“Clown nose on, clown nose off” was inspired by Jon Stewart back when he was the host of “The Daily Show.” Every once in a while, Stewart would take off his clown nose and make some outrageous liberal statement, but if there was pushback, he’d just put the clown nose back on and say, “I’m just a comedian.” He always had that defense in his back pocket and he used it a lot.

Well, the bans on “life-saving” gender-affirming care for trans youth are such an important issue that satire site The Onion has dropped the clown nose and done a straight-up news piece asking politicians who defend these bans to explain themselves. It’s like the piece we just did on Noah Smith questioning why conservatives are “suddenly” opposed to drag shows; Smith doesn’t feel a need to ask why drag performers “suddenly” had to start performing for children. Trans youth are minors, and we have all sorts of restrictions on what minors can do.

And spare us this “live-saving” medical care crap; we’re no longer being held hostage by bogus studies saying kids will kill themselves if they can’t have their healthy breasts lopped off.

Surprise! Clown nose back on! Of course, The Onion didn’t reach out to any of these politicians for comment … they just made s**t up. God forbid they engage in honest debate.

The parody answer from Sen. Joe Kennedy is actually pretty good — we might steal it.