CNN's Don Lemon spent more than two minutes of presumably valuable broadcast time putting on a theater-worthy performance as he vented his incredulity at a meme featuring President Donald Trump while offering numerous dramatic pauses, an impressive variety of triggered faces, and plenty of righteous indignation.

You probably can guess by the following look how he was feeling just prior to beginning "Don's Take":

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Lemon began his segment noting that "in addition to all the lies and all the blustering" at Trump's rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, "Trump's War Room posted a meme on Twitter today showing Trump as the super-villain Thanos from the Marvel 'Avengers' movies dispatching his Democratic enemies."



Image source: YouTube screenshot

The tweet's text said, "House Democrats can push their sham impeachment all they want. President Trump's re-election is inevitable."

The clip in the tweet shows Trump-Thanos snapping a finger and then erasing House Democrats as Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces articles of impeachment against the president.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Lemon's drama tells the story

After Lemon showed the clip, he was visibly triggered — but not before a nearly five-second theatrical pause accompanied by an oh-so-condescending countenance:

Image source: YouTube screenshot

"What are we, in junior high school?" he asked. "Like, what the hell? What is this?"

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Lemon offered another five-second pause, presumably prepping himself to take his triggering to the next level.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Then, it's on.

"Like, what? What?" he inquired.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Having paused twice already, Lemon apparently figured a third — and even longer — period of dead air was the charm as he stared at his viewers.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Then he sighed, shook his head in tsk-tsk-tsk fashion, and lamented, "I cannot believe that I'm even having to report this on the news" as he gazed into the distance.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Oh, spoke too soon. There was more pausing. Another five seconds worth before Lemon's psychoanalysis.

"This is — this is crazy," he continued, accenting his words. "This is literally crazy. Are you people insane?"

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Another pause. Four seconds this time. Must mean it's important.



"Are you insane?" Lemon reiterated. "Go ahead, troll the Democrats on Twitter. Do this stupid, silly you-know-what. Play this stupid, juvenile meme game."

Oh, but he was far from done. A chastising lecture was about to begin.

"History won't record this meme stupid crap," Lemon said, now in full principal's-office-scolding mode.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

"But history will record this: The seriousness of what is happening, that today is the day that the House of Representatives in the United States of America introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States of America, for committing high crimes and misdemeanors," he concluded.



Here's the clip: