Does Donald Trump have a sense of humor?
Only one kind of joke was officially off limits at Donald Trump's 2011 Comedy Central roast, but many others were crossed out or rewritten by Trump himself, The Huffington Post reports. "I have done this a long time and nobody blacks out punchlines," comedy writer Jesse Joyce recalled, adding that sometimes Trump's edits showed "a classic lack of an understanding of how a joke works."
Comedy Central's senior vice president Jonas Larsen admitted Trump struggled with understanding humor: "One thing that stuck out to me during rehearsal is he would always poll the people around him if they thought it was funny. He never really seemed to have a grasp on what was funny and why it was funny. He was always looking at others to validate if it was funny," Larsen said.
Perhaps that explains why Trump and his allies have frequently claimed that his offensive campaign gaffes are "jokes, "sarcasm," or "quips." Read more about the process of writing Trump's Comedy Central roast, including how the comedians talked Trump into making fun of his hair, at The Huffington Post.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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