Are the tides finally turning?
For years now, it’s seemed that criticizing or making fun of Democrats has been off-limits for comedians. I mean, just turn on SNL and watch the difference in how they portray Donald Trump versus Democrats like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. (The show even had Harris on for a free campaign ad the weekend before the election, a decision which resulted in NBC having to give equal time to Trump in the following days).
The only comedian who’s dared to push the limits on making fun of the left has been Dave Chappelle, who’s drawn a lot of criticism for his comments on transgender issues over the past couple of years.
But it seems like things are finally changing.
Comedian Shane Gillis hasn’t necessarily been critical of Democrats, but he’s been able to find a way to talk about Trump that resonates with folks on both sides of the aisle. I mean, no matter who you voted for, you’ve got to admit that his bit on Trump’s press conference announcing the death of a terrorist is pretty damn hilarious:
I will never get tired of watching Shane Gillis do Trump impressions. pic.twitter.com/Qv2ULwTM55
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) October 17, 2024
Then of course in the days before the 2024 presidential election, Tony Hinchcliffe appeared at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden that had the left up in arms after he said the Democrat Party was starting to look like a Diddy party and called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
It seems that the only people who were offended by his comments were white liberals, because Trump improved his numbers with Puerto Ricans over 2020. And it also proved that comedians don’t have to be afraid of being “canceled” for jokes that upset the left.
And on New Year’s Eve, comedian Whitney Cummings appeared on CNN with a roast of 2024 that had liberals up in arms once again after she went after the Democrats, including Kamala Harris and Joe Biden:
“The 2024 election fried our brains. The Democrats couldn’t hold a primary because they were too busy holding a body upright…
It was amazing that the pro-choice party didn’t give their voters one when it came to their candidate. Kamala was forced on us so hard you would think she was patented by Pfizer.”
🚨 LMAO! Comedian Whitney Cummings is absolutely ROASTING Kamala Harris and CNN… while on CNN 🤣🔥
“Kamala was forced on us so hard you’d think she was patented by Pfizer!”
“I’m now playing like 3,000 seat theaters, which is about the viewership of CNN these days.”
She’s… pic.twitter.com/aZvnH6o5AQ
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 1, 2025
Honestly it was the only part of CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage that I even saw being circulated on social media, so apparently it worked. And Cummings recently addressed the “controversy” surrounding her jokes jabbing Democrats on an episode of her Good For You podcast:
“People are like, ‘Whitney got red-pilled.’…
It’s just wild to me that we are in a time where, if you are on the left, and you don’t criticize your party, how much do you even care about your party?
What’s going on on the left, I finally just broke… I just think that if you love your party, you have to be able to criticize it.
I don’t really take sides. I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty liberal person, but I don’t think the left is as liberal as it used to be. It’s like the left became the party of censorship. My body, my choice, but you have to take this vaccine… Pro-choice party but you don’t have a choice on your candidate.
I’m not an expert on politics, which is why I’ve always said I’m not weighing in on it. But I am an expert on hypocrisy…I know hypocrisy when I see it. To me, I didn’t think I was being political. I thought I was just pointing out hypocrisies across the board.”
And she also explained why she didn’t make fun of Trump: Because it’s overdone and expected, especially on a network like CNN.
“That’s hacky to do. Everyone’s done that and to do it on CNN, that’s home court advantage cheap shot. There’s nothing risky or dangerous about that.
It bothers me when comics say stuff that’s self-righteous and they get applause for being fake brave when they’re not doing it in a situation that’s brave at all.”
Cummings also pointed out that she has, in fact, roasted Donald Trump before – to his face, on the Comedy Central roast of Trump back in 2015.
Comedian Whitney Cummings describes how she 'broke' from the left's stringent instructions to not criticize the party or the candidate:
"It's just wild to me that we are in a time where if you are on the left and you don't criticize your party, how much do you even care about… pic.twitter.com/a3pWsfJbqc— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) January 8, 2025
Her comments echo those of fellow comedian Jim Gaffigan, who recently admitted that there was pressure on comedians to not criticize Kamala during the recent election, which he called the wrong approach:
Comedian Jim Gaffigan admits that entertainers and media personalities were instructed to not criticize Kamala Harris:
"What I thought was interesting about this election – Maybe because it was so important, maybe because it was such a short election for Kamala – that people… pic.twitter.com/NmrVe0wb4H— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) January 8, 2025
Maybe things are changing in comedy and we’re going to see more jokes at the expense of both sides of the political aisle. Or maybe comedians are just realizing that conservatives buy tickets to comedy shows too and are working to gain fans from the other side now too.
