Update | America first, (insert your country here) second: watch these hilarious videos
Who’s to say which nation in the world is truly first? Well, Trump – obviously. But if the U.S. is already lapping the rest of the world en route to certain gold, satirists in other nations are having a spirited contest for the silver
There’s no shame in second place, right? Second best? A gentleman’s second? Being first among all the “losers”?
A month after US President Donald Trump took office declaring a new “America first” era, people in Asia and elsewhere armed with social media accounts and jaded senses of humour are competing tongue-in-cheek to be from “almost” the best nation in the world – second only to the world’s sole superpower, and the super-sized ego now in charge of its executive branch.
“It’s going to be only America first,” Trump declared in his January 20 inauguration speech as he tacitly chastised his predecessor Barack Obama, who oversaw the country’s longest stretch of job growth in recent times, for careening the country through an “American carnage”.
The “America first” slogan has become fodder for political satirists around the world hungry for new material to deride the former New York businessman’s trademark bombastic speaking style. From India to Singapore to Indonesia, they have produced mock tourism commercials, with voiceovers imitating Trump, talking about why their country should be chosen as second only to the US.
The trend began half a world away in the Netherlands, after the late night show Zondag met Lubach (Sunday with Lubach) on January 23 – three days after the inauguration – put up a video with a Trump impersonator touting some of the country’s peculiarities, from windmills to its purportedly superior tax code. The voiceover featured the US leaders’ favoured phrases (“You’ll love it. It’s great”, “It’s huge!” “Total losers!”), and his style of using short sentences peppered with barbs aimed at his opponents. “We totally understand it’s going to be America first. But can we just say: the Netherlands second?” the voiceover says towards the end of the video.
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Satirists in Germany, Portugal, and Switzerland soon put up their own versions, before their Asian counterparts entered the fray in February.