By Nick Marx and Matt Sienkiewicz
Throughout the 2024 election cycle, reproductive rights were an electoral vulnerability for Donald Trump. Though popular with the Republican base, his appointment of antiabortion judges gave serious pause to many key voting blocs, including undecided young men.
In pursuit of these voters, Trump’s strategy wasn’t demagoguery but comedy.
Trump’s October appearance on comedian Andrew Schulz’s podcast, “Flagrant,” demonstrated his approach to the touchy issue.
Schulz playfully invoked Trump’s youngest son, who’s a student at New York University – “Barron is 18. He’s unleashed in New York City. Are you sure you want to reverse Roe vs. Wade now?” After a beat, Trump laughed, Schulz laughed, and then, presumably, thousands of young male listeners joined in.
Trump continued with boilerplate answers about states rights, but this substance – as is so often the case – was divorced from the strategy. Schulz had helped Trump turn an unpopular position into a frat boy punchline, something to be discarded along with last night’s empties. Trump won that media cycle and, ultimately, a majority of the votes of young men on his way to a second White House win.
Vice President Kamala Harris, by contrast, appeared on mainstream comedy shows with aging, liberal audiences like “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Pundits criticized her failure to engage young voters in online comedy platforms. They also urged liberals to develop a new crop of political comedians to match the influence of Schulz and podcaster Joe Rogan.
However, these criticisms of Harris’ strategy miss the failure of liberal comedians to evolve with media and political trends.
While Jimmy Kimmel cries and Jon Stewart rants, the right wing in the U.S. has successfully depicted itself as the new home for free speech and cutting edge comedy. We explored this development in our book, “That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them.”
The right has become a home for comedians not by making political arguments through jokes, but by positing that there are funnier things to do than to argue.
A formula goes stale
Liberal comedy and political satire have stuck to the same formula of Stewart’s “The Daily Show” for much of the 21st century.
It goes something like this: A sarcastic, eloquent host uses meticulously researched data to describe a pressing social issue, and then delivers a punchline directed at right-wing hypocrisy. The resultant pairing of righteous laughter and anger has been repeated by “The Colbert Report,” “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj,” among other comedy programs.
These satirical shows filled the void left by an increasingly profit-driven news media. However, they have come to prioritize political preaching at the expense of laughs.
Perhaps Stewart’s most successful successor – and the best example of liberal satire’s patronizing tone – is HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” Because the show appears on prestige cable, Oliver has a bigger budget to tackle controversial topics in depth.
Indeed, journalists and academics alike have celebrated the “John Oliver effect,” in which viewers mobilize behind a cause shortly after the host devotes an episode to it, whether it’s vaccines or internet regulation.
Oliver’s long-form lectures can be compelling. However, his appeal is not to young undecided voters who can’t afford HBO, but to college-educated liberals predisposed to support progressive reforms.
Twice in a recent election postmortem episode, he reminded viewers of topics his show has covered in depth, like a professor chiding students for not remembering recent lessons. In one segment about Trump’s disingenuous economic message, Oliver pleaded that his show had already “explained inflation for 24 human minutes.”
While Oliver’s exasperation can be amusing, he’s clearly more upset at – even disdainful of – the American electorate, chastising them for failing the final exam of election night.
For liberals to reconnect with young voters – especially young men – we think they have to reinvent political comedy. Doing so will mean moving beyond the haranguing that has long been its primary delivery style. This will be a challenge, however, as the right fortifies the relationship between its own comedians and political power.
Brad Barket/Getty Images for Comedy Central
Rise of the right-wing comedy complex
Trump’s success with comedy is a result of the new relationship between digital media and the business of joking. For decades, liberals were thought to hold a monopoly on comedy. Moreover, there was little money to be made in comedy acts devoted to right-wing politics.
Since 2016, however, a new crop of right-wing comedians has taken to digital platforms and algorithmically driven audience targeting in order to change this reality.
Libertarian podcasters like Rogan have long danced around the political spectrum, finding diverse positions that intrigue his primary target of young male listeners. He routinely platforms right-leaning cultural and comedic voices, features them as guests, and promotes their shows and products. In doing so, he has helped create a de facto right-wing comedy network.
Although each comedian or show in this network doesn’t have the audience and impact of, say, “The Daily Show” in its prime, their aggregate strength is precisely targeted at coveted young consumers and potential voters.
It is no coincidence that the most heralded stops on Trump’s October podcast tour were shows hosted by three regulars on “The Joe Rogan Experience”: Schulz, comedian Theo Von and libertarian scientist Lex Fridman. Trump also appeared on Rogan’s show for a three-hour episode.
Changing styles and platforms
Importantly, the type of political comedy featured on these programs is distinct from that of liberal satire of the past two decades.
“The Daily Show,” “Last Week” and their ilk dazzle viewers in 30-minute episodes using intricate arguments and sardonic punchlines.
Rogan and his affiliates hang out for hours, and audiences can listen as they go about their daily routines. In the process, podcast hosts shape their audience’s taste in culture, technology and recreation in what’s known as parasocial bonding.
