Logan and Jake Paul Ushered in a New Era of Presidential Inaugurals by Dumping Theo Von Out of His Chair Like it's High School

Chip Somodevilla. Shutterstock Images.

As I mentioned yesterday, when history is being made a former Reality TV with a background in forcing B- and C-List celebrities sell hot dogs on Manhattan sidewalks, you're in for a different sort of Inaugural than America is used to. Tech billionaires staring down the rack of other, richer tech billionaires:

A former President and the outgoing VP's husband both checking out Carrie Underwood's undercarriage:

Plus representatives from the combat sports like Mike Tyson, Conor McGregor, Dana White and Joe Rogan. And not to be outdone, the man who "beat" Tyson in what was more of a Netflix reality show than an actual fight, Logan Paul was there with his brother Jake. 

Sitting in front of them was Theo Von, the comic who made history in his own right by being the first comedian to give a once- and future President a lesson in the pros and cons of cocaine use, as Pat explained:

Despite all the pomp and circumstance, the visiting dignitaries present, the gravitas of the moment, 25 decades of history looking down at the scene in the Capitol Rotunda, you're not going to put a crew like together in one place and have it not turn into a ridiculous clusterfuck where hilarity ensues. That's simply way too many bros to expect no one would bro out. And it was the Paul bros who went all Harry High School, with Von as their unwitting victim:

It might be the most Trump 47-thing of all that this post got Community Noted, since that is one of the most recent and proudest creations of Elon Musk, who was sitting a few feet away. And that Community Note was confirmed by the victim himself:

And speaking personally, I kind of love it. OK, maybe there's a part of me that would prefer it not be the kid in glasses being on the business end of every goofy prank. But in no way do I think this was somehow inappropriate. We've had 60 Inaugurals now, every one them serious, solemn, dreary affairs, dragged down by the grim earnestness of it all. Somber-faced career politicians, judges and generals, all trying to come off as impressive and reverent in this most auspicious moment. 

But that's not us. That's not America. We're mostly unimpressive. Irreverent. Inauspicious. There's not a grown man in that room who, at some point or another, didn't pull that same gag the Paul brothers did. If you tell me you ever had the kid sitting in front of you in class titling his chair back on you desk, and you didn't yank it back so he went crashing to the floor, I'd say you're either lying or you were homeschooled. I can promise you that everyone from the lowliest congressman to ever male justice of the Supreme Court did at least once. Because we're nothing if not a nation of incorrigible assholes. And there's no reason to stop just because one of them is (re)swearing in a President. 

I'm sure Lincoln would've approved if one of those guys he used to wrestle back in Illinois pulled that gag on some telegraph operator at his second Inaugural. If some bare knuckle boxer did it to an early radio technician in 1904, Teddy Roosevelt would've pinned a medal on him. And you can't convince me JFK and RFK didn't torture poor runt of the litter Ted Kennedy with pranks like that all the time. And now that sort of misbehavior has finally reached the place it should've been all along. In the Halls of Power, Washington DC.

Trump has barely been officially back in office 24 hours and he's already given us this much unhinged, chaotic entertainment. We're in for one wild term of office these next four years.