How liberals lost the comedy – and helped Trump win

Throughout the 2024 election cycle, reproductive rights have been an electoral weakness for Donald Trump. Although he was popular with the Republican base, his appointment of anti-abortion activists appealed to many key constituencies. including undecided young men.

In pursuing these voters, Trump's strategy was not demagoguery but comedy.

Trump's appearance in October In comedian Andrew Schulz’s “Flagrant” podcast, he demonstrated his approach to the sensitive topic.

Schulz playfully referred to Trump's youngest son, who’s studying at New York University: “Barron is 18. He's unleashed in New York City. Are you sure you want to overturn Roe vs. Wade now?” After a pause, Trump, Schulz laughed, after which probably hundreds of young male listeners joined in.

Trump continued with canned answers about states' rights, but that content was, as is usually the case, divorced from strategy. Schulz had helped Trump turn an unpopular position right into a frat boy punch line to be thrown away with last night's empties. Trump won this media cycle and ultimately nearly all of the vote young man on his option to a second victory within the White House.

In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on mainstream comedy shows aging, liberal audience like “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Experts criticized them Failure to draw young voters to online comedy platforms. They also called on the Liberals to do the identical developing a brand new generation of political comedians to do justice to the influence of Schulz and podcaster Joe Rogan.

However, this criticism of Harris' strategy overlooks the failure of liberal comedians to evolve with media and political trends.

While Jimmy Kimmel cries And Jon Stewart complainsThe right wing within the USA has successfully presented itself as a brand new home free of charge expression and cutting-edge comedy. We examined this development in our book: “This Isn't Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Itself.”

The right has develop into a house for comedians, not because they make political arguments through jokes, but because they posit that there are funnier things than arguing.

A formula becomes obsolete

Liberal comedy and political satire have followed the formula of Stewart's “The Daily Show” for much of the twenty first century.

It goes something like this: A sarcastic, eloquent presenter uses meticulously researched data to explain a pressing social problem after which delivers a punch line that targets right-wing hypocrisy. The resulting combination of righteous laughter and anger has been repeated on “The Colbert Report,” “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” and “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj,” amongst others.

These satirical shows filled the void left by an increasingly profit-driven news media. However, they’ve moved on to prioritizing political sermons on the expense of laughter.

Maybe Stewart's most successful successor – and the most effective example of the condescending tone of liberal satire – is HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” Because the show airs on prestige cable television, Oliver has a bigger budget to delve deeper into controversial topics.

In fact, Journalists and academics They all celebrated the “John Oliver effect,” during which viewers mobilize around a cause shortly after the host dedicates an episode to it, be it vaccines or web regulation.

Oliver's long lectures might be charming. But his appeal will not be to young, undecided voters who can't afford HBO, but to liberal college graduates inclined to support progressive reforms.

Twice recently Election postmortem episodeHe reminded viewers of topics covered intimately on his show, reminiscent of a professor reprimanding students for not remembering their last class. In a segment about Trump's disingenuous economic message, Oliver argued that his show had already “explained inflation for 24 human minutes.”

While Oliver's exasperation might be amusing, he’s clearly more annoyed with – and even despises – American voters, reprimanding them for failing the ultimate exam on election night.

For liberals to reconnect with young voters — especially young men — we predict they should reinvent political comedy. This means going beyond talking, which has long been his primary delivery style. But this can be a challenge as the correct strengthens the connection between its own comedians and political power.

Rise of the right-wing comedy complex

Trump's success with comedy is a results of the brand new relationship between digital media and the joke business. For many years It was assumed that the liberals had a monopoly on comedy. In addition, there was little money to be produced from comedy performances that were dedicated to right-wing politics.

Since 2016, nevertheless, a brand new group of right-wing comedians have used digital platforms and algorithmically driven targeting to vary this reality.

Libertarian podcasters like Rogan have long danced across the political spectrum, finding different positions that intrigue his primary goal of young male listeners. He often showcases right-wing cultural and comedic voices, introducing them as guests and promoting their shows and products. In doing so, he helped to construct a de facto right-wing comedy network.

While not every comedian or show on this network has the audience and impact that, say, “The Daily Show” had in its heyday, their overall strength is squarely targeted at desirable young consumers and potential voters.

It's no coincidence that essentially the most acclaimed stops on Trump's podcast tour in October 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 3 hour episode.

Changing styles and platforms

Importantly, the sort of political comedy presented in these shows differs from the liberal satire of the last twenty years.

“The Daily Show,” “Last Week” and their ilk amaze viewers with complicated arguments and sardonic punchlines in 30-minute episodes.

Rogan and his partners hang around for hours, and the audience can listen as they go about their every day routines. Podcast moderators shape their audience's tastes in culture, technology and leisure time what’s often called parasocial attachment.

Trump's appearance on Von's podcast “This Past Weekend,” for instance, contained few snappy jokes and boisterous laughter. Instead, Von and Trump had an in depth conversation funny, personal anecdotes about drug use interspersed with gestures on political topics.

Comedy styles are cyclical. Stand-up comedian within the Nineteen Fifties Mort Sahl was reading a newspaper on stagepeppered with sarcastic remarks in regards to the day's headlines. The Smothers Brothers played with yo-yos before introducing protest songs. The non-political observational humor from Jerry Seinfeld reigned supreme within the Eighties and Nineties.

Stewart and Oliver's 2000s liberal satire was pushed forward The cable television industry mandates courting young men. This audience's tastes and media habits have evolved, but liberal comedy hasn't been capable of follow them.