It’s Friday, February 6. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: How DoorDash gets you, why Donald Trump’s voters will (probably) back an Iran strike, the problem with the Super Bowl antisemitism ad, Woody Allen’s favorite joke, Olivia Reingold talks exclusively to the antisemitism official fired by Zohran Mamdani, and much more.
But first: Let’s talk about jokes.
At the Grammys last Sunday, comedian Trevor Noah suggested President Donald Trump wanted to acquire Greenland “because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new island to hang out with Bill Clinton.” Not a great laugh, but Trump’s reaction was even less funny—he threatened to sue Noah.
It set us to thinking about one of our most fragile national institutions: the joke.
The latest installment of our series on America at 250 is all about humor. Because, without it, what kind of country would we have?
Up first: a famed satirist who says he is throwing in the towel. Forty years ago, Christopher Buckley—author of Thank You for Smoking, among many other books—poked fun at Ronald Reagan in a satirical novel about a president refusing to leave office. The idea that a world leader would never surrender office to his successor was “a quaint notion,” writes Buckley. And then came Trump.
If video killed the radio star, Buckley argues, current events have almost certainly killed the humorist. Our reality is much more absurd than anything even the most seasoned satirist could write. Read him here:
But perhaps nobody anticipated the descent of American comedy from social observation into shared delusion more clearly than Martin Scorsese. Today, Dominic Green returns to The King of Comedy, the master filmmaker’s 1982 character study of a man named Rupert Pupkin. As played by Robert De Niro, Pupkin is an unfunny and unstable man whose fantasy of fame exposes a truth about America: that many of us would rather be a king for a day than a schmuck for a lifetime.
If laughs seem few and far between these days, we have just the thing for you—a recording of our Free Press “Right to Laugh” event held last month in New York City.
Hosted and curated by fearless veteran comic Judy Gold, the lineup included Colin Quinn, Robert Kelly, and Alex English, each taking on America: its ideals, its contradictions, and why it’s important—even patriotic—to push the envelope.
Be warned: Some of these jokes were written for a 1 a.m. audience with a two-drink minimum. In other words, it gets blue, and the phrase “not safe for work” very much applies.
And last but not least, don’t miss a short and sweet roundup of some of our favorite jokes, including submissions from Woody Allen, Joseph Epstein, Quinn, and more. Careful with some of these jokes—they’re antiques.
—Josh Code
Tough Love with Abigail Shrier: My Son Doesn’t Like When I Visit His Family
What should you do when your son tells you you’re visiting his family too often? This week, our advice columnist, Abigail Shrier, responds to a question from Elizabeth, an infuriated grandmother who wants to stay over and help with the kids. Abigail starts her reply like this: “Elizabeth, mind if we get real for a second?” Read the rest of it:
Americans are spending appalling amounts of money on food delivery, a viral New York Times article revealed this week. But apart from its financial cost amid an affordability crisis, there is a social cost, too—DoorDash is “the resigned acceptance of a diminished, dysfunctional version of yourself,” writes Sascha Seinfeld. Read her take on why food delivery addicts like herself must be stopped.
It’s been five weeks since Donald Trump drew a redline on the Iranian uprising, promising to strike Iran if the regime killed protesters. The warning did not prevent a bloodbath, but no strikes followed. What is the holdup? Eli Lake spoke to administration officials and uncovered a practical obstacle to action: the missile defense cupboard is bare.
The Steve Bannons and Tucker Carlsons of the world confidently proclaim that interventionism no longer has a home on the American right. But 61 percent of “MAGA Republicans” support “military action” in Iran. The truth is that voters can be isolationist or interventionist, depending on the situation, writes Aaron MacLean. But as the Trump administration rides on its successes in Venezuela and Iran, the MAGA base is primed to support future strikes.
How Not to Fight Antisemitism
Anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York City have increased 182 percent since Zohran Mamdani took office last month, and his administration is responding by replacing New York’s top antisemitism watchdog with a progressive activist. Moshe Davis, the ousted official and a “proud Zionist,” speaks exclusively with Olivia Reingold about why he was fired.
Robert Kraft has paid $15 million for an ad to help fight antisemitism that will air during the Super Bowl. But its message is all wrong, writes Peter Savodnik. Read his column on why the “Dirty Jew” ad made him take antisemitism less seriously.
Editor’s Picks
This week, Nellie Bowles was busted for the crime of reporting. Why? Because her name, and a few polite emails, appear in the latest tranche of Jeffrey Epstein documents since she had coffee with him in 2018. Does she have any regrets about that coffee? Yes, but not that she met him. Instead, she wonders why she didn’t dig deeper into a man who quickly grossed her out. Read her dispatch here.
For more on this week’s latest revelations about the disgraced New York financier, check out this great Rod Dreher essay on how the Epstein files show how we’ve reached a pre-revolutionary moment à la the last years of Czarist Russia or the Weimar Republic. It’s a scary but necessary essay to make sense of how Americans are responding to these latest revelations about the decadence of our elites.
On a slightly lighter note, Will Rahn sat down with Timothy Cardinal Dolan, outgoing Archbishop of New York and long one of the Catholic Church’s most influential and outspoken cardinals. He talks about everything from his role in electing Pope Leo XIV to the Church’s criticisms of the Trump administration. Check out the video here:
Speaking of, Allie Beth Stuckey is one of the most influential conservative Christian influencers out there. So influential, in fact, that none other than Hillary Clinton took aim at Stuckey in a recent article in The Atlantic, saying she is part of a “war on empathy.” Do yourself a favor and read what Stuckey has to say in response.
Reza Pahlavi, the would-be Shah of Iran, was forced into exile at age 17. Now, somewhat improbably, he has become a central node of resistance to Tehran’s embattled Islamic Republic. Read Eli Lake’s profile of the man who many Iranians wish would return, despite his previous ambivalence about doing any such thing:
Finally, don’t miss Benjamin Ryan’s report on a groundbreaking legal case that could upend gender medicine. Benjamin was the only reporter to cover the whole trial.
And for a longer look at how The Free Press has reported on gender ideology, from when the subject was a third rail to today, read Emily Yoffe’s essay on the rise and fall of youth gender medicine:
The Front Page will be back on Monday morning. Until then, look out for a special Super Bowl Edition of The Weekend Press—in which Joe Nocera opines on the NFL’s most blighted franchise (hint: it’s the Jets). Plus, enjoy Two Drinks with Michael J. Fox, and Suzy Weiss looks forward to the Winter Olympics and Bad Bunny’s halftime show.
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Dow just broke 50,000 for first time ever. How will the left frame this? Capitalism bad? Orange man bad? What actually is their platform?
President Trump should have responded with, there are 77,303,569 people I would want to be with on Greenland before President Clinton.