Sarah Cooper

Wednesday

Ben Sixsmith

Sarah Cooper’s Netflix special is a crime against comedy

Watching Sarah Cooper’s special Everything's Fine feels like dying — not a short, intense, violent death as well but a long, slow, painful one. About 10 minutes in, I had to check my pulse. Unfortunately, I was still alive.How did we come to this? Ms Cooper rose to fame, having been a relatively obscure stand-up comedian and moderately well-regarded humorous author, lip-syncing to audio of Donald Trump. Johnny Knoxville, of Jackass notoriety, rose to fame being zapped with a Taser and shooting himself in the chest. Of course, not every comedian should have to go to such extremes to get ahead. But there was still something a bit lazy about Ms Cooper’s routine — and absolutely nothing funny. I wrote about it here.Granted, you can’t blame Cooper for her success.

sarah cooper

Thursday

Ben Sixsmith

Sarah Cooper isn’t funny

If Joe Biden wins the US presidential election in November there is one possible outcome that even conservatives will be forced to welcome: the world might see less of Sarah Cooper. If you have been on Twitter in the last six months you will have no doubt encountered Cooper. Her fantastically popular videos offer a kind of impersonation of Donald Trump — Cooper does not mimic the President, however. She has no original script and never speaks. Instead, she plays the President's speeches aloud and opens and closes her mouth, as if she is speaking his words. That is not quite all she does. She also screws up her face. There is some minor craftsmanship to what she does. She is not just pulling Kenneth Williams-esque grimaces.

Sarah Cooper, YouTube

Wednesday

Christopher Buckley

Are we living in the golden age of political satire?

Stamford, Connecticut My first novel was published 34 years ago under the title The White House Mess, a wordplay on its Navy-run dining rooms. I’d spent two years as vice president George H.W. Bush’s speechwriter and had read a number of White House memoirs, all of which had two themes: 1) it wasn’t my fault, and 2) it would have been much worse if I hadn’t been there. The novel was a satirical — in today’s terminology, a ‘fake’ — White House memoir by a clueless but loyal chief of staff of a future administration that would be sworn in on January 20, 1989.

satire