Thousands Say They Will Meet To Point & Laugh At Trump Tower After Election
By Stephen Gossett in News on Oct 26, 2016 7:15PM
Getty Images / Photo: Scott Olson
Barring a major upset, Chicago voters who oppose Donald Trump will have likely have reason after Election Day to smile—and, if they so choose, gloat. According to a Facebook event page, thousands are interested in doing just that, as the local spinoff of the Point and Laugh at Trump Tower on Nov. 9 phenomenon has skyrocketed in popularity over the last few weeks.
The concept—which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like—was started in New York City by Jon Bershad, a performer at UCB and writer for Seriously.TV. The brilliantly simple idea came to him as he passed Trump Tower every day on his lunch break.
“I feel like, on one hand any public leader deserves the regular amount of scorn—your SNL parodies and political cartoons,” Bershad told Chicagoist. “But we really need to end any normalization of Trump’s behavior that has occurred; and there’s a great need for a cathartic release for Americans.”
“Also, he’s got silly hair.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, over 2,000 people have RSVP’ed to the event on Facebook while another nearly 9,000 are interested.
Bershad said he never expected the gag, which began as an inside joke among friends, to take off nationwide like it has. But he said he’s thrilled to see it happen. “Absolutely. Anyone who wants to create an event like this should. This is America’s. This is not mine,” Bershad said.
(The Facebook user who created the Chicago event declined to identify himself to Chicagoist because he works “in an industry full of Trump supporters.”)
Point-and-laughers are invited to meet at 6 p.m.on Nov. 9 at the Trump Tower. Despite its admittedly immature nature, a public mocking is absolutely the right thing to do for the country, according to Bershad.
"Anything that can help America come together and flush this awful, disastrous election down in a way that hopefully stops future Trumps from trying same thing is positive—juvenile or not," he said.