Trump has turbocharged the news cycle and I’m struggling to keep up - March 2025 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - March 2nd, 2025

The smelly thoughts of Donald Trump bubble up like brown burps in the sort of bombsite pond Chopper bike-riding children were advised to avoid in 1970s public information films. Do they indicate concrete plans, are they designed to provoke, or do they have no meaning, like the gurgles and gasps that can inadvertently escape from…

Trump’s bullshit blitz has Europe on its knees - February 2025 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - February 23rd, 2025

Was it really only a month ago that the pole-dancer patron, fridge explorer, Brexit get-doer, model bus maker, sofa-strainer, wall-spaffer, current Daily Mail columnist and former British prime minister Boris Johnson eulogised the inauguration of Donald Trump in the Mail, recounting how, as the “invisible pulse of power surged” from the battered bible into the…

A tale of two suckers: Donald Trump’s plastic straws and Keir Starmer - February 2025 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - February 16th, 2025

It’s difficult to know whether to set any store by Donald Trump’s bleak and yet also often banal pronouncements, which read as if handfuls of offensive concepts have been tossed into the air by a monkey, read out in whatever order they landed and then made policy. Until it’s clear they can’t work. At which…

Air traffic control to Sir Keir: turbulence ahead - February 2025 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - February 9th, 2025

To Elon Musk, I say this! To perform one Nazi salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration, while simultaneously offering full support to European neo-Nazis, might be considered a misfortune. To perform two Nazi salutes at Donald Trump’s inauguration, while simultaneously offering full support to European neo-Nazis, begins to look like carelessness. I didn’t write that joke.…

The Donald and Elon Show is an unholy mess - January 2025 The Observer - By Stewart lee - January 26th, 2025

‘Abba, selach ’ethon la nakhru mah h’mon pelalin!” Flood the zone with shit. Police investigators that pore professionally over horrific imagery online have counselling and mental health support. This week I’ve followed the news from Musk’s America for the sake of another supposedly funny Observer column, and no one’s checking to see if I’m coping.…

An information dark age is upon us. I’m logging off - January 2025 The Observer - By Stewart lee - January 19th, 2025

Wow! That escalated quickly. Last time I filed my supposedly funny column, only two weeks ago, Los Angeles wasn’t on fire; Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t abandoned the guardrails that restrict neo-fascist lies, or “free speech” as they are now known; the US hadn’t threatened to invade Canada and Greenland; Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson hadn’t…