Trump’s appearance on Von’s podcast “This Past Weekend,” for example, featured little in the way of biting jokes and rollicking laughter. Instead, Von and Trump held a meandering conversation full of funny, personal anecdotes about drug use interspersed with gestures to political topics.
Comedy styles are cyclical. In the 1950s, stand-up comedian Mort Sahl would read a newspaper on stage, peppering in sarcastic observations about the day’s headlines. The Smothers Brothers played with yo-yos before they introduced protest songs. The apolitical observational humor of Jerry Seinfeld reigned supreme in the 1980s and ’90s.
The 2000s liberal satire of Stewart and Oliver was driven by cable television industry mandates to court young men. The tastes and media habits of this audience have moved on, but liberal comedy has failed to follow them.
Nick Marx is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Colorado State University. Matt Sienkiewicz is Associate Professor of Communication and International Studies at Boston College.
Steve Robinson says
I have one question: Is this a joke? Earlier today I read an execrable column in the NYT in which Bret Stephens referred to Trump as “charismatic.” People who find Trump humorous, engaging, “charismatic,” amusing, or any other like adjective should not be allowed within 100 yards of a laptop keyboard. Trump beat Harris because all of those giggling frat boys would not vote for a smart woman of color. No joke.
Kim Gridley says
Steve, I’m not a giggling frat boy. I’m a senior citizen who voted for McGovern over Nixon in 1972. What you and many of your fellow Democrats fail to realize is that Kamala was just a lousy candidate, who made no attempt to clearly articulate her policies and spoke in platitudes instead of policies. Trump won all of the swing states, the popular vote and the Electoral College. It doesn’t get much clearer than that. Accept the fact that the majority of the country didn’t buy the lawfare he was subjected to and if they did, they still considered him preferable to the personification of further Biden policies.
Deborah Coffey says
LOL. So, why did over 500 American historians and political scientists using 8-12 categories and over 83 criteria rank Joe Biden 14th best president and Donald Trump dead last…TWICE! And, just FYI, 13 of those electoral college votes came from fake electors from 2020. Meantime, of course a rapist (said the judge), a convicted felon, a tax fraud and a world class liar is better than Joe Biden’s policies.
Sherry says
@kim. . . What in the hell are you talking about? “lawfare”. . . is that what Fox is now calling the multiple courts where multiple juries of trump’s peers found him “Criminally and Civilly GUILTY”?!!!! GUILTY of Sexually Abusing a woman and then Defaming his Victim! In a different trial, GUILTY of over 30 counts of Fraud (AKA Criminal Lying). In yet a different trial Criminally GUILTY of Falsifying Business Records.
kim, so you believe that trump is innocent of all the crimes laid out in “Evidence” and “Testimony” in all those different trials? Really? Are you that far removed from reality? Where is your “Evidence” that proves that all those trails were completely wrong? That those documented business records were wrong? That all the people who testified were lying? That all those jurors were completely deceived/ignorant/insane, or just “never trumpers”? So all those trials were just witch hunts against your supreme lord and master ?
kim, is that the “bill of goods” you are peddling? Do you now just how unhinged that sounds? I do hope you get some really excellent psychological counseling immediately.
Skibum says
Never mind that the Republican presidential candidate was the one and ONLY convicted felon in our nation’s history… GOP men and women averted their eyes as if nothing to see here! But oh, Kamala Harris just isn’t giving us enough information about what she plans to do if elected. Never mind that the Republican presidential candidate orchestrated and supported the MAGA mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, resulting in more than 114 injuries to federal law enforcement personnel as the insurrectionists tried to stop the certification of the last presidential election! But, oh that Kamal Harris, she is some kind of left-wing liberal that cannot be trusted. Never mind that that the Republican presidential candidate actually laughed when he heard that the insurrectionist mob at the Capitol had built a gallows with a hangman’s noose, yelling in unison “HANG MIKE PENCE!!!”, and drumph responded to his report by saying “maybe he deserves it”! But, you know, Kamala Harris, nobody knows who she is anyway. Never mind that the Republican presidential candidate was found civilly liable for the sexual assault of a woman in a NY department store dressing room, and exhibiting disgusting, immoral behavior toward other women including making sexually suggestive comments on video about his own daughter’s breasts and legs! But Kamala Harris? Who can vote for a woman who just isn’t going on TV enough and doing interviews? The Republican presidential candidate is a well know fraudster, con man who has been sued and lost multiple lawsuits and forced to pay out millions and millions of dollars to those who he has defrauded over decades, including unassuming students who enrolled in his fake “Trump University” which was nothing other than a scheme to make the supposed “billionaire” more money at the expense of young people trying to get an education! But Kamala Harris just isn’t the type of person (i.e. a woman) who should be in the Oval Office. The Republican presidential candidate infamously stated that he considered himself a celebrity, and could coerce women for sexual favors due to his celebrity, and that he had grabbed women by their sexual organs and they did nothing because, you know, when you’re a celebrity, you can get away with anything! But Kamala Harris, she is disgusting because she makes the most offensive, cackling laugh. The Republican presidential candidate is a well known and documented racist, with decades of history not allowing people of color to be renters in his NY apartments, having called for the execution of the “Central Park 5” who were all exonerated as innocent of the rape charges levied against them, and calling white supremists “very good people”! But Kamala Harris… is she really black? He actually said she used to be Asian, but then she “turned black”. The Republican presidential candidate cheated on his wife and slept with a porn star while his wife was pregnant with their son Baron. But Kamala Harris is a tool of the “Hollywood elite” who cannot be trusted. We could go on and on and on. But you, Kim Gridley and others who averted your eyes and voted for the disgusting, immoral, lying, cheating, fraudster con man, well, he somehow won and will defile our nation’s highest office once again, shaming America in the eyes of not only ever ethical American citizen, but people around the world who after this election just shake their heads in wonderment and shock, asking themselves what in the hell has gotten into Americans, anyway???
