With the impeachment inquiry underway in the House of Representatives, House members have the choice of maintaining a deliberate and thoughtful process or succumbing to the temptations of reality TV and social media memes, turning a solemn and serious undertaking into a political circus. Unfortunately, if Wednesday’s opening round was any indication, Republicans have decided to pursue the latter — with gusto.

The risk that an impeachment inquiry into President Trump would invite crass politicization was always going to be high: Look at the players. In a starring role, we have the P.T. Barnum of presidents, a man who somehow escaped his legacy of bankruptcies to become an all-powerful executive on television. His role was to yell “you’re fired” to eliminate contestants on “The Apprentice.” He obviously did a good job memorizing his lines, and has used that phrase regularly in the White House. That same dark, manic energy has infected his most outspoken defenders, including two, Representatives Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan, who participated in Wednesday’s hearing.

Another major figure in this drama, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, can claim to be the only other national leader whose election was even more dependent on artifice. Mr. Zelensky created and starred in a television series called “Servant of the People” in which he played a teacher elected president of Ukraine on an anti-corruption platform. Mr. Zelensky’s message of fighting a culture of government graft hit a nerve with the Ukrainian people, who subsequently elected the actor president, representing a party named after the TV show.

Now these two TV personalities are joined in one program that is being aired in front of the American people. The charge that Mr. Trump attempted to leverage foreign aid to Ukraine to advance his 2020 electoral prospects provides an ironic counterpoint to Mr. Zelensky’s election as a reformer and specifically a fighter against the bribery prevalent in Ukraine under his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko.