My brother gave me the link below, with this message: “By the way, if you want to see some funny stuff, check this out: www.everysecondcounts.eu
“Click on the map of Europe, and then click on the Netherlands, then Germany, then go to the Middle East and click on Iran, then check out the rest.”
So I checked it out. It’s more than funny. It’s brilliantly funny. Here’s what it is:
Immediately after Trump’s (gulp) inauguration speech–replete with menacing Nazi-derived vows to make “America First!”–at least one satirical TV group (sort of like SNL), maybe the Netherlands first, decided to kick off a hilarious “competition.” After a slice from that Trump speech, the Netherlands decided to claim the position of…Second.
The Dutch group made a marvelously persuasive PR film, selling the Netherlands as the Second Country. Whoever narrates it does a drop-dead, Alec Baldwin quality imitation of Trump.
Either simultaneously or immediately afterward, Germany jumped in with a terrific, attractive guy sitting behind a desk–like, say, Stephen Colbert–with his claim for Germany. (Among the characters in Germany’s pitch is Hitler–for his hairdo and because he had a best selling memoir.) (My favorite part of the German pitch was when the guy–who was switching smoothly from [subtitled] German to English–suddenly asked, “Why am I speaking English with an Italian accent?”)
So it goes on. If you roll your cursor over the blue areas on the world map and click on one, the specific countries joining in will show up as blue. My brother says even Iran has produced a segment–and it, too, is funny. I’m personally glad to be reminded of the many Balkan nations once part of Yugoslavia, which tend to elude my brain.
My brother suggested I not binge-watch all the nations vying for Second, so I saw the Netherlands and Germany last night. Each night I’ll reward myself for getting past the daily outrage by laughing myself silly over one country or another.
I invite you to do the same, with this thought. My brother and I agreed that the most thrilling thing about EverySecondCounts is how an international community of smart, like-minded wits spontaneously reacted to Trump just as we are reacting to him, with horror and mockery and massive street protests.
We are not alone; they’re our new best friends. I feel embraced and comforted by this elite community of warm, funny people who have confirmed a central tenet of my life: we are all simply more human than otherwise.
Except Trump, of course. He isn’t. He’s just the inspiration.