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Comedian Jim Gaffigan revealed in an interview why he’s mostly steering clear of politics in his stand-up material these days.
Gaffigan told Variety that comedy fans don’t attend stand-up shows to hear lectures — they go to escape the real world and simply laugh at silly jokes.
When the interviewer mentioned the recent crossover between comedy and politics, Gaffigan responded, “People are coming to a show to have a break from some of this drama. That’s not to say there aren’t great comedians who talk about social commentary — the spirit of George Carlin is very important,” and recalled his political jokes following President Donald Trump’s first election victory in 2016 not landing how he’d imagined.
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“I remember when Trump was first elected, and my opening act had some political jokes. During 2016 and 2017, the audience would kind of look at the ceiling. The jokes were well-constructed, and they weren’t on one side or the other, but it was just too much,” he continued. “There are great comedians who participate in that conversation, but people are already getting 24-hour news, and everything is clipped and [proliferated] everywhere. Not only is the material not evergreen — it’s so topical that it lasts half a day. People are looking for a break from that.”
The comedian added that audiences aren’t ignoring serious issues — they just want a brief escape. “At least I can go see Jim Gaffigan and hear him complain about being a parent,” he said. “That’s not to say people don’t care about someone being tackled in the streets; it just means maybe they want a break from that.”
Earlier in the interview, Gaffigan touched on the backlash he received after performing at the Al Smith Dinner — an annual white-tie fundraising event for Catholic charities, famous for its comedy-laced speeches — and not going after Trump with everything he had.
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“My best friend from childhood was furious that I did the Al Smith Dinner. He said, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t destroy Trump.’ And I’m like, ‘I know it’s not going to change anything.’ And the task was to attack both sides — in a setting where you’re surrounded by billionaires,” he recalled.
The comedian also mentioned his impression of Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) last year, and why he felt that was different from bringing up politics in a stand-up routine.
“The Tim Walz thing, I was within the environment of “SNL,” and there’s a cultural interpretation of every sketch. I intellectually know this: No one is going to listen to me,” he explained. “At the same time, I want to be able to look my children in the eyes and say I didn’t allow some horrible thing to happen. I also feel comfortable that people know my views. But I don’t know if me being an advocate helps — like with the Mamdani thing, that ended up being very divisive.”
He added that when he saw fellow comedian Stavros Halkias publicly supporting Zohran Mamdani, he thought to himself, “‘I don’t know if that’s helping him.’ Maybe I’m being naive.”
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This isn’t the first time in recent memory that Gaffigan has shared his thoughts on the intersection of politics and comedy — and why he chooses to stay out of it.
Shortly after his SNL appearance impersonating Walz, Gaffigan discussed his negative feelings surrounding his previous anti-Trump social media posts in an interview with The Daily Beast in January. He noted that he regretted that supporters of Trump took his 2020 criticisms of the president personally.
“I regret that people think that I was criticizing people that support Trump. And that was never the intention. I regret— someone said like, now I can’t follow you anymore and I kind of said ‘F you’ to them,” the comedian stated.
Gaffigan attacked Trump in a series of tweets back in 2020, when X was still Twitter and Trump was running for re-election. In one, he wrote, “Look Trumpers I get it. As a kid I was a cubs fan and I know you stick by your team no matter what but he’s a traitor and a con man who doesn’t care about you. Deep down you know it. I’m sure you enjoy pissing people off but you know Trump is a liar and a criminal.”
Four years later, Gaffigan told the outlet his regrets about how the posts were taken by some people, but insisted he doesn’t regret posting them.
“But it’s weird because I think authenticity is really an important thing, not only as a comedian, but also with your children,” he said, adding, “For me, I don’t regret it, but I also do acknowledge that there are true die-hard Trump fans who probably enjoyed my comedy, but because they feel so passionately will never forgive me.”
Fox News’ Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
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