Opinion: Michael Ian Black: What I Found Out About Trump Supporters by Making Them Laugh

I upset a trio of women at one of my stand-up shows the other weekend. The women took offense when I was making jokes about the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight before moving on to Trump’s electoral win by saying, “Speaking of rapists.”

They walked out.

Generally, I’m not a particularly political comedian. My jokes tend to be about my family or stories of my own idiocy. But I’m also somebody who enjoys pushing a few buttons during my shows. When discussing an “empty nester” move for my wife and myself, for example, I talk about having the freedom to move anywhere in the world, but choosing to remain in the United States “because the gun laws keep us safe.” It’s a fairly mild joke but it tends to upset exactly the sort of people I don’t mind upsetting. Because I’m a petty b---h.

Getting out on the road gives comedians a different perspective on America than most people are likely to receive. Just since the election, I’ve been to Houston, Grand Rapids, MI, and Beverly, MA. This weekend I go to Pittsburgh, followed by a stop in Louisville, KY to close out the year. I don’t go to “blue” areas or “red” areas. Like a woman of the night, I will visit with whomever offers the most money.

Obviously, one shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from a self-selecting audience. Most of the people at my shows know who I am when the buy tickets, so it’s probably safe to assume they have a sense of my politics. They know, as I sometimes joke, that I’m so liberal I use the women’s restroom out of solidarity. So perhaps it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that the general mood at my shows tends to be on the pessimistic side of things, but at the same time, many of the Trump supporters at my shows don’t appear inclined to see much hope, either.

Last weekend I was in Grand Rapids. At the Saturday late show, I spent some time talking to a young, male, Black Trump supporter. When I asked him why he supports Trump, he didn’t have much of an answer. Changing tactics, I asked what he didn’t like about Kamala. “Everything,” he said. Like what? He didn’t know. What does he want to see changed in the new Trump administration? “Everything,” he repeated.

Fair enough.

At another show, I got into a friendly exchange with a big ol’ fluffy Trump supporter who looked exactly how you would imagine a Trump supporter would look. The guy had a great sense of humor about his support for the once-and-future felon, explaining that he liked “everything” about the previous Trump administration.

I wanted to ask if he was including the million dead Americans but I thought such a line of inquiry might kill the vibe of the room just as assuredly as Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the severity of the pandemic likely killed hundreds of thousands more than would have died otherwise.

The sense I get from these interactions, and others like them, isn’t so much that people are in love with Trump the person or even Trump the politician. What they like is Trump the concept: Trump as Vishnu, destroyer of worlds.

They can’t identify the nature of the change they want to see, only that they know something has to give. Rather than trust the system to self-correct, they’ve decided to cast their lot with a cabal of miscreants who promise to remake the nation into something more… what?

Surely they don’t envision greater equity. After all, Trump explicitly campaigned against the E in DEI. (He also campaigned against the D and the I in the DEI, but I digress.) Do they think housing costs will sink? Unlikely, if Canadian lumber is hit, as Trump has promised, with massive tariffs. A better education for their children? Again, unlikely, as Trump seeks to dismantle the Department of Education and redistribute public school money to voucher programs which have proven ineffective in improving educational outcomes. The war in Ukraine which he promised to end before he even took office? That war continues.

So, what is the change they seek?

Ironically, I suspect the answer can be found in the work of a socialist. Joseph Schumpeter was an Austrian economist who posited that capitalism’s “very success undermines the social conditions which protect, and ‘inevitably’ creates conditions in which it will not be able to live and which point to socialism as the heir apparent.” In other words, Trump’s appeal is that he promises to hasten what Schumpeter christened “creative destruction.”

Personally, I have no allegiance to the status quo. We do need change, of that there is no doubt. Change in our political, financial system, and educational systems, among many others. The other day, Bernie Sanders, of all people, went to bat for Elon Musk writing that “Elon is right” about the absurd amounts of money that go missing at the Pentagon every year. “Last year,” Sanders continued, “only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change.”

When Bernie and Elon are on the same page, it’s indicative that something has to change. We all sense it. Like her citizenry, America itself is big, bloated, and sick.

Who better then to fix the problems of capitalist excess than somebody who has done everything in his power to exploit it? “I’ve been greedy my whole life,” Trump once said, “But now I want to be greedy for the United States.” The sentiment had a certain perverse logic to it, suggestive of a former bank robber who now wishes to put his evil powers to work for good. The only problem? During his first term, he did the opposite, enriching himself while doing almost nothing to improve the rest of our lots. And now, we’ve elected him again.

The comedian in me has to laugh.

After all, what’s funnier than one of the nation’s most singular capitalist pigs fulfilling Schumpeter’s prophecy? Yes, he will almost certainly bring change. On other hand, the Trump supporters in my audience never seem to be able to articulate a vision for what they hope America will become. Perhaps that’s why the slogan “Make America great again” resonates so strongly with them. It places no burden of imagination on those who would seek to restore distant glory. “Greatness” is whatever you want it to be, baby.

On the other hand, those in Trump’s orbit suffer no failure of imagination when remaking America in the image of their choosing. Trump promises to tear it all down, but I suspect his supporters have chosen to ignore the abundant evidence of what he will choose to replace it.

One need not look further afield than Moscow to find the model he seeks to implement. Illiberal, oligarchic, hyper-nationalistic. There was no comedian better at illuminating American lunacy than George Carlin. He understood the system better than most others and he understood that American optimism can be exploited as easily as American fear. One just needs to understand who is doing the exploitation to figure out how it is they’re picking your pocket.

“It’s a big club,” Carlin once said, “And you ain’t it… That’s what the owners count on; the fact that Americans will probably remain ignorant of the red, white, and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes every day.”

Enjoy your red, white, and blue dick everybody. See you on the road.