"Satirizing the attention-seeking culture wrought by social media is almost as difficult as impersonating Donald Trump..."

"... the source material is already so cartoonish and despicable that most attempts to mock it seem obvious to the point of being dull. Perhaps no screenwriter could have imagined a character as controversial as Jameela Jamil, the British actress who’s been vocal about her various afflictions, which have included shellfish allergies, celiac disease, mercury poisoning, partial deafness, and a history of run-ins with bees. And perhaps no performance artist could have staged a hoax as elaborate and culturally radioactive as Jussie Smollett’s...."

Writes Carrie Battan, in "Desperate to Be Micro-Famous/The satirical film 'Sick of Myself; shows the warping effects of social media by way of a character who gives herself a hideous rash" (The New Yorker).

Speaking of social media and the difficulty impersonating Donald Trump (because he's already so funny in the original version), here's a woman on TikTok who — like Sarah Cooper to Donald Trump — lip-syncs to the voice of Joe Biden:

"Why Your Boomer Parents Are Obsessed With Sarah Cooper/More than anything, older Democrats and #Resistance types want to ‘trigger’ the president."

An article in Mel Magazine... whatever that is. I ended up there because that NY Magazine article I blogged in the previous post linked to another Mel article, "LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA’S LIP BITE IS A WARNING FOR EVERY STRAIGHT DUDE SELFIE/THIS IS AN INTERVENTION" ("While you may think it’s wry... [l]ip-biting is not cute. It is not going to get you laid. And it’s not what the country was founded on. If anyone should know that by now, it’s Lin-Manuel Miranda." No mention of Bill Clinton! His lip-biting worked... 30 years ago.)

So... on to Sarah Cooper, the TikTok comedian who lip syncs to snippets of Trump speaking. She doesn't try to imitate Trump, just to demonstrate that something he said is weird and dumb, mostly by facial expressions. The author at Mel, Miles Klee, says Boomers think this is the funniest thing ever and keep pushing Cooper on younger people who are not equivalently amused. Why?

Klee says Cooper is a centrist Democrat, and "nothing in her routine is too edgy or niche to upset or confuse an older audience," and older folk enjoy feeling hip enough to have something from TikTok to share — especially something from a black woman. But younger people may feel the humor is too gentle. It's just repeating Trump's own words, not attacking him for his "cruelties."

And then there's the theory that this kind of comedy is really getting to Trump:

... Cooper’s fans have developed a baseless theory that Trump’s promises to ban TikTok in the U.S. stem from his fury over her videos on the app. This ties back to their delight whenever the president rage-tweeted at Alec Baldwin. What’s funny to them in those SNL cold opens isn’t necessarily the scripted comedy but an anticipation of Trump’s “meltdown” response. This is their version of the conservative obsession with “triggering the libs,” where political humor is measured by how much it pisses off your opponent. The libs love imagining Trump in a tantrum after the Axios interview, and they’re much too eager to believe that in his vendetta against TikTok, he’s merely lashing out at a woman who “owned” him there.

I'm a Boomer, but I've never believed this idea that Trump would "melt down" and become crazy or enraged by these imitations of him. He's already more or less of an imitation of himself. He created this character Trump, and he plays him on TV and the internet. It's already comic. If other comics copy his comedy, that's a tribute to his comic creation. I do see other people buying that theory, but am I to believe they're buying it because they are older? Maybe it's mostly that age correlates to centrism, and they're just not as eager to see harsher attacks on Trump, and therefore they have a greater stake in believing that these gentle spoofs are effective.

As for me, I started sharing Sarah Cooper back in mid-May. Here was my take at the time:

I think she's great and also that it's complicated, trying to understand why [the video clips] are so great. It's not merely a matter of hating Trump. I think there's also love — illicit love! — for Trump — illicit because you're supposed to hate him — not necessarily you, you, but some of you — and by having his speech flow through an attractive woman, you become liberated to feel that transgressive love.

If I was right, then that's the reason serious Trump haters are resisting Sarah Cooper. And it should be some kind of alert about what love for Cooper's Trump really means!

"As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States... Soon, immediately. I mean essentially immediately.... I will sign the document tomorrow."

Said Donald Trump last night, Bloomberg reports.

Trump said he had the authority to ban the app, owned by ByteDance Ltd., one of China’s biggest tech companies, a move he could make by executive order or under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

On Twitter, the name Sarah Cooper is trending. She's on the case:

How to tick tack pic.twitter.com/1Mn8nk363f

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) July 31, 2020

Maybe you heard that Bill Gates was buying TikTok. From the Bloomberg article:

Trump’s move could upend a potential bid from Microsoft Corp., which was exploring an acquisition, according to a people familiar with the matter. The president downplayed that idea Friday. He said it’s “not the deal that you have been hearing about, that they are going to buy and sell, and this and that. And Microsoft and another one. We’re not an M&A company.” Microsoft declined to comment.

