The late Rodney Dangerfield found that his early attempts at comedy "didn't pay the bills," but his later "I don't get no respect" routine is legendary.  Hillary Clinton's early campaign attempts at humor were a flop, but her new and "surprisingly funny" campaign memoir routine is...well, not surprisingly, another flop.

While Hillary's upcoming book tour promo at hillaryclintonmemoir.com says Hillary will "connect with audiences with a story that's personal, raw, detailed and surprisingly funny" (emphasis added), Hillary's comedy theme seems to be that she "don't get no respect, no respect at all," channeling Mr. Dangerfield.

Excerpts from Mrs. Clinton's forthcoming new book, What Happened, accuse Bernie Sanders, for example, of "resorting to 'innuendo and impugning my character.'"  Rodney Dangerfield might have added, "That's the story of my life.  I don't get no respect."

Speaking of Matt Lauer's questioning Hillary's email habits at last fall's "Commander-in-Chief" forum, Hillary says in her book: "Now I was ticked off."  "What a waste of time."  Hillary might have added, "I don't get no respect."

And then: "I can't say I didn't fantasize about shaking some sense [respect?] into Lauer while I was out there."

Or on Donald Trump at the second debate: "No matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces."  No respect at all.

And on one of Hillary's favorite foils, former FBI director James Comey and his October email surprise announcement: "Was this a bad joke?  It had to be.  The FBI wasn't the Federal Bureau of IFs or Innuendos."  More innuendos, but no respect at all.

Hillary's early campaign attempts at humor famously included her leaden reply to a question about wiping the server: "What, like, with a cloth or something?!" 

Or her later comment on disappearing emails: "By the way, you may have seen that I recently launched a Snapchat account. I love it. I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves."

Ms. Clinton reprises that line in a moment of self-reflection in her forthcoming book: "There were plenty of people hoping that I, too, would just disappear."  I just don't get no respect.

The fruitless attempts to show Hillary's humorous side have been a flop since early in her 2016 presidential campaign, when the campaign in all seriousness announced there would "be no more jokes about her private email server," followed by: "They want to show her humor."  Still waiting for that part...

In one sense, Hillary Clinton is yesterday's story, so maybe we should let her sell her book and move on.  As politico.com quotes a Democrat House member, "she's got every right to tell her story."  Other sources quoted at politico.com aren't so sure – one donor says, "I think she should just zip it, but she's not going to," and a campaign alum calls it "the final torture."

The Politico column's heading says it all for the Democrats:

Democrats dread Hillary's book tour

Reliving the 2016 nightmare is the last thing the party needs right now, many say.

Another politico.com column declares that Hillary's "new book relaunches the Democratic civil war of 2016" and quotes from the Clinton campaign memoir that Bernie Sanders "didn't get into the race to make sure a Democrat won the White House, he got in to disrupt the Democratic Party."  Uh-oh – plenty of disrespect to go around there.

Hillary's defenders say otherwise:

For Clinton, it's not about the future of the Democratic Party. She's promoting the book because she doesn't think the story of 2016 has been told properly. People close to her believe there's still no closure from 2016, and that no one has offered a reliable autopsy.

So in another sense, Mrs. Clinton has put herself on the stage again and is dishing it out in her new book to everyone on the political scene, from Sanders and Comey to Putin and Trump to Obama and Biden.  And that's just in the first few excerpts that have been released.

This brings to mind a Dangerfield line: "I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous – everyone hasn't met me yet."

So here we are with Ms. Clinton reprising Rodney Dangerfield's "I don't get no respect" routine.

Consider another of Mr. Dangerfield's lines: "The way my luck is running, if I was a politician, I would be honest."

If "Crooked Hillary" had had been more honest, she might have had more luck.