Donald Trump‘s cartoonish characterization of North Korean potentate Kim Jong-un as “rocket man” — or is it a more singular Rocketman? — first led people to think maybe Trump, with his Hollywood experience, had hired South Park‘s Trey Parker or Matt Stone to help him verbally slay his enemies. But it took Rocketman’s –er, Mr. Kim’s — reply for sleuths to turn up the even more likely scripters over at The Simpsons. Yup the North Korean leader is fighting fire with Hollywood fire, it seems.
Because, really, who but Matt Groening could deliver the line Mr. Kim gave in response to Trump? While plenty of funny people could have done it, any detective worth his per diem would finger Groening and his Simpsons collaborators for the comically incisive: Trump is a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.”* Hear the echoes of Homer Simpson’s famous “D’oh!” in there? Here the second syllable of dotard matching the second syllable of “retard” — a formerly common dis that’s become a slur in the Woke world? That gives the insult extra comic sheen. But Groening is known to be a law-abiding if insubordinate citizen, and working with Kim Jong-un is in violation of any number of global and US prohibitions. So he’s in the clear. The good news? If the North Korean regime is ever toppled, there are evidently good comedy writers trapped there just chomping at the bit to entertain the world.
Note: Kim Jong-un was challenged by Marge on The Simpsons to the Ice Bucket Challenge.
*dictionary.com lists dotard: ” a weak-minded or foolish old person.”
[related: Why Homer Simpson Voted For Clinton, Not Trump]
