Did stand-up comedians help reelect Donald Trump? Not a joke, as outgoing President Joe Biden might say. Trump has been the butt of countless late-night monologues and “Saturday Night Live” sketches for the better part of a decade, but the once and future president's path to reelection relied a lot on stand-up comedy. Trump sat for long, friendly interviews on comedians' podcasts in an effort to reach young men. But he also employed his own stand-up-like campaigning style replete with meandering stories and digressions, a rhetorical tactic that connected with audiences and also made it hard to tell what exactly was policy and what was a joke.
