Lewis Black.
"You're not going to bring a government to its knees by telling a funny joke," says Lewis Black. "I'm not storming the Bastille."
I was speaking to the ever-vibrating social satirist over the phone ahead of some Canadian performance dates about political humour and its role in society. Black sees it as simple as pointing out when this or that emperor isn't wearing clothes, and that ultimately it's about going for the funny.
"We can't think about what we're doing other than the laugh," explains Black, the American author and wildly popular comedian who tours Ontario this week. "In the end, we're entertainers. Once you get conscious of some other role, you muck up things."
Theoretically, political satire is an anti-establishment tool to mock politicians into a behaviour that is less mockable. It doesn't work though. "They have uranium-tipped bunkers," Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, has said on the subject. "I have puns and the occasional goofy montage. You know, I think that they would probably win."
Where satire particularly doesn't work is when it's aimed at an anti-establishment politician. Because political comedy is the refuge of the underdog, an underdog politician is basically bullet-proof. On Sept. 15, Rob Ford the Musical: Birth of a Ford Nation debuts at Factory Theatre in Toronto. "Rob's wild ways ruffle the feathers of Toronto's ruling elite who join forces to take him down," reads a blurb on the production's website. Of course, in real life, attempts to bring the unshameable mayor down are exactly what keep him up. His supporters, seeing Ford as an average Joe being attacked by the elite, love him that much more.
In his 2007 HBO special Red, White and Screwed, Black tells his Washington audience about leaving that city when he was younger. When he was living there, he said, he became frustrated with Capital Hill politicians and angrily confronted them in person. "This is no way to live," he told himself. "I can't make a living doing this."
And so he left Washington, and eventually made himself a living on television (as an excitable commentator on The Daily Show) and a spitting-mad political monologist on stage. He's still yelling at politicians, just not in person.
Black would like to think he's making a difference with his satire – "it does help in terms of teaching people to question authority" – but ultimately it's about giving people catharsis and pressure relief.
"I find at times, I'll say something and the audience won't laugh at it, but they'll applaud it," he says. "And when that happens, I tell myself, 'I better come up with a joke here.' "
Lewis Black plays the National Arts Centre Theatre, Ottawa, Sept. 11; Massey Hall, Toronto, Sept. 12; Centennial Hall, London, Ont., Sept. 13; Centre in the Square, Kitchener, Ont., Sept. 14.
Brad Wheeler