Baseball hats sporting phrases like, “Neocons are gay for Israel” and “AIPAC: an offer you can’t refuse” are sold on a well-known political commentator’s merchandise website. But, to the disappointment of some X users, the shop does not belong to a left-wing commentator — in fact, the merchandise is sold by Tucker Carlson, a conservative best known as a former host of Fox News and a former face of the MAGA movement.
These same merchandise pieces from Carlson’s shop could easily be found in a left-wing space, and showcase a pivot in how the right has been curating their language to attract Gen Z. This type of humor, characterized by “punching down,” “trolling” and subscribing to something called superiority humor, is specifically associated with humor in conservative spaces.
It’s deeply alarming that Gen Z’s humor cannot be distinguished from that of the alt-right, as the popularity of ironic, edgy humor leaves young people easily won over by derogatory ideas. Left-wing X users have already been unable to stop themselves from praising Carlson’s merchandise.
While it’s good that loud conservative voices like Tucker Carlson are criticizing their own party and holding them accountable, that doesn’t make them people that the left should praise. Most of all, it definitely doesn’t make these conservatives our partners-in-crime to laugh along with. Edgy, ironic political jokes like these only work to make harmful language and ideas more palatable, which is why conservatives weaponize humor so much.
Candace Owens is another recent example of a conservative commentator gaining some left-wing praise for straying away from the Republican Party, particularly in her criticism of Turning Point USA, a right-wing political organization founded by Charlie Kirk. Owens released a trailer Feb. 23 for her upcoming investigative docuseries on Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk. In the trailer, Erika Kirk is implied to be a money-laundering widow who was involved in murdering her husband and grooming a fifteen-year-old girl.
The left has been highly critical of Erika Kirk’s actions, including when she stepped out in a sequin jumpsuit for a Turning Point USA tour after her husband’s death. So this documentary, at face value, may seem like a win for the left. But these accusations, while serious, are catering to a very specific conservative audience, coming from a conservative woman.
It may be momentarily funny for the left to laugh at the idea that Erika Kirk, a conservative woman previously married to an openly homophobic man, is a lesbian. But the right has also been criticizing Erika Kirk for being secretly transgender, in a harmful process called “transvestigating.” When coming from similar conservative, alt-right voices, the two statements don’t read very differently at all.
Insulting, belittling and using offensive language towards others isn’t valuable humor when it isn’t said in a safe space. Carlson’s merch belittling conservatives for being “gay” isn’t just an insult towards conservatives; it’s also perpetuating “gay” as a negative characteristic. While this could be, at the very least, an acceptable joke if it were to be performed by a gay person, it’s outright offensive and backsliding into homophobic language when said by Carlson or his team.
In fact, I would argue it’s safe to assume that any person willing to overlook harm done to a marginalized community for the sake of humor is actively contributing to derogatory, alt-right ideas. It’s like when people shrug and call Donald Trump “funny” when asked about their opinion on him — it’s hardly a firm stance of support, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw them in a MAGA hat.
Similarly, there’s been the recent onslaught of jokes about Jeffrey Epstein, with the recent release of the Epstein Files by the Department of Justice, which is equally, if not more, distasteful. It’s another case of normalizing harmful actions and ideas through widespread memes and humor. Especially in a country that continues to dismiss and shame victims, these jokes don’t have a safe space to appropriately belong in, in which case they shouldn’t be made at all.
Humor, while often lighthearted, is what builds connections and relationships between people. It’s why finding conservative podcasters or commentators funny often leads to sharing their negative opinions on immigrants or people in the LGBTQ+ community.
Part of this acceptance of conservative humor in leftist Gen Z spaces comes from our laissez-faire attitude about humor. “It’s not that deep,” is a common online comeback, and Gen Z individuals online like to make jokes out of the war in Iran or the conflict in Gaza, not unlike what can be found on The Official White House TikTok account, only further proving the idea that these jokes directly benefit the right-wing.
The explanation from Gen Z for this humor is that it’s our way of “coping” with the onslaught of negative news over the past few years. It’s an interesting argument, considering most of these TikToks and posts are made from the comfort of a bedroom or dorm room in the United States, not exactly a battlefield.
This isn’t to say that Gen Z isn’t under considerable stress and anxiety, but I don’t see how the solution is making the same jokes as the political voices that are causing the harm in the first place, and laughing along with them.
As compassionate, optimistic people, we want to see laughter transcend political lines. Seeing someone like Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens advocate for something we also believe in can be exciting and hopeful, especially when everything feels so divisive in American politics. But we can acknowledge these feelings without accepting these people as positive figures or people to laugh along with. Because, at the end of the day, we’re not coming from the same place at all.
The best we can do is avoid joking about our political situation when it comes at the cost of others. These situations are serious, and joking about them is almost never appropriate. I’m not saying that we can’t be honest; in fact, I think our current political situation calls for it. But we have to stop playing off our angry, negative opinions as lighthearted jokes that can’t possibly be doing any harm. Especially if the only involvement we have in an issue comes from reading about it in the news.
There are plenty of insults we can use without hurting marginalized communities, and plenty of jokes to make that don’t involve victims of war or child sexual assault. I hope we can start disentangling our humor from that of the alt-right. But at the very least, I’d like for us individually to be more conscious of the things we choose to laugh at — and the voices who are telling the joke.
Nora Harr is a second-year English and computer science combined major. She can be reached at [email protected].
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