Are conservatives doing okay? It doesn’t seem like it. Since a Minneapolis jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd on Tuesday, one right-wing pundit after another has suffered an embarrassing meltdown. Ben Shapiro. Tomi Lahren. Greg Gutfeld, more than once. But Tucker Carlson had the most alarming freak-out of them all. And on Wednesday, he had another, prompting worries that he might finally, at long last, be losing it.
Tucker Carlson seems to be losing his marbles pic.twitter.com/k8b5Tm3yTn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2021
The context: Carlson had moved on from insulting jurors who helped convict a police officer who was caught on video killing an unarmed civilian to one of his favorite subjects. That would be the racist theory known as “white replacement.” The Fox News host has talked about it a lot in the last few weeks, parroting the idea that immigrants were taking the nation away from whites. Despite calls for his firing, the network has stood by him, albeit by claiming he wasn’t saying the things he was saying on their airwaves.
On Wednesday night’s show, Carlson singled in on California representative Ted Lieu, who had tweeted to Republican colleague Scott Perry, who has also floated the same racist theory. Lieu called him out over Twitter, saying that “Native-born Americans like you are no more American, and no less American, than an immigrant like me.” He added, “And with every passing year, there will be more people like me in the US. You can’t stop it. So take your racist replacement theory and shove it.”
After reading out Lieu’s tweet in a deranged mocking voice, Carlson told his crowd, “In other words you’re being replaced and there’s nothing you can do about it! So shut up!’” He then let rip a more maniacal laugh than the one from the night before.
So is Tucker okay? Some were worried for him, sort of.
Maybe he should take a few days off. https://t.co/LRDlEkviqd
— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) April 22, 2021
The unraveling is happening for all to witness @TuckerCarlson https://t.co/KZW97knaIj
— Terry Kinney🎸🎬 (@RealTerryKinney) April 22, 2021
idk what a completely sane person sounds like when they laugh, but I feel confident when I say it's not like this https://t.co/EQV2VqiL77
— i bless the rains down in castamere (@Chinchillazllla) April 22, 2021
But most people had jokes.
https://twitter.com/NaveedAJamali/status/1385036419207475204
This is the kinda laugh you have when Batman keeps foiling your plans. https://t.co/OCrqqXzeQD
— Mac Brandt (@MacBrandt) April 22, 2021
I wish somebody would laugh at my jokes the way Tucker Carlson laughs at his own https://t.co/wc86oaeeip
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) April 22, 2021
Including ones about the Joker.
he’s literally just becoming the Joker https://t.co/vMZkVNuuP7
— Chris Ray Gun (@ChrisRGun) April 22, 2021
This is the kinda laugh you have when Batman keeps foiling your plans. https://t.co/OCrqqXzeQD
— Mac Brandt (@MacBrandt) April 22, 2021
His laugh is Joker-esque https://t.co/ZhC8zx6RHv
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 22, 2021
But perhaps this is what happens to someone who, when they were a bowtie-wearing collegiate, was a member of the “Dan White Society” — a club dedicated to…the politician who murdered Harvey Milk, and then blamed it on Twinkies.
Here are all the mentions of Carlson in his senior year. Anyone know what the Dan White Society is? Can't be THAT Dan White, right? pic.twitter.com/5h4y8L7ADz
— Will Stancil (@whstancil) April 21, 2021
For those keeping score, that’s two nights in a row where Tucker let loose a deranged laugh. What will Thursday night bring?