Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2018
Abstract
When comedian Eric Andre went to the Republican National Convention (RNC), he attended Alex Jones’ speech. He stuck his microphone on the end of a long stick, and pushed through the crowd, until finally, Alex Jones said, “Let’s bring the Daily Show guy up here.”
“They keep attacking me and I just wanna sign up for the open mike,” said Eric. “I know, the democrats are never violent, like the Black Lives Matter movement and attacking the Trump people,” Alex replied.
To which Eric said, “I’m not a democrat either, I’m a nihilist” (“Eric at the RNC”).
This interaction, and Eric’s other various tactics, allow him to use comedy and nihilism to break through the trenched discursive battle between left and right in the United States, a battle that has been waging and generally stagnated for years, with only a black stormtrooper and president to show for it. Footage of Eric at the convention demonstrates gender parody, vulgarity, and absurdism that represent an incisive turn from political satire of the past, making Eric’s specific brand of nihilistic political satire acutely equipped to destabilize the nonsensical banter between “left” and “right” that has become modern politics.