The Joke’s Not Funny Anymore

No matter where I turn, there are commercials arguing that “the fate of the nation” is at risk. As a California native, this has been specifically related to Prop 50, which seeks to redistrict and potentially get more blue seats to Washington D.C. Everywhere you look, there’s a reported urgency with former President Obama telling me nightly to vote. In general, I am in favor of people expressing their civic duty, but, because this is the ONLY measure up for votes, it has been overbearing to see the rolodex of ads over and over stating the same thing with a few verbs and nouns switched around. 

Any election year has their share of obnoxious campaigns, but it feels different when there’s only one thing to consider. Given the directness of redistricting, there’s not a lot that needs to be expressed, and yet many groups insist on telling me why my vote matters. This reminds me of a common refrain I heard growing up regarding the effectively vulgar anti-smoking campaign. Those ads of a woman speaking through an electrolarynx have a staying power that is unlike the modern alternatives. I will say that as a piece of propaganda, it is very good at conveying the health risks and horrors of addiction. Even so, there’s only so many people watching sitcom reruns on a Wednesday night who want to be devastated for behavior they don’t possess. The joke I’ve heard is people wishing to opt out of the anti-smoking ads since they don’t, ahem, smoke.

That is how I’m feeling about Prop 50. Because of its directness, I was insistent on turning in my ballot the day everything opened up. I stuck it in the mail and followed the results on the tracker. It was in and confirmed before the voting station doors were unlocked. While I’m a slower voter when there’s more at stake, there was some pride in getting everything over with. 

Nothing will make you resent campaign ads more than knowing how much it doesn’t apply to you anymore. There’s no (legal) way to be persuaded to change your mind. All you can do is go about your life and try to watch The World Series without being bombarded with reminders, which, because MLB draws a tremendous crowd, have become more sensationalized than the local news alternatives. It’s the work of people like Tom Steyer who sit in chairs and suggest that Prop 50 is about “Texas versus California” and that we must “stick it” to The President. There is some strange desire to make voting sound punk and conspiratorial, and it’s making me depressed. 

I shouldn’t say efforts to reach general voters have made me sad so much as realizing how much this debate is framed as petty revenge. California’s royal we can’t let Republicans keep playing unfairly. I get that smear campaigns aren’t new, but at this volume in a state I’ve long referred to as a liberal mecca, it all feels like a pointless circle jerk. I understand the urgency, and yet part of me wants something more than seeing the state governor troll people on social media and have the public act like this is some great accomplishment. Like the people who were “owned” during the 2016 election for praising all of those gaffs as political downfalls, this is short-term, as effective as a comedian’s punchline that nobody will be talking about next week. Business will carry on, and we’ll wait for the reply. State of the Unions turned into comedy crowd work, and I’m just here asking… where’s the progress? It’s been roughly a decade of nothing.

So, yes, symbolically, I want the president to be removed from office. I have a lot of complicated emotions around the matter that have been at a constant boiling point in 2025. It’s been there through the national news but also the state’s, where wildfires and I.C.E. Raids communicate just how little The President cares about our wellbeing. Maybe this is where the depression stems from, of wanting change and realizing that the people in charge aren’t providing it, that the laws I was taught as a child in the 90s and held as something to be proud of could be dismantled so easily just because the president thinks it’s no bueno. To Richard Nixon’s credit, he at least communicated a sense of respect for the office even when he did something heinous.

Before I shift into that section of this essay, let’s focus on the ad that I’m most annoyed by. Whereas most have the direct “menacing voice-over reading quotes,” Steyer has created a California Democrat’s wet dream. He cuts to Election Night. The President is watching in The White House, now designed like a mancave with various iconography scattered everywhere. There’s junk food surrounding tables, pictures of himself on the wall, and references to his ailing health in a bruised hand. They’re easy signifiers, but also jokes that a bully would use to reflect how pathetic their target is. On the TV is Prop 50 passing, to which he responds, “I hate California.”

