Before last week, the name Tony Hinchcliffe might not have rang a bell to large swaths of the American public. Then Hinchcliffe performed at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally and, well, the rest may actually be history. “[Imagine] telling a joke so bad you change who the president is gonna be,” read one viral post on X after Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
While the consequences of that remark may be impossible to measure, one thing was immediately clear after the fiasco: The right has its very own ecosystem of entertainers and comedians, enormously popular figures that many on the left are blissfully unaware of.
Like Hinchcliffe, who counts comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan as a friend and mentor, a lot of these entertainers are extremely popular with the young, straight, white male demographic that helped turn Rogan from Fear Factor host into right-leaning host of The Joe Rogan Experience—the most popular podcast in the country, according to Spotify’s charts. While appearing on Crooked Media founder Jon Favreau’s podcast Offline, progressive streamer Hasan Piker laid out the vice grip that Rogan and his crew seem to have on (mostly) white guys under 30. “Everything that they see is right-wing sentiment being expressed by individuals they find charismatic, thought leaders, influencers that they subscribe to,” said Piker.
But who, exactly, are these charismatic thought leaders and influencers? Here’s a breakdown of a few major players in the right-wing comedy sphere.
THEO VON
A stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster, Von is immediately identifiable by his “aw, shucks” Southern drawl and his signature shaggy mullet. In the past few years, Von has built up quite the social media following, boasting over 7 million followers on both Instagram and TikTok and another 3.27 million subscribers on YouTube. His podcast, This Past Weekend, is currently the ninth-most-popular podcast in America, falling between This American Life and The Ben Shapiro Show. In the past few months he’s had both Trump and his running mate JD Vance on the podcast, as well as country music artists Miranda Lambert and Luke Combs.
Born Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III in 1980, Von grew up in Covington, Louisiana, in what he’s described as the poor side of town. He eventually condensed his very long name and made his way up the entertainment ladder the old-fashioned way—via reality television. He first appeared as a fresh-faced 19-year-old on MTV’s reality travel competition show Road Rules in 2000, then became a regular on MTV’s The Challenge, appearing on four different seasons of the competition show between 2002 and 2006. Eventually, he pivoted from reality TV contestant to stand-up comedy, going on Last Comic Standing and then appearing on the sketch show Reality Bites opposite future famous comedians like Amy Schumer and Tiffany Haddish. In 2016, he launched This Past Weekend.
While he’s certainly been embraced by the right, Von’s personal politics are a bit of a mystery. A week before having Trump on his podcast, he hosted Senator Bernie Sanders, and during his interview with Trump he said that Kamala Harris would be welcome to come onto the podcast as well. His stand-up is quite apolitical—more in the vein of Jackass and Larry the Cable Guy than anything you’d find on The Colbert Report or The Daily Show (or even Gutfeld!). Last week, he posted on Instagram that he had voted. “In the books!! Get out there and vote!” wrote Von in the caption, without specifying whom he endorses. Fans speculated in the comment section as to whom he might have voted for, with conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren leaving the comment “Fight Fight Fight.” Von’s personal politics aside, with the success of his podcast and his growing influence with young men, it’s no surprise that The Atlantic wondered whether Theo Von could be the next Joe Rogan. Time will tell.
DAVE PORTNOY
Someone who has made their personal politics very clear is Dave Portnoy. The entrepreneur and Barstool Sports founder has been vocal about his support of Donald Trump for president. “I’m voting for Trump,” said Portnoy while appearing on Fox Business. “I don’t know that I’d call myself a Trump guy…. I wouldn’t have voted for him in the Republican primaries, but I’m voting for him now.”
While he’s not a comedian or entertainer—he’s also the only person on this list who hasn’t appeared on Hinchcliffe’s Kill Tony podcast—Portnoy’s influence can’t be understated. Barstool Sports has been influencing young men for the better part of two decades, since Portnoy founded it in 2003. The official Barstool Sports Instagram account has 17.1 million followers, and its TikTok has nearly 41 million followers. Barstool, as a brand, specializes in frat-bro-aggrandizing content. (An affiliate Instagram account, @barstoolsmokeshows, which posts exactly what you think it does, has almost 1 million followers.) Barstool Sports has also served as a launch pad for talent, most notably Alex Cooper, whose podcast Call Her Daddy ranks fourth most popular among listeners, according to Edison Research, and recently had Kamala Harris on as a guest.
