When you're clean out of comedic ideas, make a Hitler joke. That seems to be the safety net of unfunny leftists looking to take down someone they don't like. "HE'S HITLER. LOL!" they squeal as they laugh at their own brilliance. Hey, someone has to laugh, the audience sure doesn't (no really, see the video below). Now, that's not to say that a good Hitler joke can't be funny. Of course it can. Just not this one in which stubbornly unfunny Sarah Silverman thought she'd lazily compare Donald Trump to Hitler. Read also Dear Sarah Silverman: You're a Comedic Coward...

Here's the deal, I understand that the first attack someone makes when they find your humor offensive is to declare "it's not funny!" I also understand that nobody has to agree on what's funny, but we can all agree that something is a joke.

Am I Trump's biggest fan? That's actually irrelevant here. If Sarah Silverman had compared Bush to Hitler or Bernie Sanders to Hitler, I'd still find it unfunny. Allow me to explain. But first, here's the crapfest:

First, the "So and So is Hitler" comparisons are tired. It was probably edgy the first dozen times someone tried it, but now it's just old Nazi hat. To the point that people making said comparisons don't even realize they're only making Trump stronger because it falls on deaf ears. "Right, right we're racists. Trump is Hitler. Blahblahblah. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Secondly, my problem isn't with the Hitler comparison per se, but just how lazy this comedy is. If you're going to dress up like Hitler and do a bit, you better be all in. A perfect example is where Sarah Silverman says "I famously have a micro-penis!" See that's just bad comedy. And I don't mean in the subjective sense. I mean that in that your very first improv class, you'd learn that commitment to the character is required for it to be funny. Hitler would never say "I have a micro-penis!" It would be funnier to portray Hitler arguing through and through that he has a "yuuuuge penis!" highlighting his small-man complex. Why would Hitler insult his own penis if the joke is based around Hitler's insecurity? Anyone who's worked in professional comedy knows this, including Sarah Silverman (read Sarah Silverman Caves to PC Speech Police - "Change with the times..."). That, combined with the audiences tepid reaction drives the real point home.

The character has to believe in himself for it to work. See Borat, Jiminy Glick or even yes, Jean-Guy Tremblay...

Look, anyone can don a Hitler uniform and make a penis joke. That doesn't make you a comedian. It makes you an unfunny idiot. Sarah Silverman should've just stayed in her own character.

This just goes back to the "Tina Fey Doctrine" I wrote about in 2009 at BigHollywood. Where in the leftist entertainment industry, it's perfectly acceptable to place agenda over comedy. This wasn't a sketch hatched up in a writer's room because it had them doubled over, scrambling to create brilliant comedy. This sketch was created with an agenda in mind first, comedy second.  It didn't start with "how can we make this funny?"  It started with "how can we try and hurt Donald Trump and his supporters?" The problem I have with that is you can't have both. If you place the agenda first and comedy second, you don't get funny, you get political. Some people can combine the two very well. Jon Stewart did so. I don't have to agree with him, to acknowledge that he's brilliant.

I don't have to think this Hitler routine is funny, and I'm always willing to acknowledge that it's a joke. But if you're going to do the Hitler comparison, at least put more effort into it than amateur improv night at Saint Catherine theater in Montreal. Try the accent. Get into character. Give it a little effort. Don't just wear a costume and expect the world to call you brilliant. Because nein, you're not.