Titter ye not . . . Trump’s the new Frankie Howerd
But who does he remind me of? Watching Donald trump on television the other day, this question kept nagging me. His strange hair, like an airplane on a launch pad; his camp gestures; his over-expressive eyebrows, so at odds with the rest of his face . . .
His rambling non- sequiturs; his habit of constantly interrupting himself, mid-flow; the way he uses catch-phrases like stepping-stones, to manoeuvre himself from one rant to the next; his oddball face, part donkey, part chipmunk. Who does he remind me of?
And then there is the content of his speeches, their defiant outrage borne along on an undertow of self-pity. And the way all his complaints of being got at are underpinned by a conviction that everything is going downhill, and that the world is out to get him. Woe, woe and thrice woe!
Yes, of course! It suddenly struck me that Donald J. trump, the 2016 Republican candidate for the presidency of the united States of America, is the reincarnation of the late Frankie Howerd. the two men undoubtedly share a strong physical resemblance. the great Barry Cryer once memorably described Frankie Howerd’s remarkable hair: ‘ He used to scratch the back of his head when he was talking to you sometimes, and the hairpiece would go up and down like a pedal bin.’
Donald trump’s hair is, in many ways, even more peculiar. So much care and attention has been lavished upon it, and all to such comical purpose. Like Frankie Howerd’s, it resembles a pedal bin, but a pedal bin that for some reason is allowed to occupy the prime spot in the kitchen.
And, for all his self- confidence, trump shares Frankie Howerd’s habit of looking ill-at- ease in his own clothes. ‘Loosen something! LOOSEN SOMEtHING!’ Howerd would say, tugging the seat of his trousers in the middle of a speech, in a fruitless bid to re-jig them. ‘ there’s nothing worse than your knickers out of focus,’ he would add.
the speeches of the two men share a stop- start quality. they embark on a rambling shaggy-dog story, but interrupt their own flow, and then interrupt their own interruption. Here is a transcript of Frankie Howerd talking about taking a pair of elephants on the London underground: ‘So I got a bit of string. And, I, um, tied it round their necks, y’see, and I led ’em out into the street! Oooh, I did feel a ninny! I tried to look as if I wasn’t with ’em!
‘Anyway. Well! No! But the way people stared! You’d think they’d never seen two elephants going down the underground before!
‘And I had a shocking — listen! ’ Ere! Listen! — Yes! Ye may titter. titter ye may! — I had a shocking time with ’ em down this underground!’
Compare and contrast this elephant speech with the transcript of a recent rally speech by Donald trump. talking at a conference centre in Roanoke, he interrupted his own call to make America great again, by suddenly rounding on the venue, saying: ‘Everyone’s sweating and soaking wet, right? Here’s the difference. It’s not supposed to be so hot, so what they do is they turn t the air con down to s save money.
‘But here we are in a b ballroom, right, and, ri right, right, so I don’t know what hotel this is s but we’re not going to get you paid, am I ri right? It’s hot. Ju Just to let you know, I’ I’m really good at this bu business, you’d be su surprised, but this iss ridiculous...’
t these two monolo logues share the same je jerky rhythm, the s same tone of faux o outrage, the same se sense of jeopardy: at an any point, the speaker seems about to lose theh plot.
the politician has his catchphrases, just like the comedian. Donald trump’s includen ‘I have to be honest’ and ‘ Apparently’ and ‘You know what?’ and ‘ By the way’ and ‘It’s frighte ening’. He also pronounces the word ‘ huge’ in a funny way (‘Yuge’).
SIMILARLY, Frankie Howerd says, ‘Oh, please yourselves!’ and ‘titter ye not’ and ‘Shut your face’ and ‘Not on your nelly!’ and ‘Nay, nay and thrice nay!’ He also pronounces ‘ Ooh no missus’ in a funny way (‘Ooooooh! Nywo! Missussss!’).
trump has published books, as did Howerd. trump’s include the Art Of the Deal and think Big And Kick Ass In Business And Life.
the title of Frankie Howerd’s autobiography — On the Way I Lost It — is decidedly less forthright.
Oddly enough, both the politician and the comedian produced selfhelp books with the words ‘How to’ in the title. Donald trump’s was called How to Get Rich. Believe it or not, Frankie Howerd’s was called trumps: And How to Come up.