That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them

Boston College communications professor Sienkiewicz and Marx, a film and media studies professor at Colorado State University, examine the “growing influence of conservative comedians” in this provocative study. Debunking the idea that right-wing comedy is an oxymoron, the authors lump together neo-Nazi provocateurs, late-night talk show host Greg Gutfeld, “paleocomedians” like Tim Allen, and podcast host Joe Rogan, whose “messy libertarianism” has won his show 11 million YouTube subscribers. Discussing the “complex series of algorithms, recommendations, and appearances” that link these and other comedians, the authors note that “in a few clicks, one can move from Gutfeld on Fox News laughing at a story about immigrants... to a song parody on YouTube of Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’ featuring the line ‘Today is gonna be the day/ that we’re gonna fucking gas the Jews.’ ” Elsewhere, Sienkiewicz and Marx analyze the “art of trolling”; take note of the “middle-class domestic settings, deference to white patriarchal authority, [and] subservient women characters” of many network sitcoms; and persuasively argue that liberals must contend with the “aesthetic appeal” and “economic success” of right-wing comedy. Though the not-insignificant differences between these styles of comedy get somewhat obscured, Sienkiewicz and Marx succeed in raising the alarm. Progressives will want to take notice. (May)