* No surprise that even after a national, 25-year countdown and nearly a year on the job, Donald Trump’s call on the JFK-files release came down to a last-minute decision. He has called for more reviews.
* For eight years the “White House” seemed a symbolically progressive, if naive, and ironic icon. In nine months the “White House” has devolved into an aptly-named bunker.
* The presidency has always been fair game for pop culture and its comedic harbingers. Only now it’s much more than cartoonists and Improv stand-ups. There’s “SNL,” of course, and no lack of late-night comedians. “Will & Grace” is hardly subtle and “Comedy Central” iterations such as “The President’s Show” and “Broad City” are de facto oppo ammo.
And how much longer can “Blondie,” “Dennis the Menace” and “Beetle Bailey” remain Sunday Comics staples? Last Sunday’s “funny pages,” for example, featured more Trump-goring by “Doonesbury,” “Non Sequitur” weighing in bigly and relative newbie “Candorville” brutally sending up Rex Tillerson’s rationales on a moron theme.
No, nothing is business as usual any more, and that includes the comedically challenging task of satirizing a parody.