by an Indivisible Helena member
An IH member has been thinking about how humor has been effectively used in the past and recently to push back against repressive politics. Read what his research yielded.
With the recent cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live!—both of which generated massive amounts of anti-Trump jokes and memes each week—I thought it was time to do research on one of my
interests: humor. And specifically, is humor an effective tool against and a worthwhile response to what the Trump Administration is doing to our democracy, to our American identity, to our communities.
My first question was whether satire, parody, jokes, memes, and other humorous responses weaken fascist regimes or if they are just fun ways to blow off steam. And, if humor is an effective part of fascism resistance, what types of humor work best and how would we in Helena employ it to any real effect?
From what I’ve read, many historians, journalists, and others who’ve studied fascism agree that humor did some good in thwarting the violence, militarism, and demagoguery in Italy and German in the 20th century and Syria, Turkey, Poland, Africa, Serbia, the United States, and other countries in the 21st.
But they also agree that humor must be part of a multi-pronged approach that includes mass protests, general strikes, and other forms of civil disobedience.
People made fun of Hitler, but he and Nazism could not be stopped only through mockery.
EXAMPLES
The first example of anti-fascist humor everyone mentions is Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940), in which the comic actor mocks Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, fascism, antisemitism, and Nazism. Others include satirical anticommunist plays by the Czech playwrights Jaroslav Hašek and Vaclav Havel, Britain’s Punch magazine, political cartoonists worldwide, and, more recently, standup comedians, the hosts of the late night TV talk shows, and the creators and casts of Saturday Night Live, South Park, and The Simpsons.
Other examples include local people dressing up as clowns to defuse fascist marches and protests, as during the 2017 Nazi rally in Whitefish, Montana, when counter-protesters showed up in bright blue wigs with signs that read “Trolls Against Trolls” and “Fascists Fear Fun.” The counter-protesters not only defused the rally’s energy, they made the Nazis look like idiots and in so doing made anyone wanting to join them seem stupid, too.
Another clever example came in 2014 when town organizers in Wunsiedel, Germany turned a planned neo-Nazi march into an anti-far-right fundraiser by convincing residents and business to pledge donations for every meter the neo-Nazis marched, making the marchers complicit in efforts to weaken their effort. People lining the march cheered the neo-Nazis, offered them water and bananas, and thanked them for helping raise money in the “involuntary walk-a-thon.”
In 2007, in Nashville, Tennessee, the group Anti-Racist Action organized clowns at a neo-Nazi rally. As the neo-Nazis yelled “White power!” the clowns answered them by calling “White flour!” and threw flour in the air. As the frustrated neo-Nazis continued their chants, the clowns shifted and responded with “White flowers!” and handed white carnations to passersby. In response, the neo-Nazis called off their rally hours before it was supposed to finish.
Other examples of recent humor in action are the many jokes produced by late night TV writers each night mocking Trump and his administration. And then there are the funny images such as the meme based on the former Dept. of Justice staffer who threw his Subway sandwich at a federal agent, humorous signs waved at the No Kings and other rallies, various bumper stickers, clips from the 27th season of Trey Parker and Mark Stone’s South Park, and Gavin Newsom’s parodies of crazy Trump ALL CAP tweets and cartoon muscular imagery (see below).
As MSNBC reports, “There’s a serious strategy behind Trump resistance jokes. From memes to pranks, the fight against the second Trump administration is much looser and funnier than in his first.”
IS IT WORKING?
It’s hard to measure the effectiveness of humor as a protest mechanism, though in cases like clowns at white-power parades, it appears that it can work if well thought out. In their book Pranksters vs. Autocrats, pro-democracy educators Srdja Popovic and Sophia McClennan (of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and Penn State University, respectively) studied dozens of what they call “dilemma actions” (those that put authorities and fascists in a lose-lose situation.) They write that trying to counter angry white power or fascist marches or protests with anger or violence, while understandable, is counterproductive. “Meeting anger with anger not only increases violence; it tends to diminish support for your movement and distract media coverage so that it centers on the violence rather than the core issues at stake. Instead, well-considered counter protests that use humor can sap fascists and white nationalists of their collective strength.”
See bottom of this essay for more on dilemma actions.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Sometimes humor can backfire. Denmark residents angered at Trump’s talk of buying Greenland began a mock campaign to purchase California. Unfortunately, Trump and his supporters would be happy to rid themselves of the Golden State. Far more effective would have been to “buy” Texas or Florida.
Jokes and nicknames like Cadet Bone Spur or Orange Buffoon that mock President Trump can enrage his fans, making them double down on their support. Juvenile bathroom humor (Trump = Turd) can make anti-fascists appear childish and no more worthy of support than Trumpists employing the same approach.
Bumper stickers and social media memes can elicit a laugh from some viewers, but only those insiders who get the joke. When Trump supporters posted bumper stickers stating, “Let’s Go Brandon!” that was a wink to fellow Trumpers and a sign of insider status.
