Viraldice: Donald Trump Tried to Make a ‘Wayne’s World’ Joke, and It Did Not Go Well

onald Trump has been trying to perfect the "not" joke for months now. You know that joke construction. It was popularized by Wayne's World and you constantly used it against your siblings when you were a little kid. ("Hey, this candy bar is for you. NOT!")

Well, Trump has tried to use it several times, and it's actually gone pretty well!

...NOT.

About a month before he was sworn in as President of the United States, Trump was tweeting terrible "not" jokes about President Obama.

Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks.Thought it was going to be a smooth transition - NOT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2016

It was a really professional move, and he impressed a lot of people with his outstanding comedic chops.

Not.

Trump tried the joke format again yesterday. While ranting on Twitter and trying to distract the American people from the indictments in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, he wrote this:

All of this "Russia" talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017

“Is this coincidental? NOT!” he tweeted, which totally makes sense and is a perfect example of how to use this joke structure that isn’t at all juvenile or outdated.

NOT. Obviously.

The joke was so bad that Wayne himself can't even look it (the joke) in the eye.

Wayne’s World came out 25 years ago, and before that, it was a sketch on Saturday Night Live. The “not” joke has lived, has died, has been resurrected, has been killed again, and now its mangled corpse is being dug up by the President of the United States. It’s not a good look.

Comedian Kumail Nanjiani had a note for the president's joke:

It’s not only that he’s attempting to use this outdated joke format, it’s that he got this outdated joke format, which we’ve all used a million times and is burned into the back of our brains, super wrong.

Seth Rogen came to the defense (not!) of the "not" joke with this response to Nanjiani:

"Not" jokes are not dated. I mean "are they dated? NOT!"

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) October 29, 2017

Whether or not Donald Trump gets decades-old joke structures right, at least we can all agree that trying to craft childish takedowns of his “enemies” is a great use of the president’s time.

Not.