‘This is not comedy! Pay attention’: from Cabaret to Trump rallies, why does audience laughter feel so sinister?

Americans are struggling to reconcile Trump’s campness and cruelty – but comedy has always been a tool for authoritarians

Every night on a new Broadway production of Cabaret, Adam Lambert waits to see how the audience will react to one of the show’s biggest numbers, If You Could See Her. The song sees Lambert’s Emcee dancing with a performer in a gorilla costume and finishes with him looking into the ape’s eyes singing: “If you could see her through my eyes / She wouldn’t look Jewish at all.”

The line is supposed to represent the normalisation of bigotry, demonstrating how the Kit Kat Club, once the most immoderate, carefree cabaret club in Berlin, has amended its routines in order to placate the new Nazi patrons. The moment used to provoke gasps from audiences. But during this run, which spanned the US general election campaign and second Trump presidency, there have been many nights when the cast have heard guffaws in the crowd.

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