It also might be true, as some pundits wrote after Trump’s 2016 victory, that using humor lets anti-Trumpers blow off steam that would otherwise build and compel them to take real action—like voting, attending protests, and other active responses. In the 1930s, Germany’s Nazi government generally accepted political jokes as a release-valve and didn’t punish people harshly for telling them.
WORTH IT
Still, it appears that humor serves several anti-fascist purposes. Using it can instill confidence and even create a “cool” factor for participants. It also can break the power of fear. Fascism works by mobilizing people based on terror, anger, and hatred. Lawn signs, bumper stickers, and other displays of anti-fascism, humorous or serious, are a signal to all that the people in that house or vehicle are not afraid. Such gestures of bravery can sap some of the strength of fascists, who sense that their power play is not all that effective, and firm the resolve of others to stand up for democracy.
Humor also keeps despair at bay. As one of my friends noted the other day, “When people are confronted with fascism or authoritarianism, despair is the enemy, because despair leads to apathy, and apathy leads to resignation, and then capitulation.”
Another way humor works is by reminding those of us who find the jokes and images funny of the large community of like-minded Americans out there who consider the current administration as appalling as we do. It’s reassuring to listen to Seth Meyers or Lesi Dydic mock the president or his administration and hear the audience roar with laughter. We aren’t insane after all.
Laughter also “cleans the mental palate,” as that same friend put it, making room for new information and ideas.
AT LEAST IT’S SOMETHING
Maybe the biggest challenge and frustration for those of us—especially in small towns and smaller cities—is that we don’t know what to do in the face of Trump’s extreme actions. Sharing a funny meme on social media, talking about Trey Parker’s index finger in South Park, or applying a clever bumper sticker to your vehicle is a way of at least doing something. It announces to others that current conditions are abnormal, and that you notice and are willing to point out the absurdities. It also “primes the pump” to prepare you for other actions like taking part in protests and civil disobedience called for when the time comes.
Novelist Lauren Grodstein wrote in a recent essay in The Atlantic, that people protest to remind themselves of who they are and what they believe in. We’re all now in search of those reminders, and posting humorous memes and sharing jokes may be one way of finding them. If nothing else, it’s something every one of us can do, on our own, without direction. It’s very democratic.
Current Examples of Anti-Trump Humor (or “Humor”)
South Park Season 27 Episodes 1-2
Gavin Newsom’s Press Office
Bumper Stickers and Memes
Notes:
Dilemma actions: In Pranksters vs. Autocrats, pro-democracy educators Srdja Popovic and Sophia McClennan discuss the effectiveness of “dilemma actions,” protests designed to create a situation for public authorities where they can’t win no matter what their response. The pair analyzed 42 dilemma actions in countries across the globe over the past 100 years, paying particular attention to “laughtivism”—dilemma actions that used clowns or other types of humor to diffuse violence and attract media attention. They write that humor works by breaking the power of fear, instilling confidence, and creating a “cool factor” for participants. Laughtivism puts authorities and fascism supporters into a lose-lose situation between a rock and a hard place: If they overreact, such by arresting or trying to beat up clowns, they look ridiculous. But if they don’t react, they appear to bystanders to be agreeing with the signs and other messages the clowns are holding.
Laughtivism also tends to attract media attention. For instance–and this has been done in several congressional districts across the U.S. if your congressperson or U.S. senator refuses to hold a town hall meeting–you can still hold the meeting but set up an empty suit, cardboard cutout, or even a chicken in a cage to represent the missing official. If you can get a local TV station to come and see a group of people asking a chicken questions about Medicaid or ICE, it will be obvious to viewers how cowardly the missing officials are.
Another advantage of laughtivism, they write, is that it wins over the general public to your side because they appreciate the creative, playful nature of the action. Another thing dilemma actions do is shift the public narrative of fascist authorities from “scary and powerful” to “weak and laughable.” They break down fear and apathy and “offer the public an energetic way to resist oppressive authority.” The actions, especially humorous ones, also work as a recruiting tool by showing that engaging in nonviolent resistance can be fun and rewarding.
p.s. Here is what my friend added to his email to me on humor:
“Resistance doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For resistance to be effective, it needs to gain momentum; that momentum starts to create waves, and those waves of resistance can lead to real change. But none of that is possible with individuals acting in isolation. Real change in a society comes from large numbers of people acting in concert, and united by a common purpose, and fighting for a common goal. And the single most effective – even indispensable – way for a political movement to take root, emerge, and gain momentum is through humor. Righteous anger is also necessary, but humor simultaneously energizes, unites, and inspires. To laugh in the face of outrage, to laugh in the face of your enemies, is empowering. To know that thousands of other like-minded folks are laughing along with us makes us realize we are not alone, and that sense of common purpose, that sense of being part of a movement, is a crucial first step toward change. Again, humor alone doesn’t change anything or fix anything, but it is a vital component in any political movement.”
Essays from which I gathered information on humor:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/gavin-newsom-social-media-trump/683968
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/why-are-nazis-so-afraid-of-clowns
https://cps.ceu.edu/article/2020-09-16/blog-how-laugh-away-far-right-lessons-germany
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/far-right-nazis-proud-boys-humor-laughtivism.html