July 11, 2018 / NPR plays fun and games with national identity

"Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!" is NPR's equivalent of CBS's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" -- all Trump-bashing, all the time, in pursuit of humor for the progressive set.

Every "Wait Wait!" is horrifying in its own way. One time the host, Peter Sagel, joked that our president, like a child, was writing on the walls of the White House with his own feces. Not that funny, actually, but this sort of thing probably saves big bucks. Who needs writers when fifth-grade boys can supply free poo-poo jokes? 

Against that, a bit from June 30 was a small potato. The "Wait Wait!" gang was yukking it up about how the Supreme Court had, against the wise counsel of the American left, upheld the president's travel ban.

One panelist, Negin Farsad, said to be a comedian, actress, writer, and filmmaker from New York City, saw an opening. She shared her particular and personal reason for faux comedic outrage. 

"Not to brag," she bragged, "I'm from one of the travel-ban countries, Iran," punctuated with what may have been an old Iranian expletive, "Whassup?"

Mr. Sagal recognized Ms. Farsad's special claim to victimhood by condemning the president again for "stigmatizing your country of origin."

"Wait Wait!" fairly glowed with smug self-satisfaction. That Trump! If she hadn't already waded across the Rio Grande, he would have deprived America of Ms. Farsad's person and talents.

What no one on the show bothered to do, however, was . . .