They laughed when he said he’d jail reporters. They laughed when he said he’d be president for life. They laughed when he mocked the disabled, when he promised pardons for war criminals, when he called Nazis “very fine people.”

They’re still laughing.

That’s the tell. When power slips into absurdity, it becomes a joke before it becomes a threat. That’s how we missed it. We thought the performance was self-defeating. It wasn’t. It was mesmerizing.

Now the gag orders are real. The threats are law. The man who made us laugh while democracy eroded is back in full control.

And the laugh track’s still rolling.

But the script has changed.