Comedy dries up with cultural desertification

In a bid for the same level of notoriety as Pizza Rat, Melissa McCarthy recently donned her now-signature Sean Spicer costume and hit the streets of New York City in a motorized version of the podium familiar from her serial press secretary skit. By any measure, the stunt is inherently funny — reaching back to comedy’s fundamentals of surprise, daring, slapstick, and the clever act of focusing attention while paradoxically lowering the stakes.
And so it’s a welcome respite from