Judd Apatow claims Trump has made it 'harder to do comedy'

"If you look at what's happening in the world, it's stranger than Dr Strangelove. Characters in our country are more ridiculous than characters in Kubrick's film, so what can comedy do? The Trump administration is hard to be exaggerated in a sketch, so it's a difficult moment for political comedy."

"It's very difficult and so cruel that there's not a lot of humour in it. Indeed, sometimes I think things have become so serious that, maybe, it's a moment for us not to joke about it and to instead have a bit more energy to fight for our values."

"The U.S. president is, I believe, a malignant narcissist. He doesn't have compassion. He is not intellectually capable of leading our country and he is not emotionally fit to run our country and everything that's happening is the natural result of that."

Judd Apatow, renowned filmmaker behind Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, argues that current political circumstances have made comedy satire increasingly challenging. The Trump administration's actions and rhetoric are so extreme that they exceed the bounds of fictional exaggeration, making traditional political comedy ineffective. Apatow contends that real-world events are stranger and more ridiculous than satirical films like Dr. Strangelove, leaving comedians with limited material to parody. He suggests that the current moment may require less joking and more serious action to defend democratic values. Apatow has consistently criticized Trump, describing him as a malignant narcissist lacking intellectual and emotional fitness for leadership.

Read at The Independent