Remember The Mouse that Roared? It’s been a long time since I have seen that Peter Sellers film, but it’s worth remembering, because it contained as much truth as comedy. The Grand Duchy of Fenwick, a small impoverished country, needed funds to repair itself, and it decided to attack the United States, expecting to quickly lose the war, reach a truce, and obtain the kind of rebuilding aid the U.S. has given to countries it defeats (think Germany and Japan). But things didn’t go the way Fenwick expected, and Fenwick won the war (the United States being caught with its pants down) and wound up on possession of the world’s most powerful weapon, and now can assure their future security as they announce that they are ready to drop it on any more powerful country that decides to attack them.

I titled this post The Lion that Cowered because we seem to have reversed that 1959 film. The powerful country attacks the much less powerful country because it fears that the less powerful country has a super weapon that could be used against it, expects to win the war handily, but one month in – not knowing how to use its strength to reach a satisfactory result, and seeing its war plans (to the extent that they existed) go awry – they enter into a temporary cease fire which seems to give the less powerful victim at least as much power, and perhaps more, than they had before the war started.

And yes, if Peter Sellers could be resurrected (and why not?), and the film The Lion that Cowered could be made, Sellers would play Trump, Hegseth, Bibi Netanyahu, and yes, the Ayatollah (both ayatollahs). What a great film it would be.

There were so many good Peter Sellers films including not only The Mouse That Roared, but also Dr. Strangelove, another film where fiction comes too close to fact. You remember Strangelove, where the United States gets word that the USSR is attacking them, and that the planes with the bombs have left their homes and are on their way. The U.S. orders a counter attack, learns that it was a false alarm and there are no Russian bombers coming, but it is too late. Nuclear war is inevitable. Slim Pickens (right?) is ejected and rides that bomb right down to its destination.

And then there was the James Bond spoof film, Casino Royale, which brought together Peter Sellers and Woody Allen (we have weeks ago explored the relevance of Allen’s Sleeper and how close parts of that film portend the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.). Casino Royale had nothing to do with reality, although it did wind up with what were called “atomic time pills” in Woody Allen’s brain ready to go off as an atomic bomb (which it eventually did). I mention this film because it brought these two comic genii together, and when I looked it up (having less than perfect recollection about it), I see that the cast is clearly one of the all time best casts ever assembled:

Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, David Niven, Ursula Andress, Orson Welles, Deborah Kerr, George Raft, William Holden, Charles Boyer, John Huston, Barbara Bouchet, and more. I remember enjoying that film (it came out when I was 30), but I don’t have a desire to see it again.

All this reminds me of several nights ago, when we were at dinner with others, someone couldn’t think of a name of comedian she liked. She needed help remembering it, and described him this way: “You know who I’m talking about? ….. He isn’t Jewish.”

How true that seems to be (although there have been a lot of Black comics in recent decades, I discount many, or maybe most, of them because it is hard for me to relate to their humor, and because so many of them – like other comedians today – need to fill their routines with subject matter and language that only Donald Trump should be allowed to use). But most comedians that you can think of are Jewish, and have been since Red Skelton bit the dust. (I know I am generalizing. Don’t criticize me on this one.)

One who wasn’t, of course, was George Carlin (who was able to perform without sounding like Donald Trump, and able to perform as if he were Trump’s teacher – which for all I know, he might have been). I recently found Carlin’s routine comparing baseball and football on YouTube and sent it to a friend. Worth listening to (no improper sex, no improper words), and it is only about 5 minutes long. Very funny.

Which reminds me. We are going to the Nationals-Cardinals game today. It starts at 4. It is a beautiful sunny day. That’s the good news. The high is going to be in the low 50s. That’s the news that’s not so good.