Did stand-up comedians help Donald Trump get re-elected?
As outgoing President Joe Biden says, this is no joke.
Trump has appeared in countless late-night monologues and “Saturday Night Live” skits for the better part of a decade, as much of Hollywood has followed the ups and downs of his political career with disgust and derision. has become the main character.
But in the weeks leading up to Election Day, he sat in on an interview with a podcasting comedian. Comedians occupy an increasingly popular space where political discussion is mediated by roast-style insults, right-leaning conspiracy theories, and mockery of the left.
“They're entertainers, influencers, pundits, and, as I've argued, propagandists all at the same time. They have a huge and loyal fan base.” says journalist Seth Simons, who writes a newsletter about the dark side of the industry.
The Trump era has coincided with the rise of hour-long Netflix specials and comedy podcasts. The world of stand-up is as diverse as the country itself, but some of the most high-profile acts are breaking the left.
Dave Chappelle has repeatedly caused controversy by mocking transgender activists. Bill Barr, most recently, deliciously taunted feminists in his post-election SNL monologue (“Okay, guys, you're 0-2 against this guy''). Even Michelle Wolf, who famously lambasted Trump at the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner, called it “the worst thing I've ever seen” in a special critique of #MeToo in 2022. movement,” which is an even more extreme expression.
Although none of these comics publicly supported Trump, they nonetheless took aim at the bogeymen of the Trump campaign, the so-called woke left.
Trump received a warm welcome, but not everyone was amused.
That appears to have brought Mr. Trump, himself a veteran television entertainer, into the studio of Joe Rogan, the nation's most listened to podcaster, and other comedians.
He discussed addiction and the opioid crisis with Theo Fung, who told the past and future president, “Cocaine makes you a bad owl, buddy.” In another podcast, Andrew Schultz and Akaash Singh laughed as President Trump looked up nicknames for political opponents like “Comrade Kamala” Harris and recounted his near-assassination.
Politicians have long sought to appeal to voters on alternative platforms. Former President Barack Obama slowly broke the news with Jimmy Fallon, who tousled President Trump's hair in 2016. Both Obama and Hillary Clinton appeared on Zach Galifianakis' web series “Between Two Ferns.” Harris appeared on “SNL” a few days before the election, sitting with more avid podcasters, but without much success.
For Trump, the podcast is part of a larger effort to reach young male voters, a strategy he says was suggested by his son Barron, 18. More than half of male voters ages 18 to 44 backed Trump and 45% backed Harris, but Biden won in 2020, according to AP VoteCast, which surveyed more than 120,000 voters. We captured this demographic.
Politicians' late-night appearances are often carefully scripted, but Rogan conducted a three-hour interview with President Trump that ranged from false claims about the 2020 election to UFOs and John F. This ranged from speculation regarding Kennedy's assassination. Logan supported Bernie Sanders in 2020 and then supported Trump this term.
Trump's interviewers are not political comedians. They're more likely to chat about internet curiosities, mixed martial arts, and weightlifting. Their views appear to be primarily rooted in suspicion of the establishment, dedication to free speech, and openness to alternative (and often unsubstantiated) theories about things like vaccines and immigration.
That may have led them to see Mr. Trump as a kindred spirit.
“Rebels are now Republicans. They want to be rebels, they want to be punk rockers, they want to rebel against the establishment, they're conservatives now,” Logan said in an interview.
Simmons says Rogan and his followers have, consciously or not, shifted what is acceptable in comedy to the right.
“The relationship people have with cartoonists who tell racist jokes or sexist jokes is that they don't really mean what they're saying, they're just funny.” Simmons said.
Marc Maron, whose podcast WTF helped spawn the genre, criticized his fellow comics in a blog post following Rogan's interview.
“The anti-woke wing of the new fascism is driven almost exclusively by comics,” Maron wrote. “It's fascism when a podcast comedian puts shameless self-proclaimed white supremacists and fascists on his show and makes jokes about them as if they're just entertainers or politicians. It just humanizes it and normalizes it.”
Fragmented media environment
It wasn't always like this.
Johnny Carson, the king of late-night television for 30 years before retiring in 1992, eschewed political controversy to cultivate a mass audience. This was also a time when most Americans got their news from the “big three” television networks.
Fast forward to today, and left-wing comedy show hosts on many channels air debates every night, interspersed with news clips. To critics, comedians like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and John Oliver are indistinguishable from MSNBC commentators.
Comedian Wayne Federman, author of A History of Stand-Up, said such hosts attract only a fraction of Carson's audience, leaving them with no financial incentive to appeal broadly.
“It opened up a niche market in the podcast space because most late-night hosts seemed to openly align themselves[with the Democratic National Committee]. Enter Joe Rogan,” he said. Said.
The show, which saw Rogan sign an estimated $250 million deal with Spotify, has become a launching pad for up-and-coming comics.
“For a lot of comedians right now, it's a smart career move to follow in Joe Rogan's footsteps and try to get into his world and emulate him,” Simmons said. “I think that’s part of the reason why we have a lot of Andrew Schultz and Theo Vons.”
A presidential candidate or an insult comic?
Beyond his podcast appearances, Trump may have benefited from the rise of stand-up in more subtle ways.
President Trump's extemporaneous speaking style, or what he called his “weaving,” has generated a lot of buzz. The hour-long speech is a mix of stories, digressions, movie references and obscene topics.
Although it was an unconventional political speech, it had many of the hallmarks of stand-up: deliberate provocation, trademark punchlines, and a callback that ultimately brings it all together.
“Some of the things he says seem so off-center that people take them as jokes,” said Shilpa Dave, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia. “The comedy he does comes across as acceptable, not threatening.”
This also caused problems for journalists covering his speeches. When he said he would be a dictator for a day, when he blamed “enemies within” and when he promised to round up and deport millions of unauthorized immigrants in the United States; Was he lying? Are they announcing policy or joking?
“You can first criticize the actions of journalists by calling everything they say 'fake news.' Second, you can criticize what they expose by saying you don't understand it at all. It’s a defense of up comedy,” said Robert Thompson. Professor of Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
There were times when the joke didn't get through, but it wasn't his joke. Trump faced outrage after Tony Hinchcliffe, another comedian with a Roast-style podcast, referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash” and made racist jokes at a rally. The campaign distanced itself from Hinchcliffe after a number of Puerto Rican celebrities endorsed Harris and commentators feared she would alienate Latino voters.
Comedian Zach Bornstein posted on X: “Imagine doing a heavy bombing to save America from fascism.”
But just a week later, it was Trump who brought the house down.
