Alexandria Petri is a humorist for The Washington Post. This article is one of her best!
Good afternoon, fellow Americans, from the interior of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s brain. I am a parasitic worm. You might be wondering how I got here, or perhaps not! Most people who learned that a piece of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s brain was missing because a worm ate it responded with what I would characterize as “disappointment but not exactly surprise.”
Maybe you heard about me from the New York Times. Or possibly you got the news directly from the Kennedy campaign announcing that the worm that ate part of the candidate’s brain and then died in there would not affect his ability to serve as president. You know what they say: no such thing as bad publicity! Indeed, RFK Jr. has gone so far as to offer to eat five more brain worms. This is not the first time one of his statements have given me pause.
When I first arrived here, I was so excited to discover all the knowledge that the human brain must hold. But when I looked around, all I saw were conspiracy theories and mercury poisoning. Candidly, if you had said, “What do you recommended the holder of this brain do next?” I would not have said, “Run for president.” I would have said, “Get somebody else to do that. This person should go sit down.”
That is why, today, I have an announcement to make. I am eliminating the middle man and running for president myself. Yes, I am the worm that ate part of RFK Jr.’s brain, and I’m asking for your vote. I am the only candidate brave enough to say: I am a parasitic worm, and I don’t understand what is best for the country.
To those who ask, “Why should I vote for you? You are a worm somewhere around one-third of an inch in length with a knob-like attachment at one end called a scolex that sometimes is mistakenly referred to as its head!” I say: That is more medical transparency than you are going to get from any of the other candidates! I bet they have not even disclosed whether they have body cavities. (I don’t! I’m an acoelomate!)
To those who reply, “We don’t actually know that! That’s just what the symptoms are consistent with! We haven’t done a complete examination of the exact type of worm that died in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s brain after eating part of it,” I say: That is fair, and I am worm enough to grant it to you. Thank you, and I hope to receive your vote in November. Please just write in “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s WORM, NOT THE MAN, THE WORM” on your ballot. As long as you are throwing away your vote, throw it away on a worm. That’s also my slogan.
There are many issues on which people are basing their votes in this election. Bodily autonomy. Keeping our democracy a democracy. Do you want to know my stance on the issues? I will tell you: I have no stance! I am a worm who died no later than 2012. I do not possess higher brain functions, although I have attended several, at which I feasted.
And that is exactly the sort of plenty I promise you will enjoy under rule by worm. Just look at life under Leto II, God Emperor of Dune! Jabba the Hutt (an honorary worm) ran Tatooine with very few problems for a very long time until the intervention of a rude woman in a metal bikini.
If there are worms in the brains of the other candidates, I hope they will join me in issuing statements of their own. Perhaps a simple statement covering whether they exist and whether they consider what they may or may not have eaten to be mission critical.
RFK Jr. has justified his candidacy by saying that people are overwhelmingly frustrated with the options presented to them and need a third choice. Well, I see that third choice and raise you a fourth choice: a candidate you can trust not to have any brain worms because that candidate is a brain worm. I am also not currently under indictment for any reason.
So, good people of these United States, I exhort you: Ask not what this parasite can do for you. Ask what you can do for your parasite!

I am the only candidate brave enough to say: I am a parasitic worm, and I don’t understand what is best for the country.
Finally!!! Someone with the courage to speak the truth. Don the Con, aka Glorious Leader, aka The Idiot, is, of course, also a parasitic worm and only thinks about what is good for himself, as parasites do. But will he admit it? Of course not.
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aka Jabba the Trump
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LOL!
I think Don the Con is Jaba’s twin brother. The only way we can tell them apart, one has orange tinted skin, and the other one doesn’t.
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I think you are exactly right, though Trump may be an even lower lifeform.
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While we are on this topic of worms:
Where Did Frank Herbert Get the Idea for the Spice Worms of Dune? | Bob Shepherd | Bob Shepherd | Praxis (wordpress.com)
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that is a very harsh satire from Baruch. Kings eat worm excrement from the gods. Pretty funny.
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Fascinating, huh?
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I’m a big fan of the Dune books, and I know how obsessed Herbert was with obscure ancient religion, so I was extremely pleased to have discovered this. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence. This is where Herbert got his idea.
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Is this passage from Baruch not very early for satire as a written genre?
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It’s not satire.
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Most of what I can find suggests greek origins, expanded by the Romans, but some of the Chinese literature I used to teach seemed somewhat satirical.
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I highly recommend this book, which treats, among other topics, the emergence of ironic modes of writing and speech in the West:
Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature – Fiftieth-Anniversary Edition: Erich Auerbach, Willard R. Trask, Edward W. Said: 9780691113364: Amazon.com: Books
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the worm has turned. Turned into a presidential candidate. What a scream.
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You mean that the brain worm didn’t die of starvation in there?
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It certainly must have had slim pickings.
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