There’s nothing funny about the Trump Administration’s full court press to silence, fire, or indict anyone who opposes the President’s agenda or attempts to hold him accountable for his actions. But that effort ran head on into the First Amendment with the FCC Chair’s attempt to force Disney and ABC to remove Jimmy Kimmel from the air waves.

You didn’t have to watch, enjoy, or agree with the late-night comic to be offended by the attempt to silence him. Kimmel’s 28-minute monologue will be remembered long after we have forgotten the often rambling, consistently fact-free, and ultimately dangerous orations by the President.

Here’s the key line in Kimmel’s monologue: “This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.” 

But there’s more here than a defense of the First Amendment (although that would be enough).

Kimmel’s role in the Trump drama reminded me of the Fool in King Lear. In the most tragic of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the Fool uses jokes and satire to attempt to speak truth to the King. The Fool is not vicious, vulgar, or vindictive. He is, in fact, wise. One Shakespeare scholar points out that as the King descends into madness, the Fool “keeps trying to enlighten Lear’s awareness through satire and singing … The Fool’s words are sometimes prophecies which imply that this story will eventually become a tragedy.” 

The Fool also cracks open space for humility, reminding the King of his humanity. When we can accept our human limitations and laugh at ourselves, we escape the narrow coffin of our all consuming arrogance and pride which is, in scripture, the root of human sin.

G. K. Chesterton memorably said, “Angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly. Satan fell by force of gravity.”

I write as a person who has needed other people to remind me to take myself more lightly. One of the deep lessons of scripture is see ourselves in the larger frame of the goodness and greatness of God’s creation. There’s more going on here than the things that revolve around me.

Our President needs a Shakespearean Fool. Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden could all laugh at themselves. Sadly, Trump has consistently been as thin-skinned as an onion, apparently lacking any ability to laugh at himself. The tragedy is that it’s hard to find a hint of lightness, laughter, or joy in his life. His instinctive response to anyone foolish enough to contradict him is retribution.

God is not a late-night comic. And God knows that we face deadly serious issues in our lives, our nation and our world. But in the Bible, God laughs. And when God laughs it is to mock our human arrogance. The Psalmist declares,

Why do the nations rant?
    Why do the peoples rave uselessly?…
 The one who rules in heaven laughs;
    my Lord makes fun of them. (Psalm 2:1-4)

At the climax of Job’s tragedy, God mocks him with satire:

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
    or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
    and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7)

The Lord goes on for four chapters until Job acknowledges:

“I have uttered what I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me that I did not know…
 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
    but now my eye sees you.” (Job 42:3-5)

Being willing to laugh with God at our self-aggrandizing arrogance opens the way to the humility that can ultimately save us. May God help us all to know when to take things seriously and when to learn to laugh along with God.

Grace and peace,

Jim