As refreshing as it is to see a commercial that’s not overt messaging, it’s somehow worse. Gone is the diplomacy, and in its place is a bad comedy sketch. There’s no suggestion of “a brighter future” that other ads barely hint at. The image is grotesque. The menacing voice panders to audiences who, if Reddit is to be believed, are overwhelmingly in favor of Prop 50, don’t need to be told that the president is reprehensible. These are the artists, the campaigners who are projecting messages into the world… and the best they can come up with are jokes that we’ve been telling for close to a decade with small tweaks here or there. As stupid as it sounds, this is designed less to persuade and more goad… and the people who get any joy out of that piss me off.

Maybe I should explain my existentialist dread a little better. The power of satire feels temporarily dead for my generation. With every “On This Day” story that pops up, I realize that this era started in 2015 with comments of Mexicans being criminals and rapists. Since those days, my faith has disappeared with each shocking news story. It’s the collapse of trusted journalism and the rise of A.I. as media literacy plummets. It’s watching politicians find more obsession with social media numbers than serving the people. It’s caused everything to be deadlocked, where press conferences are designed for viral mudslinging. I should also say that the man’s voice (and more-so the parodies, even good ones) makes me nauseous. Every now and then, I turn on the news and wonder, “What is going on?” I assumed The January 6 Commission would’ve done something, but that turned out to be more of a sword twisting the gut. Does accountability exist anymore?

I’m not writing this to persuade Californians to vote one way or the other on Prop 50, but it has been difficult to believe that having more hypothetical blue seats will fix what hasn’t been fixed over the past decade. At some point, it feels like filling up a balloon and we’re seeing the limits. I’m sure there’s many doing noble work (such as former Long Beach mayor Robert Garcia, who currently leads the oversight committee), but can I expect people to solve this problem by imitating the problem? What Texas did was dumb. I’d argue gerrymandering (on principle) is admitting your inability to give your constituents what they need. What makes this any better?

I want things to get better, but the past decade has felt less encouraging and more navel-gazing. I’m already predicting in my head that this short-term win for Prop 50 would only be met with more brute force and violations of The Constitution on a federal level. The next few months will find California burning once again, and because of that election, we’ll be bitterly talking about how the president refuses to provide resources. But hey, at least he’ll be there hogging credit for The Olympics (sarcastic eye roll).

For anyone wanting a contemporary example, just turn to this past weekend. The second No Kings March occurred, drawing over seven million demonstrators. Deep in my heart, this was a beautiful sight, and I love the creative, peaceful examples of how Americans can express themselves. Even in conservative states, there was a noticeable turnout that gives me hope that America is more good than bad. There is this desire to want things better, and I am here for that. If judged solely as a way to recognize community, it’s a powerful sight.

And yet, part of me has become skeptical of any larger impact. Without the other side listening, calling it an example of “hate,” there’s zero hope for change. There is no example of Martin Luther King Jr. meeting with Lyndon B. Johnson here. This remains the push and pull that is perfectly symbolized in Steyer’s ad. We can send the message, but if it’s just processed as hate, it’s going to be rejected. I’m not wishing to say that No Kings was an act of violence, but I think the federal understanding of events suggests it’s going to be a long three more years.

The President responded with a refrain that’s become common in the past decade. If they hit you, you hit back twice as hard. At risk of helping the general public, The President’s acts of compassion have included pardoning George Santos and doing little to encourage the end of a government shutdown, of which is looking to be longer than his previous boondoggle. In fact, there’s been more talk about people losing their jobs than his planned goal of making the best economy in American history. 

Not to be outdone, he responded to No Kings not with recognizing their rights to peaceful protest, but with the pettiest move possible. Sure, nobody was hurt physically (if you don’t count the environment), but the message was loud and clear. In a video that I’ll just call Danger Zone, The President takes to a navy plane and dumps a brown matter (called everything from sewage to feces by the press) on a city likely meant to symbolize New York. On the side of said plane was his name alongside the moniker of “King.” 

