Why Has Comedy Become So Right-Wing?

The David Frum Show

The Atlantic

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s episode of “The David Frum Show,” The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with his thoughts on the Trump administration’s hostility toward NATO. David discusses why NATO was created, what it does, and why we should care about it. He also analyzes the United State’s global leadership role and why so many bad actors advocate for isolationism. Then David is joined by his Atlantic colleague Helen Lewis to talk about the proliferation and importance of right-wing “comedy” podcasts. They discuss why some comedians seem to go right-wing and why a growing audience is drawn to their uninformed rhetoric. Lewis also addresses the complicity that comedians and their audience share in the rise of MAGA. Finally, David closes the podcast with a discussion on Edith Wharton’s Autres Temps and how it speaks to moral panics, social pariahs, and so-called cancel culture. Sign up for David Frum’s newsletter alert. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Where do you find a clear signal in a world of static?
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0:53.6	Music Hello, and welcome to another episode of the David Frum show.
1:05.5	I'm David Frum, a staff writer at the Atlantic.
1:08.7	My guest this week will be my Atlantic colleague, Helen Lewis, and we'll be talking about
1:12.9	comedy and politics and how the two combine.
1:16.0	My book this week will be not a book but a short story, Otrotante by Edith Wharton.
1:20.7	Before I turn to either, I'm going to anticipate something that will be said in the dialogue
1:24.9	with Helen Lewis, where she talked about one of our challenges in the face of the way modern media works is to keep rediscovering old truths.
1:33.3	And so I want to open this show this week by talking about an old truth. If you've been reading
1:38.0	in the news, you have may seen that the NATO alliance is under even more intense pressure
	...

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