"Crank up the Benny Hill theme song and let the belly laughs commence. As President Trump's summer of immigration raids turns into a fall of occupation, I need some - and who knew his deportation machine could bring them? To watch videos of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in action failing bigly is like watching "Star Wars" Stormtroopers constantly misfiring or bonking their heads despite the full backing of the emperor himself."
"Have you seen the one where two masked agents struggle to subdue a Latino male on a lawn while a small dog barks from behind a fence? And when the agents grab onto his T-shirt, he slips out of it, grabs his discarded hat and darts away like Bugs Bunny humiliating Elmer Fudd? Or what about the reel where a handcuffed white man, evidently a protester, dressed in all-black walks alongside his captors before spinning off them like Saquon Barkley evading a tackler as he disappears into a crowd - but not before a fellow protester filming the scene offers his comrade an enthusiastic back slap?"
"You can get your jollies with a Dave Chappelle special, or by catching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth trying out his Gen. Patton impression before another group of stone-faced generals, but it's better to settle on yuks that matter - chortles that provoke as much hope as humor. It's a reminder that martial law-hungry Trump's would-be empire is not all powerful. And that Americans can still snicker in the face of official wrong - and should. "Laughter and tears"
Viral videos capture ICE agents bungling arrests as detainees slip away, run from agents or evade capture. Social media users remix the footage with humorous soundtracks such as the Benny Hill theme, turning deportation failures into viral entertainment. The clips include masked agents failing to subdue a man who escapes by slipping out of a T-shirt, and a handcuffed protester breaking free amid a crowd. The humor reframes enforcement as fallible and reduces the aura of invincibility around immigration raids. Experts interpret the mocking as a form of resistance that exposes the limits of the deportation apparatus.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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