Any defense of this video has been called satire, to which I say… the government is objectively unable to create satire. As a concept, satire is designed to comment on the failings of institutions in hopes of betterment. When The President makes a video where he’s attacking the general public with pollution, that’s not satire. That’s a statement. By defending his vulgarity under the suggestion of comedy, he’s admitting a helplessness that he should be able to solve. Say what you will about Steyer’s work, but at least Prop 50 is the work of a recognizable underdog.

I’m not offended so much as depressed. This is the leadership of my country, the messaging that we’re delivering to the world, and even if we wanted to hide behind “charismatic” speeches, there’s no denying that a man unable to pay someone to make a more lasting image of propaganda is pathetic. This is what will be in our textbooks. Someone in 50 years will be forced to watch this A.I. video of people covered in digital sewage and question how America got there. At least I hope there’s a swing back towards academic integrity, where history is respected and the ultimate goal of compromise can be reached again.

I'm depressed because of how helpless everything is. Where he could be solving problems, he chooses to make so many more. There’s more of a push to tear down rainbow sidewalks than consider people’s need for healthcare and stable living. As much as I could laugh at images of people making well-constructed responses, I am still left with the reality that… the joke’s not funny. Is it funny that someone responded to Danger Zone by having someone put an eagle on his head defecating? It’s more in line with how I feel, but it’s still shallow and effervescent. Everything will fade, and the government will still be shut down.

Along with the latest reminder of The President’s antipathy towards liberal states, there was one more image that made me feel like the America that I grew up admiring is disappearing. For all of the freedoms that are still there, the risks are becoming too high. My queer friends haven’t been this much at risk since I was in high school. The rise of Anti-Semitism tells younger generations (falsely) that World War II was all for nothing (please read Elie Wiesel’s “Night” if you need persuading). The living President’s face will go against precedent and be on the semiquincentennial coin as he plans a UFC fight on The White House lawn. What hope is there for children whose only experience is in the America of the past decade? Everything feels crass, lacking dignity, and yet… there’s one thing that has sunk my heart further than Danger Zone or a decade of nonstop grifting.

The President’s new ballroom began construction in the past few days. For as much as everything has always been more symbols than life preservers, there is something timeless about The White House for people like me. It is the image of leadership that has long defined my understanding of this country. I’m one of those who watched The West Wing and bought into the bright-eyed view of politics. In so many words, that building is an example of our history that I would assume even a child could recognize. By tearing it down, it suggests that so much more could be at risk. Who’s to say that The Washington Monument or The Jefferson Memorial won’t go away? The man who once protested people taking down Confederate statues seems a bit too chill about removing the bigger picture.

In that time, I’ve heard the familiar exchanges of how The White House has had remodeling intermittently through the centuries. Even so, the dismissal of people like me who are offended beyond belief seems bizarre. This is all for a ballroom, of which serves less function than what the east wing had. It was the people’s entrance, where tours started. There was so much that connected The White House to the world it was supposed to be serving. A ballroom, in theory, presents a social environment, but also is nothing more than an empty room for exclusive engagements most of the time. 

Not only that, but hearing him call the bulldozers, “The sound of money” ruffled my feathers further. It explained so much of the matter in only four words. In a time when the government is shut down and many want affordable groceries, a ballroom feels like an empty statement. Those millions could’ve gone to better programs. Calling it “the sound of money” lacks the prosperous ring when everyone’s “joking” about him not paying the construction workers. Add in people saying, “What did you expect?” and you begin to understand why jokes that have emerged are meaningless. Something like, “Are the Epstein files in there?” has become tired even as it expresses important talking points.

Everything feels too trivial right now. Complain about anything, and The President will respond childishly. Of course, Steyer’s ad is on the nose. It should be cathartic because of how much it plays on base-level humor. And yet, I look at The President attempting to commit crimes under the name of satire and give a long-winded sigh. I want to believe that these people who may get voted in will magically solve all of our problems. However, there’s still the fact that he’s destroying history. Whatever can be salvaged isn’t enough. Nothing should’ve been ruined. Anyway, if you’re in California… do vote. Also, maybe go to the bathroom during commercial breaks. It’ll do your body good.