It’s said that laughter is the best medicine, but at the same time, it’s also said that timing is everything.

Given the still-unfolding catastrophe in Southern California — a catastrophe both for the thousands of people affected by the wildfires and for the political party whose grotesque mismanagement fueled them — it seems unlikely that Senate Democrats were joking last week when they released a brief video in which they vowed to protect “hardworking Americans” from Donald Trump.

After all, it was hardworking Americans who just rejected Senate Democrats and resoundingly reelected the former president.

“How’s my tie?” asks a glib New Jersey rookie Senator Andy Kim, who replaces a fellow Democrat, the woefully corrupt “Gold Bar Bob” Menendez. “Is it okay? Is it on straight?”

It’s a glib beginning to a cringeworthy production — one in which one cheerleading Democrat after another vows to “fight, fight, fight” for you, the American people. But where were these suddenly conscientious Democrats during the past four years? They were running interference for the cognitively addled Joe Biden and helping him enact his ruinous agenda, that’s where.

New Mexico’s Ben Ray Lujan announces — or does he promise? — “We’re different,” and then a cavalcade of his fellow Democrats tells us that while they have “differences” and “disagreements,” they’re “fiercely united” to “fight for working Americans.”

There’s Rhode Island’s Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse vowing to help “working Americans keep more of their hard-earned paychecks.” And there’s Washington’s Maria Cantwell promising to lower the cost of prescription drugs, and Illinois’s Dick Durbin promising to — get this — lower the cost of groceries.

These Democrats, of course, were the ones who narrowly passed Biden’s deceitfully named American Rescue Plan, which ignited the fire of inflation, as well as the Inflation Reduction Act, which actually poured more fuel on that fire.

Interestingly, not a single one of these Democrats mentions the word “inflation,” nor do they mention the words “border security” or “illegal immigration” or “crime.”

We needn’t wonder why.

Oh, they promise to “work with anyone if they want to make life better for you,” but then comes the warning: “If Donald Trump and Senate Republicans do things to hurt you, we will fight.”

When, specifically, will they fight? “If they pursue policies that drive up costs,” says a straight-faced Hawaiian Senator Brian Schatz. Or, says Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, “If they ignore the threat of climate change.” (Remind me again, Ed, where climate change fell on the list of issues that mattered most to Americans this past election cycle.)

Then comes the scaremongering: “If they come after our troops and veterans’ benefits,” says Illinois’s Tammy Duckworth, even though Republicans have never said they’d do anything of the sort. “If they take away access to reproductive rights,” adds Lujan.

And “If they attack our basic freedoms,” says Colorado’s John Hickenlooper — he of the party that routinely fights to trample Americans’ First and Second Amendment rights.

Or, his colleagues vow, “If they come after your paycheck, your Social Security, your Medicare, they will have to come through us.” Again, Trump and his fellow Republicans have vowed to do nothing of the sort. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“NOW they’re going to fight for workers and their families!?!” asks comedian Jimmy Dore. “So you’re all done crushing railroad union strikes and flooding the country with millions of desperate people to suppress wages? And all it took was Americans to elect Trump and a Republican congress? Who Knew?!?”

It’s also interesting that a number of Democrats are noticeably absent from the video — among them several from swing states or soon to stand for reelection: Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman, Georgia’s Jon Ossoff, New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, Arizona’s Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, and Michigan’s Gary Peters.

Perhaps they’re looking toward their electoral futures, or perhaps they can simply read a room better than their colleagues.

In any case, what we have here, just seven days before Donald Trump takes office, is a desperate and tone-deaf attempt by Senate Democrats to remain relevant.

“The 119 Congress has begun,” says Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer at the end, and indeed it has — with a cringeworthy faceplant by him and his fellow Senate Democrats.