Los Angeles, March 9 – Hollywood actor Judd Apatow believes that political comedy is becoming increasingly difficult. The actor thinks it’s hard to write political comedy now because of the "ridiculous" nature of the Donald Trump administration.
The 40-year-old filmmaker believes that the current climate in the US makes it difficult to write about, as the president and his officials are already behaving in a way that is hard to exaggerate for laughs, according to ‘Female First UK’.
He told the Sunday Times' Culture magazine, "It's much harder to do comedy right now. If you look at what's happening in the world, it's stranger than Dr. Strangelove. The characters in our country are more ridiculous than the characters in Stanley Kubrick's film, so what can comedy do? The Trump administration is hard to exaggerate in a sketch, so it's a difficult moment for political comedy."
And Judd is also concerned that major world issues have become so "serious," that he's not sure comedy is appropriate right now.
He said, "It's very difficult and so cruel that there's not a lot of humour in it. Indeed, sometimes I think things have become so serious that, maybe, it's a moment for us not to joke about it and to instead have a bit more energy to fight for our values. It is important people have an outlet and an expression, but it doesn’t mean anything without action. And it’s certainly the time for that."
According to ‘Female First UK’, Paramount has proposed a takeover of Warner Bros., and the 58-year-old filmmaker is concerned about the wider implications for the TV and film industries because such mergers mean fewer outlets are available for their work.
He said, "It's really scary. A lot of times you have an idea and pitch it to five or six places and just one will get it. But if you’re pitching to only three, the chances of getting it done go way down. And the consolidation is tragic, because when mega companies combine, they tend to eliminate an enormous amount of the workforce. You have less competition, fewer jobs and potentially less product.”
Paramount chief David Ellison is an associate of Trump, and it has previously been speculated that CBS, which is owned by the studio, dropped Stephen Colbert's talk show due to political pressure.