Who thought evil despots could look so ridiculous?

[Ocelot II]

When we think of evil despots we think of people like Hitler and Stalin and their henchmen. Scary, menacing people surrounded by more scary menacing people in black trenchcoats or military uniforms with scary insignia. But when we finally got our own despots, what did we get? Clowns. TV comedy villains. Dr. Evil with a whole cadre of Mini-Mes but without Mr. Bigglesworth because they're either afraid of animals or they shoot them. We didn't get the king, we got the court jester. We got a fat, demented old man in a baggy suit who paints his face orange and dyes his hair urine-yellow and swoops it into a weird, sorry combover. We got a smug, pudgy beardo who's been memed for having carnal knowledge of upholstered furniture and he's such a creep that it's believable. We got a preening drunk with delusions of manhood; a squeaky little simulacrum of a Secretary of State; our own version of Ilse Koch but with Mar-A-Lago Face, the body of a stick insect and the personality of a pit viper but dumber; an Attorney General whose only useful attribute seems to be the ability to be the Karen who demands to see the manager but a lot more loudly and imperiously; a press secretary whose lies will eventually cause the ostentatious cross around her neck to burst into flames; and an icky, Gollumish little caricature of Josef Goebbels. I didn't think the arrival of fascism would be more like the circus coming to town, complete with the freak show.