THAT’S NOT FUNNY: The Democratic Scolds of America.

Most of [Larry] David’s volleys succeed on the “it’s funny because it’s true” principle. How far is the distance, really, between his declaration that “anyone will be able to enter our country if they choose to do so” and the DSA official platform’s call to abolish ICE, end deportations, “legalize migration” and provide “amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status”? Or between Mr. David’s proposal to “close the jails and release all prisoners” and the platform’s taking “steps toward fully abolishing the police”?

But here I am, trying to judge Mr. David’s jokes on their own merits. Nowadays it’s much easier to object that he made them at all.

The DSA scolds surely got a kick out of Mr. David’s mockery of fellow comedian Bill Maher for having dinner with President Trump in 2025. Mr. David’s angle then was to imagine dining with Adolf Hitler, only to find himself unexpectedly charmed. Hitler is the comic’s perennial muse, as occasional David collaborator Mel Brooks knows well. Mr. Brooks has called the Holocaust “the great outrage of the 20th century.” So why make its perpetrators funny? In his view, “you can bring down totalitarian governments faster by using ridicule than you can with invective.”

If even Nazis can be funny, then surely the DSA can lighten up once in a while.

Historically, totalitarians rarely have much of a sense of humor — in part because of how absurd their worldview looks when you’re outside the cult. Why should this latest group who wish to nationalize socialism be any different?