Scott Baio an inside joke at the Republican convention

Given the candidate's appeal to every peabrained action star from Chuck Norris to Bruce Willis, the decision to use a sitcom has-been at the conference was a strange one.

Scott Baio’s glowing endorsement of Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention has provoked a variety of responses.

Those fortunate enough to be born after the sitcom Happy Days dominated television ratings may well have struggled to place the modestly talented Baio, an old trouper whose CV also includes the short-lived Happy Days spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi and the wretched 1980s vehicle Charles in Charge.

Baio also belongs to a very select group: former boyfriends of Jodie Foster. If his youthful dalliance with the future two-time Oscar winner during the shooting of the cult classic Bugsy Malone did not put Foster off men for life, then it came mighty close.

Scott’s love for The Donald is grounded in a profound understanding of the candidate’s policy platform. He likes what Trump says and he likes how Trump says it.

Corporate tax reform, the abolition of Obamacare and the building of a wall between Mexico and the United States all resonate with the Fonz’s little nephew.

During a recent round of golf, he had an epiphany about climate change that could well have come straight out of the Trump manifesto.

The observation of snow on distant mountains convinced Baio of the folly of lily-livered, antibusiness pseudo science.

How could the globe be warming if you can still go skiing? It’s liberal scaremongering, a little like Mr C’s trite homily of the week, a staple of each Happy Days episode in its third act.

Chachi never had time for such nonsense. He was cool. Not as cool as the Fonz, maybe, but a lot more together than Potsie or Ralph Malph or Al, the fat diner owner whose catchphrase ‘‘yeah-yeahyeah-yeah’’, whilst mopping his brow, was about as close as American television came to existential angst in the 1970s.

Why exactly did Trump choose to have Baio speak for him? Given the candidate’s appeal to every pea-brained action star from Chuck Norris to Bruce Willis, the decision to use a sitcom has-been at the conference was a strange one.

Admittedly, Clint Eastwood’s efforts four years ago at the equivalent event resulted in atbest embarrassed laughter. Years of solid work behind the camera, four Oscars and a honorary Golden Palm from Cannes were quickly forgotten as Eastwood’s stunt of treating an empty chair as a Barack Obama substitute and ‘‘interviewing’’ said piece of furniture made Dirty Harry look like a senile old fool.

Trump could not risk another such disaster. He needed someone with solid comic timing and an equivalent sense of humour. He needed a man’s man, one unafraid to make light of the masculine appendage.

The best joke that Scott Baio ever delivered was neither scripted nor delivered on prime time television.

Actually, much like most of what Trump says, it was unclear when he delivered the line if he was joking or not.

Asked about the failure of Joanie Loves Chachi in an interview, Baio conceded that the show had not fared well and was abruptly cancelled, with he and costar Erin Moran being written back into Happy Days in time for that series’ finale.

However, he also claimed that there was one country where Joanie Loves Chachi received a rapturous reception. According to Baio, it became the highest rating television show ever in Korea.

The reason had little to do with the sitcom’s quality. Apparently, the word ‘‘chachi’’ in Korean means ‘‘penis’’.

On the strength of a salacious title alone, millions of South Koreans tuned in, anticipating hardcore pornography.

Little Joanie Cunningham knew what she liked and wasn’t afraid to go after it.

An urban legend was born. Unfortunately, Scott’s facts didn’t quite add up.

Joanie Loves Chachi was only ever broadcast to American armed forces stationed in South Korea.

The wider population never got to appreciate Moran in all her sexually liberated glory.

More to the point, ‘‘chachi’’ is not a Korean word.

A phonetically similar phrase, often rendered in English as ‘‘jaji’’, does mean penis. It’s probable that a few bilingual GIS found the coincidence mildly amusing but the ratings impact of this was slight.

It’s not as if the show could possibly deliver on the promises being made. Mr C would never hear of it. The Joanie Loves Penis joke combines toilet humour with implied racism. There’s an undercurrent of misogyny as well.

It’s vintage Donald Trump: puerile belly laughs grounded in prejudice and factual inaccuracy. No wonder Baio got the job.