On 4 January 2019, the New York Times published an op-ed titled ‘We Need to Keep Laughing’ (Egan 2019). Its author, Timothy Egan, warns that the American people are in danger of losing their sense of humour in the Trump era. Amid the unrelenting onslaught of reactionary rhetoric, official corruption and deadly policy, it has become tempting to adopt the ‘dour cast’ of comedy-sceptical college campuses and the now laughter-free White House Correspondents’ Dinner. This is a problem, Egan argues, because laughter is ‘our best weapon’ against leaders like Donald Trump. Laughter pierces the thick web of deception that would-be authoritarians arrogantly weave around themselves; it confirms that the emperor really has no clothes. About comedy, Egan writes: ‘Mr. Trump hates this stuff. More than anything, he fears ridicule. It's the necklace of garlic against the vampire. […] The mockery gets to him because deep down, he knows he's a fraud’ (Egan 2019). From Egan's perspective, as soon as citizens take dangerous politicians as seriously as they take themselves, the battle has been lost. Egan consequently endorses the anti-Trump comedy of Saturday Night Live and Stephen Colbert, concluding that ‘the antidote to a long day of White House lies is a long late night of comedy’.

On 5 July 2019, the Guardian published an opinion piece titled ‘Donald Trump Wants to Be a Dictator. It's Not Enough Just to Laugh at Him’ (Freedland 2019).