Since the election in the United States, performers at big-tent events like the Academy Awards and the 50th anniversary celebration of “Saturday Night Live” have steered clear of President Trump, with a few exceptions. And sharp comedians that regularly don’t pass up a chance to criticize him, like the late night host Seth Meyers or the prolific comic Josh Johnson, tend to do so in a more surgical and cold-eyed manner. The day before seeing Kumar, I saw five comics at the Comedy Cellar tell a wide array of topical jokes, but the few ones about the current administration had little passion behind them. It’s revealing that the most famous joke of the Trump era (John Mulaney’s bit about a horse loose in a hospital) rests on a reasonable, even conservative, wish for stability and predictability.
Some righteous leftist comics (Cliff Cash, Adam Conover) have built steam online with topical political humor, but they aren’t being hosted by major streamers like Netflix and Hulu. It can feel like the industry is so worried about putting on cringey “orange man bad” resistance comedy that it’s overcorrected and is now missing an obvious opportunity.
Expecting a liberal Joe Rogan to suddenly emerge is futile, but a fiery, mad-as hell-polemicist that resonates with comedy fans the way David Cross did during the first term of George W. Bush? That’s an unoccupied lane waiting to be filled. Cross could do it (he just announced a national tour). Or Marc Maron, Wanda Sykes or Chelsea Handler (whose Netflix special comes out March 25).
Kumar is a newer voice to many in this country, but he’s been paying close attention to us.
Over the last decade, comics have become adept at playing the victim of cancel culture. Some responded by saying there is no such thing. Kumar avoids this debate by mocking the phoniness of those who cry cancel culture but indulges in something similar. With a rubbery face put to good use, he periodically adopts the pose of a mischievous child when he says something provocative. His last special was about being taken off the air after a storm of right-wing critiques. Say what you want about cancel culture, but it’s clearly good marketing.
What makes Kumar stand out and meet the moment is his lack of caution. His funniest material can be appealingly reckless. His most virtuoso bit is an elaborate consideration of the assassination attempt of Donald Trump. There’s no doing it justice on the page, but its rigorous justification of violent thoughts carried the spirit of the ferocious comic Bill Hicks in a way that I haven’t seen in many years.
Most people look to comedy to escape from their troubles, something Kumar points out. He describes someone asking him why he can’t just do jokes about what’s in his refrigerator, which he ends up doing: Imagine Seinfeld meets Noam Chomsky.
