We meditated in yesterday’s DM on challenging “large-scale social lies” (Becker’s words) through naming them, which is journalism’s task. And indeed, a task for all of us.
But another way to confront large-scale lies is through satire. As America is becoming a laughing stock in the world today—as well as a source of fear—Europe is responding in creative ways that tell our sad and scary story through satire.
Webster’s Dictionary defines satire as “holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn; also a trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly.” Synonyms include sarcastic, ironic, and sardonic humor, and a wit that is bitter and caustic and often ironic.
In Europe today, new art is emerging that is built around holding the current political scene in America up for ridicule and laughter. This is important because fascists, by definition, have very underdeveloped senses of humor. They are so always in control that they cannot laugh: that would leave them far too vulnerable. They even have to control the paradoxes of life that are the stuff of humor.
In an article entitled “Opera vs. Policy,” Mary Geddry shares with us how, in Hamburg, Germany, the world premiere of Monster’s Paradise recently opened to a very enthusiastic reception.* Maybe it should play in the newly named “Trump-Kennedy Center” and could have so many successful runs that it would bring audiences back to the nation’s premier theater. But I digress.
The world premiere of Monster’s Paradise is described as follows:
A President-King so gluttonous, ravenous, and absurdly swollen with ego that he enters a gilded Oval Office with a Coca-Cola fridge, a crown on the desk, and a literal eject button for unwanted visitors. Chorus members dressed as zombies roam the opera house. Disney princesses drift through the foyer. Vampires frame the action like Wagnerian narrators. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg appear as countertenor tech-adjutants singing syrupy lines about ‘high numbers.’ Trump, rendered as a diapered titan with a golden necktie, grows to monstrous proportions and plants a golf club like a flag on conquered territory.
The overall review of the opera from Geddry? “It’s grotesque and hilarious. It’s satire so blunt it risks becoming documentary before intermission.” The director of the opera admitted that Washington is “sprinting toward parody so fast that the production might be outdated in eight hours.”
Comments Geddry, “that’s where we are now: the metaphor can’t keep up with the man.” She adds, “Europe laughs because it can see the monster whole. America scrolls because it’s standing too close to notice it’s being eaten.”
Sadly, in America, we are often too close to the reality of the evil emanating from the current MAGA presidential cult to laugh at it. Of course, Project 2025 is not a laughing matter, and neither is substituting fascism and rule by billionaires for a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
But laughing can be one tool in one’s toolbox since fascists everywhere are notoriously deprived of a sense of humor—especially when it’s aimed at them and their ever-so-fragile egos.
We can honor Europe’s humor while also learning from Bad Bunny’s (now Good Bunny’s) message on Super Bowl Sunday: “Love is more powerful than Hate.”
* Mary Geddry, “Opera vs. Policy” on Geddry, February 9, 2026.
Banner Image: “Global Warming.” Political cartoon by Brazilian artist TupiniComics on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree that satire is a powerful way to stand up to “Large-Scale Lies”? And Humor is pretty rare among fascists and can be used to tell the truth in ways that come home? Do you believe Americans are “standing too close to notice it’s being eaten”?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet
Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
WHEE! We, wee All the Way Home: Toward a Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality
Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti- Christ
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society (2016), pp. xxxviii-xli
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
9 thoughts on “Confronting Large-Scale Lies Through Satire, Opera & Humor”
Today’s reading from the revised common daily lectionary: Psalm 22, the Lord laughs them to scorn!
Correction to my comment: Psalm 2, not Psalm 22.
Thank you Matthew for bringing up the satire. Frankly it is what has kept me going for so long with Trump in the picture. I am so thankful to Stephen Colbert and the other late night hosts as well as CBC: this Hour has 22 minutes-as a Canadian. I really enjoyed Bad Bunny last weekend and loved the message. Another thing that is emerging is interesting videos like the one where the animals uprise in Greenland: look up the Greenland Defence Front-the Hungry Giant. All of this satirical humour and protest work through “art” is terrific! thank you to all you have these creative minds!
Canada is also laughing. Almost every day the political cartoon on the Toronto newspapers’ editorial pages make a mockery of Donald Trump.
YES! YES! YES! Another great DM, this time emphasizing the universal power of humor and satire as another tool in exposing and fighting fascism and corruption, especially Trump and his ignorant and cult like MAGA movement of followers and enablers in the US (especially the billionaire oligarchs and Republican congress). The Spirit of Love-Truth-Peace-Justice-Freedom-Joy-Diverse Oneness-Compassion… among Humanity is greater than hate & ignorance!
O this opera sounds delicious!!! I hope it comes to U.S. I think many people in the U.S. are aware of the government situation yet we still. have many in denial. Too many! This kind of satire might reach more.
There are many Americans who are actually crying but are glad for an opportunity to laugh at the terrible state their country is in. Those close to Trump are the ones who cannot laugh.
Court Jesters on Steroids for all the world to see…………perhaps the greatest show on earth………as time intersects with eternity…………………….reminds me of God warning the Israelites that choosing a king would have terrible consequences for their sons and daughters …. maybe this heralds the end times for oligarchs and wannabe kings…………….
Dear Fr. Matt,
I loved this. It gave me some breathing room. Thank you!
martina