In Impromptus today, I have a couple of musical notes — but I don’t have this: the Three Terrors. Have you seen this video? It’s a take-off on the Three Tenors. And instead of Pavarotti, Domingo, and Carreras (poor Carreras, always last), you have Ahmadinejad, Assad, and Erdogan. This is a very funny video, a very funny piece of satire (and not too long — some of these babies are harmed by their interminability). The terrors sing their own words to “Funiculì, Funiculà.”

But, in addition to funny, the video is helpful, potentially: because when you poke fun at brutes, you take them down a little, render them less terrifying. Chaplin did this decades ago, with The Great Dictator. Well, that didn’t help much, did it? Point taken. Satire is no substitute for great and unflinching military opposition: counterterror.

In any case, enjoy A-jad, Assad, and Erdo, as they go through their musical paces. And maybe they’ll favor us with another song, sometime? Words to “Volare”? “O Sole Mio”? The Neapolitan possibilities are almost endless.

P.S. Interesting: I just looked up the date of The Great Dictator. I always thought that Chaplin made that film before the war, as Hitler was rising, his shadow lengthening. But it was actually made after the war had begun: in 1940. Had not yet begun for the Americans, true. Anyway . . .