Jim Gaffigan's Anti-Trump Posts Might Convince at Least One Guy

Jim Gaffigan—a top-billing comedian often known for his down-the-middle material—reached a boiling point while watching the Republican National Convention. He coped with his rage in a way many of us do: through a series of passionate, expletive-garnished, unthreaded stream-of-consciousness posts on Twitter. Gaffigan took aim at the current Republican party, Trump, Fox News, and former New York Jet Lou Holtz. When a writer for a conservative Canadian website sneered at Gaffigan's Tweets, the typically clean comedian began his response with a refreshing "Hey fuck you Chad."

Gaffigan entered a powerposting phase on August 27 and then returned several days later to share a Facebook post titled "What I've Learned Since I Lost My Mind." It's a loop that people—celebrities or otherwise—have gone through, though likely several years earlier.

In his Facebook post, Gaffigan explained that he felt he "had no choice at this point." He acknowledged that many loyal Trump supporters will ignore his message, but said he's trying to reach "a different group."  "Having grown up in a small town in the Midwest and having traveled around the country for [the] last 20 years I know there are people that really don’t like Trump but they do like what Trump is selling. Like many of these people I do feel the 'flyover states' are condescended to by the coastal folks." There is an accompanying photo of a threat from a commenter that Gaffigan will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life, one that he said is many threats he's received over the weekend.

Gaffigan's gesture is somewhere between Dave Chappelle making a free and substantial Netflix special in honor of George Floyd, and Nextdoor posting "Black Lives Matter." But when you consider Gaffigan and his audience, his effort to provide a counter to a steady diet of lies and misinformation that some of his fans are ingesting is a noble gesture, though it might be a thimble of water on a forest fire.

Gaffigan has made Trump jokes in the past, as well as Obama jokes. Still, he is "perceived as apolitical." He notes that's been partially intentional, as "I knew me talking politics wasn’t changing any minds and was only alienating half of the audience."

Gaffigan is best-known for his jokes about his family of five children and his wife, Catholicism, and of course, food. For these reasons, it's entertaining to picture Trump-supporting Gaffigan fans—and surely there are at least hundreds of thousands—seeing a rogue acidic opinion on their timelines to chase the sweaty boot-licking and salivation over racist dog whistling and half-digested conspiracy theories.

Gaffigan appeared to be aware of the possible futility and staleness of his message on his August 31 appearance on The Ted Alexandro Show, a YouTube show hosted by friend and fellow comedian Ted Alexandro.

Wearing a "Dick Gregory for President" shirt—the late comedian ran for president in 1968—Alexandro interviewed his friend to glean a better understanding of what pushed Gaffigan to this point. Alexandro is assuredly further left than Gaffigan, who calls himself a moderate, but their conversation is informed by several years of touring and talking about politics while traveling together. The conversation is clearly not one meant to gin up publicity, and is mostly a conversation between two friends held in front of a digital live audience of fewer than 200 people.

On the show, Alexandro described Gaffigan as "America's comedian over the past decade, now that Cosby's off the table," referring to his accessible, rarely polarizing comedic material.

"The people that I wanted to see that message, they're not consuming any news with objectivity," Gaffigan said. He added that his Tweets provided no new information.

"It's only that you were the messenger," Alexandro said.

Showing compassion for some Trump supporters, Gaffigan described them as "good people that are being lied to," and he said he hoped to provide one trusted but opposing voice on their feed, to let them know they are consuming lies, as they watched the president speak at the Republican National Convention.

Gaffigan's online posting spree is a version of lukewarm takes that we've all had in the past few years, but gone viral. It's similar to when you see a celebrity or Tweetdecked account do numbers for posting about how you never plug in a USB cable the right way the first time, even though you said the same thing years earlier but nobody liked or retweeted it. But if someone with millions of conservative eyeballs on his profile can convert just a few, especially in Wisconsin, that's great. Given the unpredictable nature of 2020, it might be time to look up the Vegas odds on Larry the Cable Guy joining Antifa.