Sherry says
A Truly Excellent factual comparison of trump and Kamala Harris, Skibum! You said it much better than I did. Unfortunately the kim ridleys and other brainwashed immoral members of the maga cult are so far removed from any kind of factual reality that our words are likely lost on them. I sincerely hope that is not the case.
Happiest of Holidays, Skibum. . . keep the faith that sanity will return, and keep speaking truth to those lost in the fad and popularity of Fox propaganda filled with lies, fear and hate.
Skibum says
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Sherry. Despite the adversity I expect will come after inauguration day next month, my New Year’s wish is that, after 248 years of working through (and surviving) many ups and downs including a civil war, two world wars, and having both good and bad leaders come and go, our nation and the American people have learned from both history and adversity, and know how to persevere AND prosper… notwithstanding the selfish interests of drumph and his maga cult.
Laurel says
Steve Robinson: Yeah, that Trump’s a stitch. Like suggesting American citizens should maybe shoot bleach to beat Covid 19.
Has anyone seen him laugh, really laugh? No, they haven’t. It was against Fred’s parental policy. Giggling frat boys is about right. What felon, sexual predator isn’t a riot to be around? And, if you are an intellectual, you are a liberal and that’s bad. So, if I understand correctly, being smart is a bad thing.
BillC says
You mean like Trump giving a blow job to the microphone? Why didn’t Joe Biden or Kamala Harris think of that? (rimshot)
Pogo says
@Nick Marx, Associate Professor, blah, blah, blah, and Matt Sienkiewicz, Associate Professor, blah, blah, blah
Please, do go on:
Deborah Coffey says
What total BS! If good citizenship is dependent on comedy then we really do live in a shithole country.
Sherry says
@Deborah. . . Well, under the good guidance of Presidents Obama and Biden the USA was respected worldwide. After the next 4 years under the administration of trump’s gang of corruption and deception the USA just may become one of the Banana Republics he referred to in that manner.
Keep speaking “truth to power” Deborah! Happiest of Holidaze! HOL! HO! HO!
Deborah Coffey says
Thanks, Sherry. Deep breath…and, Happy Holidays to you, too.
Skibum says
Yep, I’m with you, but I’m thinking I might need more than just taking a deep breath. I wonder if I could actually HOLD my breath for the next 4 years!?!?
Laurel says
Skibum: It’s actually Republicans who frequently stated that they held their noses.
I know, it’s jaw dropping.
Here’s Son in law Kushner’s list of jobs to do while in the past Trump Administration:
– Middle East peace
– Government reform/Opioid crisis management
– Criminal justice reform
– Liaison to Mexico
– Liaison to China
– Liaison to the Muslim community,
and more Republican humor.
Well, he and Ivanka did haul ass after receiving $2billion from the Saudis, which no *conservatives* seem to be bothered about.
Now that Trump knows more about everything than anyone, I’m waiting to see just how many of his promises make it this time.
I’m also waiting to see the next movie “Clash of the Titan Egos.”
Where did Vance go?
Skibum says
Yeah, good point… where DID that hillbilly go??? It’s almost like he disappeared and got lost deep in the hills of the Smoky Mountains somewhere, huh? Maybe he is deep in thought, writing his 2nd elegy!
Laurel says
Or he’s writing about Ohio city life, or he’s hiding in “Haitia,” or he’s learning how to order doughnuts, or he’s being groomed by Theil should Trump keel over.
jackson says
“Historians will be looking back, scratching their heads about our great democracy, wondering whether stuff went awry because of the impact of personal wealth, and it is all about his money and his control of certain institutions that are supposed to convey information.” Any doubt about where our defunct Democracy is headed? It is now toast.
Sherry says
@ Jackson. . . my fervent hope is that once trump is burning in hell, perhaps sanity and peace will return to our country. Think of it this way. . . if democracy can survive the “Civil War”, perhaps it can still be saved by people like us. Keep the faith and keep posting facts in the face of the BS from maga maniacs. The truth can set us all free!
Happy Holidays to you and yours, Jackson!