David’s light-mindedness reflects the outlook of Hollywood’s affluent liberals and the circles in which they navigate, abrasively, obnoxiously or otherwise. Nothing needs to be taken all too seriously. Everything will be sorted out at the next cocktail or garden party, or the one after that. We can have a hearty laugh about anything, from segregation to trench warfare.

The idea of taking historical moments and figures as subjects for satire is perfectly legitimate. Sketches featuring John C. Calhoun making South Carolina “great again,” or Woodrow Wilson making the world safe for segregated oligopoly, would be welcome.

But satire of that kind requires more than a knack for zany anecdotes and boisterous repartee. Real historical knowledge—how the figures spoke for definite social classes and layers—is required. This is doubly true at a moment when the Trump administration [wages war on history itself](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-national-park-service-underground-railroad-website-1235311535/), including the Civil War and the plight of the enslaved.

But David simply injects himself into historical episodes and has a bit of sport. “Wouldn’t it be funny if historical figure X did quirky thing Y” serves as the formula for every sketch, and the results are poor, even derisory. David boasted to CBS Sunday Morning that he and the creators had done no historical research for the project. It shows.

Comedy and satire can take part in history rather than merely borrow its costumes. Mark Twain’s late anti-imperialist writings flayed the “Blessings-of-Civilization Trust”; Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal” remains the standard for turning polite economic language against its practitioners; John Heartfield’s photomontages—Hitler as a marionette, his palm open behind him for the industrialists’ millions—identified the class forces behind fascism at a time when official opinion saw only a vulgar demagogue; and Chaplin’s *The Great Dictator* mocked Hitler while American officialdom was still doing business with him.

The brainchild of Barack Obama: Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America