Punching Out: On the Right’s Reactionary Comedy

One of my favorite podcasts is this psychoanalysis and film podcast called “Why Theory.” The show is hosted by professors Todd McGowan and Ryan Engley and they break down different psychoanalytical and philosophical concepts using film, tv and other cultural phenomena.

In a part of their discussion in the latest episode “Hegel and Feminism,” Ryan said “It is in the position of the Right to never, ever, be in the critique they are making…They’re never included in the problems they are trying to solve.” I thought that was one of the most spot-on summations I’ve ever heard. Though the following essay may seem tangential, that insight gave me language to articulate some things I’ve thought about the Right, particularly towards how the Right and reactionaries view comedy.

Each ideology has strengths and weaknesses, but I think we also need to understand ideologies from a more dialect perspective: each ideology has strengths that undercut itself (I also think each ideology holds a bit of the other one in it, but that’s an essay for another time).

The Left sees the enemy as an “Us” issue. The enemy is in the (collective) self, the Other is Us. This is great in some ways, as it holds solidarity as a prime directive, and, ostensibly, makes the “Us” malleable enough for former enemies to become friends. The issue is the…