Six different comedians, six different answers.
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Soon after, it became pretty clearthat that definitely was not the case.
But looking back now, in 2021, it seems like the answer was not always that simple.
it’s possible for you to read excerpts from the conversations or listen to the full episode below.
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Sarah Cooper:Was Trump good for comedy?
Yes and no, and no and yes.
I would not be here without Trump.
So, if you like me, you would say, yes, he was good for comedy.
If you hate me, youd say no.
It didnt even match the level of crazy that we were dealing with.
I think my videos revealed something that other impressions didnt.
Mimicry tells you what you already know.
My videos told you something else.
That something else was just: A woman like me speaking like this is so bizarre.
Another part of it was just news.
So, it was a way to hear what he said.
Political comedy can help us commiserate with each other on what were all going through.
It can be this incredible connective experience, especially in a pandemic.
With Trump, its just constant gaslighting.
To be able to look at something and realize,Oh my God, Im not crazy.
We all see this, and our shared reality has not been completely obliterated.
I dont like [that my success is linked to Trump].
Im not that happy about it, so much so that I cant talk about it.
If this is how it happened, this is how it happened.
If the words Donald J. Trump have to be in there, then so be it.
So I cant knock it.
Jenny Hagel:Trump wasnt good from the experience of making comedy.
So much is based on exaggeration as a comedic unit, especially when youre writing about the news.
Plus, some of the things he did were so horrifying I didnt know the comedic way into it.
I guess it was, but thats not the right question to be asking.
Late-night comedy will be better without him.
Then when you say a serious thing that has no punch line, you spend a couple.
Roy Wood Jr.:I think the broad answer is yes, Trump was good for comedy.
My comedy flavor preference is comedy of opinion, comedy of perspective.
You didnt have to, but if you wanted to, you could.
So youre going to get some jokes with a little bit of spice.
I left him alone after 2017.
We shot my first special,Father Figure,a month before Trump was elected.
So inherently, I had to leave him out for the sake of not knowing.
My approach I kind of stole from Trevor Noah.
Anything Trump, about Trump, addressing Trump, analyzing Trump thats Trevor.
That, to me, represented far more fertile ground for new topics.
If you had to watch three specials, Id say Chris RocksTamborine,Michael Che Matters, andNanette.
With all three, theyre processing the outside world through inner self-exploration.
How do you see the world and how do you see yourself?
Youve had a lot of time to sit and really think about yourself.
Or, Oh, hes funnier than you might even imagine.
And honestly, sometimes Ive watched his stuff and Ive been like,He is funny.Sorry.
I can see why people would say that thats bad and destructive for comedy.
You cant say it exists outside of Trump and his presidency, because thats the context were in.
Theres no outside; theres no Not my president.
But the comedy that we roll out made ourselves laugh, made ourselves feel good during this time.
Weve seen so much craziness happen that anything is possible.
Nothing is real, so it’s possible for you to do anything.
We can find audiences that will relate to what were thinking.
They are there, however big, however small.
Im excited to see where my friends careers go and where my career goes.
Its not like Trump just happened and everything got bad.
In that, its a double-edged sword.
Its revealed all these things about us that played out in the comedy.
or it was anger where the humor disappeared.
It inspired a lot of misfires.
And then he won.
Thats partly because I always saw Trump as such a bargain-basement impression to begin with.
Everybody fucking does a Trump.
Its like doing Shatner and Elvis.
Its not some great accomplishment to do it.
Everybody fucking has a Trump.
And so my thing was like, Its my take.
My thing was sort of threefold.
I dont want to get stuck fucking doing him for the rest of my life.
But then Ive worked through them, so its easier to not do them now.
And then the third one is that it runs out of steam.
I like that character.
I like my Trump, which I dont think is Donald Trump.
Its so funny when people go, Oh, its so accurate.
Because Im like, Its not about accuracy to me.
It was about an impression.
It was about my artistic interpretation of this pig.
That was what I saw.
Would I do his voice, like on a podcast from time to time?
Its gross and stupid, and its not satire.
What I would love to see is media companies actually expanding the playing field and not being afraid.
As you might see, Im not concerned about working anymore.
And this stuff, even for a place thats considered very blue, is locally hard to do.
And they both crushed; they did extremely well.
I just pointed to that and I was like,This is good.
This is what the next four years are going to be for me.
Between jobs, I started working with the homeless-services nonprofit called SELAH.
This will be so fun.
So I quit my job to volunteer for the campaign, and she won.
Was Trump good for comedy?
I would honestly say the effect was pretty neutral.
I think it doesnt really matter who is president.
I cant imagine what would be different now that Joe Biden is in office.
I hope it isnt really.
But I think its turned out okay for all of them.
My hope is that, from a comedy perspective, it just doesnt change that much.
