Erich McElroy Tops Trump

In economics, market saturation forces businesses to innovate and adapt. In comedy, the solution is pretty much the same, which is what makes Erich McElroy Tops Trump such a redundant and unremarkable offering. 

McElroy himself is an American-born comic living in London, which surely makes him the ideal candidate to bridge the cultural gap and offer Fringe audiences an insight into the omnishambles that was the 2016 presidential election. Amid the glut of shows seeking to do the same thing, though, it falls by the wayside to resemble a speck in topical comedy's rear-view mirror. He's got a ticket-baiting title and an accent that lends the impression of authenticity, but not much else.

Revealing that a Trump takedown wasn't his first choice for a show, but that he felt obligated to cover it, McElroy seems pretty pleased with himself. He's one of those people who replies to Trump's tweets, and for our benefit he's printed and laminated them too. The transient brevity of Twitter is somewhat diminished when it's condensed to a guy smugly reading aloud his proudest 140-character putdowns. 

There's an uncomfortable irony in his suggestion that the titular businessman operates in an insular feedback loop; McElroy delivers his derision from a detached pedestal, seemingly unable to resonate with his audience and playing to a gallery that isn't really there. If you can't find funny things to say about a reality star and real-life Twitter troll becoming the leader of the free world, then you need to rethink your satire.