Where’s the Line? On Laughter in our ICE Age

A guest post by Charles Holdefer

Feb 04, 2026

An altered image, shared by the White House, of the January 22 arrest of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer and civil rights activist. Screenshot from NBC News,

This guest post is by my friend Charles Holdefer. Charles grew up in Knoxville, Iowa. He now lives in Brussels, Belgium. His short fiction has appeared in many magazines, including the New England Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, North American Review, Los Angeles Review, Slice and Yellow Silk. His story "The Raptor" won a Pushcart Prize in 2016. Holdefer is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Sorbonne. His latest book is “Ivan the Terrible Goes on a Family Picnic."

Charles comes back to Knoxville a couple of times a year to visit family, and it’s always a pleasure to talk with him about life, literature, and more.

By Charles Holdefer

GUEST COLUMNIST

As I struggle with anger and sadness about the appalling images from Minneapolis, I find myself thinking, unexpectedly, about the uses of laughter. Sometimes, disparate images, considered together, can reframe a situation in revealing ways. For instance, the altered image, shared by the White House, of the January 22 arrest of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer and civil rights activist shown above.

The original image shows a serious face, with no tears. The doctored version shows a darker skin tone and a woman crying.

Such manipulations are nothing new in the fraught history of race relations in the U.S. But, less obviously, this specific example can also be connected to the arrest of the dancing giraffe below:

In a widely-circulated YouTube video, a protestor in a giraffe costume dances in the street. He doesn’t appear to be angry or at close range to ICE and Homeland Security officers. But he has a PA system and microphone, and he calls to the uniformed men to come and join him in the dance. The most apt word I can think of to describe his behavior is goofy.

Later, the video shows him getting tackled by DHS police and encircled by masked ICE officers, who point weapons at onlookers. Off-camera, an incredulous voice shouts, “You’re arresting a dancing giraffe. Is that the right side of history?”

Not a remark you hear every day. But these are the times we live in.

Varieties of laughter

Both the altered photograph of Nekima Levy Armstrong and the video of the dancing giraffe intrigue me. But why consider them together?

Because they expose the underlying pathos of MAGA’s emotional make-up, as well as its weakness in the face of laughter. Here’s why:

Some people say that President Trump, being so thin-skinned and insecure, lacks a sense of humor. I disagree. Although his humor isn’t to my taste, it’s certainly part of his public persona and is enjoyed by his fans. Trumpian laughter is based on invective, diminution, and punching down. His is literally a bully pulpit.

And, though it might seem strange to some observers, MAGA humor probably came into play in the doctored image Nekima Levy Armstrong.

For the original image, one could imagine a Trumper taking satisfaction in the arrest of a rival. As in: “That’ll show her!”

But is that enough? After all, the original image still obliges the viewer to look at the face of a serious Black woman. Wouldn’t it be even more satisfying to see her cry? The tears in the doctored image aren’t added to invite sympathy. They’re intended to provoke laughter. As in: “Let’s all enjoy a good jeer at this loser!”

And the dancing giraffe? Why is he so irritating to ICE and DHS officers? He’s not threatening. Why does this goofball strike a nerve?

Perhaps because he presents them with an embarrassing image of themselves. Like the giraffe, they are grown men in cosplay outfits. They’re not real soldiers, not real police. Inadequately trained and out of their depth, they lack the legitimacy of professional law enforcement officers, who don’t feel the need to hide behind masks. They are messenger boys subject to the whims of GOP fat cats who are never, never cold.

So when a dancing giraffe calls them out, refuses to take them seriously, and invites them to join his block party—why, it feels like salt in the wound. Actually, the giraffe might be more unsettling to them than the angry protesters who shout abuse and obscenities.

I understand why angry protesters shout abuse, and I don’t question their right to do so. Still, in terms of tactics, I think the dancing giraffe is onto something.

Protesters who treat ICE officers and their supporters to overt verbal abuse might inadvertently reinforce their sense of self-importance and misplaced machismo. They might lend credibility, in the minds of these officers, to their dubious mission, which is premised on a belief in Us versus Them. The dancing giraffe, in contrast, deflates all such pretensions.

Sometimes, being laughed at can sting more than being told to fuck off.

That fact partly explains the animus behind the doctored photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong, with its invitation to jeer. It’s one way for some people to get in their licks against this Black woman.

But while that laughter comes from a place of racism, cruelty, and falsification, the dancing giraffe doesn’t need to lie about his target. On the contrary, what makes him funny is the truth he reveals about the ridiculousness of enforcers who feel threatened by some dude in an animal suit.

Future tactics

None of this will help Renée Good or Alex Pretti. Or the many others who have been brutalized. But as we grieve, a question persists: What next?

In the dancing giraffe video, there’s a brave woman, clearly upset about the arrest, who asks: “Where is the line? Where is the line?” She’s arguing with officers that the giraffe had kept a safe distance. But her question resonates more generally, too. Where IS the line?

Nonviolent resistance is often met with violence. We’ve seen how terrible the price can be. How irremediably tragic.

But violent resistance will give ICE a pretext to do even worse. We have a federal government that lies and jeers, and would seize the opportunity to impose itself further. We can’t take the bait.

Obviously, this crisis won’t be resolved with jokes. Our institutional and social problems run too deep. I’m not suggesting, either, that one side has a monopoly on the “good” laughter, while the other side is imprisoned by the bad faith of their jeers. Every human is capable of the worst, whatever side they’re on.

But as a tactic in the tool kit, laughter still has a role.

When George Orwell witnessed fascists marching in goose-step, he found the style ridiculous, even as it conjured up to him the horrible image of a boot in the face. “What it is saying is ‘Yes, I am ugly, and you daren’t laugh at me.’” Then he added:

“Why is the goose-step not used in England? There are, heaven knows, plenty of army officers who would be only too glad to introduce some such thing. It is not used because the people in the street would laugh.”

This is a time for tears—real ones, not fake. But we must also dare to laugh and dance, as if our future depended on it.

Thanks for sharing Charles! Support our local bookstores by looking for Charles’ books there, or asking them to order them for you.

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