Carlos Menem, God's fan
One hot afternoon in recent summers, when El Niño has been winning over its sister La Niña and the rest of the climatic kin, a group of friends met at a café in San Telmo where they offered the best service: Two airplane-sized air conditioners set to 19 degrees without considering the gross energy expenditure that, as we were later able to confirm, was going to be included in the consumption bill.
The place was packed, so much so that the waiters were contorting themselves to walk between the tables. Ours was round, and despite the fact that the radius of the circle made it easy for us to hear each other, it was impossible because Only one monopolized the conversation . Any minimal verbal sandwich introduced by the rest gave the narcissistic friend the opportunity to tell a supposedly overcoming personal experience that almost no one was interested in. Stop massaging your ego, you'll irritate it. "said one of the mutes. I thought it was a delightful phrase that I thought would make the Narcisa of the group laugh, but the parrot was offended He got up from his chair, sent us to the top of the ship's mainmast, and walked out into the boiling street. His lack of a sense of humor simmered in him.
Of those of us who were left enjoying the cool air, most assumed that jokes were not their thing and Accepting that he told us to go to hell was allowing him to exercise his freedom of expression. Only a couple of us felt sorry that he hadn't raised his glove to respond with another ironic response to the one who had stopped his car. "What are they up to?" asked the woman sitting next to me, convinced that a good insult is the best way to win these days.
“I hope you’re Republicans,” Reagan told the doctors who were going to operate on him after the assassination attempt.
And he gave several examples: during the campaign, Trump told him stupid, sick, weak, and pathetic man to Biden , and won the election. Milei 's baboons, econochantas, henchmen, envelope-pushers, fucking leftists and some other SOBs and many republicans, once champions of good speech in the courts, consent to it with their silence. Luis Caputo told him primate Kicillof and Cristina called him fool (to Caputo, not to Axel, at least in public) while he said of Milei that he is a “ idiot ”. The thing goes back a long way, it's true. How can we forget the day when Cuervo Larroque ate a “ shut up you idiot "to Laura Alonso in the middle of a debate in a House committee. Puffing out her chest, the legislator provoked him:" Stop, coward, tell me back. ”.
In the opinion of Laura Teruel Rodríguez, a journalism professor at the University of Malaga, who analyzed many of the insults among the leadership in an article published in 2024 in the Political Communication Association (ACOP), the insult has come to be perceived as A sign that politicians are outraged, take to the streets and talk like ordinary people. "In Spain," he said, "we have a political glossary that is no less shameful: pathetic, miserable, asshole, idiot, lout, lousy, sudaca , etc. All of this might seem like the script for a (bad) drama series, which spices up the inherent tension of politics with populist vocabulary, but sometimes reality surpasses fiction. Political language tends to become extreme and polarizing to gain the coveted audience interest and insults are a resource for this,” the colleague maintained with a good dose of reason.
It's true that irony is often misunderstood, not everyone enjoys it, and humor is underestimated, but how beautiful it is when it's used as a stiletto to cut without slashing.
Surely, dear reader, you have heard the old anecdote about the arch-enemies Winston Churchill and Lady Astor . Churchill told Lady Astor that having a woman in Parliament was as annoying as having a stranger spying on you in the bathroom, to which Lady Astor replied: “ You are not attractive enough to worry about that. ”.
Churchill hoped to get even with the first woman to sit in the British Parliament. One day, he asked her what mask she should wear to a costume ball. Lady Astor suggested: Winston, why don't you come sober? You're always drunk. ”. And Churchill, when talking about other people’s bodies was not frowned upon, retorted: “ You, madam, are ugly. But I, tomorrow morning, will be sober. ”. Not to mention when she provoked him: “ If you were my husband, I would poison your tea. Churchill's response?: " If you were my wife, I would gladly drink it! !”.
Also in the North, but from America, Ronald Reagan was a great ironist. As president, he indulged in jokes that more than once earned him a serious headache. For example, one of his favorites was about communism. He repeated it in public numerous times: "There are three little dogs, one American, one Polish, and one Russian. The American little dog explains to his friends how things work in his country: 'Look, I bark and bark, and in the end, someone always gives me a little bit of meat.' The Polish little dog asks, 'What is meat?' And the Russian one asks, 'What is barking?'"
When he was criticized for being too old to compete for the presidency against the Democratic candidate, Walter Mondale , he even provoked laughter from his rival during a television debate: “ I want you to know that I will not make age an issue in this campaign either. I will not exploit my opponent's youth and inexperience for political purposes. "And probably one of his most ingenious remarks was what he said to the doctors who were going to operate on him after a man tried to shoot him: I hope they are all Republicans ”.
We had our share, too. Perhaps one of the presidents with the greatest sense of humor was Carlos Menem , who wasn't shy about telling anyone who would listen a joke that didn't make him look good. “A Riojan goes to heaven, enters God’s office, and sees three clocks. Each one with a name: Clinton , Yeltsin , and Chirac . The Riojan asks God what those clocks with the names of presidents mean? God answers that every time one of them made a mistake, the clock with his name on it was one hour ahead The Riojan wanted to know if he had one that said Menem, to which God replied: ' Yes, in my room, because it serves as a fan. “”.
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