What I Should Have Said to Coleman Hughes
- May 4
- 1 min read
File this one under l’esprit de l’escalier: the staircase witticism, the clever remark you think of only after the opportunity to say it is past—only once you’ve left madame’s salon and are heading down the stairs. I’m convinced that one reason why so many people love X (née Twitter) is that it gives them sufficient time to formulate clever remarks. The true wit has clever repartee on the tip of his tongue; we mere Twitter-wits get an hour or two to compose our devastating comebacks.
Interviews, however, are another matter. I enjoyed my interview with Coleman Hughes a few weeks ago, but I found myself with a shortage of witty remarks. Maybe it was his low-key manner. I generally enjoy watching him do interviews because he has a real commitment to getting at the truth in a calm and relaxed way. He seems genuinely to want to understand his interlocutors’ way of thinking. He treats them with friendly respect and doesn’t play gotcha games or try to embarrass them. It’s a welcome relief from the head-butting struggles to make political points on social media. But friendly, low-key interviews don’t spark the kind of sharp-pointed wit that invites comparison with the rapier. Anyone who has seen Patrice Leconte’s brilliant 1996 film Ridicule, a biting portrayal of the eighteenth-century French salon with its (literally) murderous bon mots, will know what I mean…