Trump says Zelensky is a 'moderate comedian' – it takes one to ...

Of all the bare-faced lies that Donald Trump invented to attack Volodymyr Zelensky, the most bizarre was his jibe that the Ukrainian president was a “modestly successful comedian”.

For as viewers of Servant of the People, which aired on Channel 4, know, Zelensky is actually a very funny writer, an endearing performer and a brilliant satirist of vain, corrupt and overweening politicians … such as Trump.

But what of Trump’s own comedic abilities? In the wake of his diatribe against Zelensky, an old video has resurfaced on the internet in which the future US president shows his hand as a light entertainer. It is, however, not pretty viewing.

Trump appears wearing an egg-yolk-yellow suit and gold tie, surrounded by dancers in chicken costumes. “Cock-a-doodle doo, folks,” he says. The clip, made in 2004 for American satirical show Saturday Night Live and once thought deleted, is a spoof commercial for “Donald Trump’s House of Wings”, a caricature of his tacky salesmanship and taste for slapping his own name on companies and skyscrapers.

Spoof Trump tells us that wings are the best part of the bird: “better than the head, better than the back”. The joke, probably scripted by SNL veteran Seth Meyers, is that they are the cheapest, most disposable meat available – yet Trump would shamelessly market them as a delicacy to the ignorant masses.

Meyers was far-sighted, nailing the character of a future president who would lie shamelessly about his own record and the records of his rivals.

Few of his lies are uglier or more dangerous than his false claim that Zelensky was a “dictator” with a low four per cent approval rating with voters and “started” the war with Russia. The truth is that Zelensky remains hugely popular, with a 57 per cent trust rating, and the reason Ukrainians cannot vote is that daily missile attacks since Putin’s illegal invasion make it impossible to hold elections.

One current president did, infamously, attempt to subvert the verdict of a democratic election but that was not in Kyiv but in Washington, when Trump encouraged his supporters to protest at Congress. Now, he allies with Putin who imprisons and murders popular rivals.

In the SNL clip, Trump reads out the script without appearing to notice that he is taking part in a satire of himself. Or more likely he doesn’t care, because he calculates that any exposure on TV was good for his rapidly expanding media profile. He goes on to promise in a wooden delivery, “five different levels of hotness. Regular, hot, fire alarm, suicidal, and hell spawn.”

Much funnier are the chicken dancers who sing that “if you want blue cheese, it’ll be a dollar extra”, mocking Trump’s reputation for squeezing the last dollar from a deal. Like demanding Ukraine’s mineral wealth as payment for past US support.

The clip is proof that you don’t get to be the best comedian by having the biggest microphone. But it is also instructive to compare and contrast Trump’s humour with that of Zelensky.

The Ukrainian president’s wit punches up – with skits aimed at politicians, corruption, bureaucrats and all those in authority, including positions of petty power, who make life horrible for their neighbours and underlings. His humour sides with the ordinary citizens, the long suffering victims of self-serving elites.

Trump’s jokes, however, always punch downwards. Even in his role as leader of the free world he has made off-colour remarks about the disabled, once appearing to mimic a reporter who suffers from a congenital condition, prisoners of war and foreigners as “people from s***thole countries”.

When Kamala Harris declined a dinner invitation, he told the crowd, “if the Democrats really wanted us to have someone ‘not be with us’ this evening, they would have just sent Joe Biden”.

In scripted after-dinner speeches, he makes the traditional self-deprecating jokes, but they just confirm he’s the most important guy in the room.

In 2004, the SNL audience cheered Trump’s appearance. But that was when he just seemed to be a ridiculously vain businessman who was willing to be lampooned on live TV to feed his insatiable ego.

In recent years, Trump’s view of the show has soured as it has mocked his presidency. He has accused it of “one sided coverage” and suggesting that it should be investigated.

Less funny are his attacks on Zelensky, who is not only a much better comedian but also brave, principled and honourable – and an inspiring war leader who has endured with grace three years of horrific bloodshed following Putin’s illegal invasion. Trump’s own military record is non-existent.

So, while a new generation is enjoying the spectacle of Trump looking ridiculous with those chicken dancers more than 20 years ago, there is really nothing left to laugh about.