Donald Trump is very funny, often inadvertently, sometimes quite deliberately. For writers at Saturday Night Live, there are weeks when he almost serves up their script.

How often have we read commentary likening his Oval Office antics to an episode from Veep, a comparison I have doubtless drawn myself. His parades and military tattoos are tailor-made for mockery. His buffoonish Truth Social posts – especially those ending with his trademark sign off “Thank you for your attention to this matter” – frequently raise a laugh. “Donald is being ‘The Donald’,” has become a typical response in podcastland, that new media realm where journalism and entertainment are often entwined. “Classic Trump” is another go-to, delivered with a sardonic chuckle. Mea culpa on that one, too.

Humour acts as a masking agent for Trump’s authoritarianism.Credit: AP

For sheer comic value, there has never been a presidency like it. Not even a natural funnyman such as Ronald Reagan, that master of the self-deprecatory one-liner, can compete. The problem is that humour acts as a masking agent for Trump’s authoritarianism. Laughter detracts from the seriousness of his assault on democracy.

The storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, is a case in point. This was one of the darkest days in American history. A sitting president incited an insurrection. Despite Americans being locked in fatal combat with fellow Americans, this horrific chapter was reduced to a memeable moment. The poster boy became Jacob Chansley, a bare-chested vegan and former actor better known as “the QAnon Shaman”. His outfit, which included animal pelts draped from his shoulders and a bison-horned headdress,........

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