If, as some people believe, humor consists in the recognition of incongruities, and if, as I claim, some humor is not at all the stuff you laugh at, then I have a contribution to the debate.
I remember vividly how in 1945 my country, Germany, lay in shambles. If it had not been for the American occupation forces we would not even have had a government to speak of, our own having evaporated. As a matter of fact, just 75 years ago nothing worth happening in Germany was possible without American approval.
How much has changed in that brief span of years: now the United States lie in shambles and the “Leader of the Free World” cannot even get a conference going without the approval of Angela Merkel, the leader of Germany.