Imitating Trump isn't something new for Sarah Cooper — "I've been making fun of BS from sleazy business guys my entire life."

Sarah Cooper — know for her visual comedy lip-synching snippets of Trump — explains her larger agenda and its origin in her real-world experiences observing people in business meetings.



She has 2 books that pre-date her sudden rise to comedy fame: "100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings: How to Get By Without Even Trying" and "How to Be Successful without Hurting Men's Feelings: Non-threatening Leadership Strategies for Women."

ADDED: From the Wikipedia article on Sarah Cooper, I clicked to a NYT interview with Jerry Seinfeld from last May:

Are [your teenage children] helping introduce you to new technology and social media?

Oh, no. I’m curious, very briefly. “What’s TikTok?” I look at it. “OK, I got it.” The thing that I enjoy the most is debating with them about why that’s not funny and why this is funny. I retweeted this video that this comedian Sarah Cooper did. She took the voice of Trump talking about injecting yourself with disinfectant and just acted it out. I said, “The reason this is funny is because she doesn’t think she’s being funny. When you think you’re being funny, that’s less funny for us as the audience. When you’re being dead serious, that’s funnier.” You don’t see her enjoying what she’s doing — she’s doing it because she has to do it. That’s what’s funny. They got it, they understood it. Those are the kinds of conversations I love to get into with them.

Interesting, but could he really have meant to say "The reason this is funny is because she doesn’t think she’s being funny"? It's got to be something more like The reason this is funny is because she doesn’t look like she thinks she’s being funny. She's a comedian! Of course she thinks she's being funny! I'm going to assume Seinfeld thinks he's being funny but just doesn't look like he thinks he is. In that interview. When he's on stage, doing his act, he always looks like he thinks he's being funny. That's his style of comedy — very old school, and he admits it (listen to his interview with Marc Maron, here).

"What's at stake in this election as you compare and contrast...?"

How to second term pic.twitter.com/WTuH277sUA

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) June 26, 2020

Some Trump video clips for your amusement or pain.

This is art. pic.twitter.com/ZPJxHu20TV

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 21, 2020

The walk of shame. pic.twitter.com/u0GRFnnKeY

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 21, 2020

Out of context this is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life pic.twitter.com/6xzFFfpaGV

— Rachel Fisher (@TheRachelFisher) June 21, 2020

How to happy father's day pic.twitter.com/2utaibecfE

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) June 21, 2020

"She has had many 'you couldn’t write this stuff' moments – in fact, she says some of Trump’s comments are so unbelievable that trying to mock him would be worse than using a direct quote."

"'I saw people saying they shared [my lip-syncing videos] with Trump supporters and for once there is nothing they can say. The clip is literally, completely unedited – I haven’t edited [the audio] at all – so what can they say to argue with it?' she says. Still, Cooper says a lot without words. Much of the comedy in her videos lies in the way she punctuates Trump’s remarks – a subtle facial expression that gives away just how clueless he is, or a gesture that reminds you of the broader context around what he is saying.... But Cooper thinks there is something else going on here: her videos reassure people that what comes out of the president’s mouth really is as crazy as it sounds... Plus, it helps to hear the message without having to hear it from the man himself: 'People really hate Trump – a lot. They hate his voice. They hate looking at him. They hate everything about him,' says Cooper."

From "The comedian going viral for lip-syncing Trump: 'People really hate him'/Sarah Cooper has carved out a niche space on TikTok, merging comedy and politics by voicing over Trump’s comments" (The Guardian).

I think I've shared Cooper's videos with you before — or maybe I've just shared them with family. I think she's great and also that it's complicated, trying to understand why they are so great. It's not merely a matter of hating Trump. I think there's also love — illicit love! — for Trump — illicit because you're supposed to hate him — not necessarily you, you, but some of you — and by having his speech flow through an attractive woman, you become liberated to feel that transgressive love.

Cooper's space on TikTok may be "niche" but it's not unique. Here's my post from April 17th: "I noticed a TikTok trend — young women lip-synching to a short clip of Trump's voice — sometimes with what I perceive as a real appreciation for Trump's comic stylings."

Anyway, I think all these are very funny — both because of Trump and because of the woman who is adopting his voice. I think the first 2 women genuinely appreciate Trump. The third might be more of a Trump antagonist, but you'll like it even if you love Trump (or maybe you won't!).

One thing I like about these is that — as I've said a few times and have thought all along — there's something womanly about Trump. And I'm not saying that as an insult. He often displays machismo or seems to do the voice of a mob boss, but not all the time. He has this softer lilt that comes through some of the time, as I think these women know...

None of my 3 examples is Sarah Cooper. I'm particularly fond of Kylie Scott, who lip syncs Trump in a drunk-girl persona.