster or not. Trump goes for audience laughs
in his reality shows. But
real narcissists are not famous for their sense of humor…….
….. is Trump simply using
the same old comedy gag that brought him national fame in show biz? Trump
usually starts his shows as a boastful bad guy (You’re Fired!). By the end of
the show he turns out to be good old lovable Uncle Don, the Boastful Ego, but
we guess he’s really okay. His audiences love the extended gag, and they
keep coming back for more. People in show biz recognize it for what it is,
because it’s an ancient formula.
Would Trump pull essentially the same gag at the start of his
election campaign, when every candidate has to go for the biggest screaming
headlines? Early in the
election game there’s no such thing as bad publicity -- but at some point
presidential candidate must act presidentially…..
Trump has written
another (!) autobiography on that theme, called The
Art of the Comeback, all about his humiliating failures, and his
ability to bounce back. Trump’s business career has been a repetition of
military academy. His giant failures are at
least as important as his successes. Without repeated failures and comebacks,
Trump would be another Obama.
The difference from Obama is that long history of painful setbacks
and comebacks. Obama has
always been surrounded by adoring fans, and still has genuine trouble dealing
with setbacks. What Freud called the Reality Principle is the key to
responsible adulthood.
Reality is what happens whenever you run into that brick wall.
Again.
Differential diagnosis is very hard -- which is one reason why
politicians get away with lying. But there is a reality test: If
the Jackie Gleason script is correct, Trump will start to change his public
persona soon, until the average voter has forgotten how obnoxious he’s
been.
If he can’t act like a responsible adult, we will know it very
soon.
I’m betting on good old Uncle Don emerging sometime soon, just
like his television routine. But the proof of the pudding… we should know the
answer very soon.
Trump is now running out of time to prove himself to the
voters.
I think he’s planned this provocative performance all along, and
if I’m wrong about that, I’ll vote for Ted Cruz.
It’s nice to have a choice.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/03/trumps_healthy_humiliations.html#ixzz42Qz8FpbK
