How Tim Walz’s sense of humour could see Kamala Harris laughing all the way to the White House

The Democratic candidate’s running mate, who coined the ‘Trump is weird’ line of attack, brings an affability back to politics that has been sorely missed. Not only is he sharing a laugh with voters, but he’s making them realise just how much of a joke their opponents really are

Believe it or not, there was a time when politicians were genuinely likeable – or, at least, they did a good enough impression of being likeable to get by. They’d go on TV and play saxophone solos, or shoot a few hoops – and just generally try to come across like human people with rich inner lives. The logic was that if people liked them, they’d be more likely to vote for them in an election. Bizarre, I know.

For many politicians, likeability has become a lost art – which is why Kamala Harris might have struck gold with her VP pick, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who seems like he was engineered in a lab by affable scientists to be the perfect drinking buddy. At a packed rally in Philadelphia, Harris introduced Walz to a raucous crowd, where he made clever quips, cracked jokes, and genuinely reminded people that you don’t have to have the dead eyes of a convicted felon to run for America’s highest office.

Walz, who started the trend of calling Donald Trump “weird” – a line of attack that has taken hold more effectively than anybody could possibly have anticipated – has come out of the gate as the “anti-weird” candidate. A million miles away from Trump’s vicious, rambling, self-serving tangents, or JD Vance’s desperate vacuum of charisma, the governor projects an image of an average midwestern father and husband eager to serve his country. No weirdness here – just good old fashioned relatability.

A former teacher, Walz understands that the best way to get people to pay attention is to make them laugh. There’s a way to do it – there’s a fine line between being funny and not taking things seriously – but if you nail it then it can really get people on-side. It can also infuriate naysayers. Speaking to the Guardian, Melissa Hortman, the Democratic speaker of Minnesota’s house of representatives, said:: “If Donald Trump and JD Vance are irritated that Kamala Harris smiles and laughs, they’re really going to be irritated by Tim Walz.”

His sense of humour isn’t the only thing that’s going to irritate his opponents. Walz is a veteran – unlike Trump, who famously dodged the draft – a former coach, and during his time as an educator served as a faculty adviser for a high school gay-straight alliance group, because he “knew the signal it would send to have a football coach get involved.” His stance on abortion? “Mind your own damn business!” Crime? Well, he knows crime was up under Trump – and “that’s not counting the crimes he committed”.

Walz’s laid-back demeanour is a far cry from his opposite number, JD Vance, Trump’s running mate who once said the former president was “America’s Hitler” and then decided to get in bed with him anyway.

Walz had some choice words for Vance, saying that he couldn’t wait to debate the Ohio senator – that is, assuming he’s “willing to get off the couch and show up”. He even added a quick “see what I did there?”, in classic dad joke fashion, just so there was no confusion that he did, in fact, do that. Even Kamala struggled to maintain her composure as she stood behind him like a proud aunt.

If you don’t know why that’s funny, congratulations on not being a slave to salacious online gossip. Now, here’s some salacious online gossip: the joke was a cheeky reference to a totally unsubstantiated (but very funny) Twitter rumour that Vance admitted to using a sofa cushion to pleasure himself in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy. It was a clever way for Walz to signal to supporters that, while he might look like the dad in a Christian sitcom, he’s perfectly capable of delivering a few low blows when needed.

Walz’s character is also a far cry from Trump himself. While Trump is often the butt of jokes, he doesn’t seem to enjoy them very much – as Walz himself pointed out in his now-famous “weird” interview, the former president rarely laughs, and “if he has laughed, it’s at someone, not with someone”.

No wonder he’s labelled Harris “laughing Kamala” – he seems to see joy as a weakness, and I’m not sure he fully understands it when he comes across it. It looks like the mindset of a psychopath – which probably explains his recent fixation on Hannibal Lecter, a fictional serial killer who Trump seems to believe is a real person, as well as a “lovely man”.

It’s early days, but one of the most effective things that Walz has already accomplished is highlighting just how unfunny Trump is as a person. Despite all the horrors he’s responsible for, the former president does actually have a bit of a reputation among his supporters for having a sense of humour. But it’s a cruel, bizarre, bullying sense of humour, designed to amuse his cruel, bizarre, bullying base.

He’s made fun of women’s weight (a level of hypocrisy we simply don’t have time to get into here), he’s mocked the disabled, and he brands his opponents with juvenile nicknames because he’s incapable of engaging with their ideas. He has the cutting wit of an insecure eight-year-old who lashes out because he isn’t emotionally mature enough to express himself in a healthy way.

Maintaining that level of spite is exhausting. America is exhausted. The biggest opportunity that a Harris/Walz ticket represents is the chance to remind Americans that yes, while there’s serious work to be done before the US gets back on its feet, there’s nothing wrong with having a few laughs in the meantime.