Klepper Is a Hilarious, Often Poignant Alternative to Comedy Fake News
Photo courtesy of Comedy Central
It’s a weird time for political satire. Every comedian heard the same bullshit after the election, “Trump is going to be gold for you.” But it turns out mining comedy from an administration that tries to ban Muslims and separates children from their parents is hard as hell. You can’t wink and nudge at fascism.
Perhaps this is why the once mighty Daily Show no longer has the viral pull it once did. Trever Noah’s version of the show is a kinder, gentler version than we had during the Obama and Bush eras, but it’s easy to wonder if even Jon Stewart would be struggling. There’s nothing cute about the problems we face. Which is why I was surprised by how much I loved Jordan Klepper’s new eponymously titled documentary series on Comedy Central.
After watching the first three episodes of Klepper it’s easy to imagine the network has a hit on their hands. Drawing from the documentary format Vice has turned into a massively successful video empire, Klepper is more about stories than jokes. Each week Klepper visits a part of the country where people are fighting for change. We meet vets in Texas who use pro-wrestling as a treatment for PTSD. He embeds with environmental activists in Louisiana protesting an oil pipeline and talks to oil workers who live nearby. And, in a particularly brutal episode, Klepper visits undocumented DREAMers in Georgia who are fighting for the right to access public colleges.
The biggest hurdle Klepper faces is its host’s previous Comedy Central show, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper. Even as a fan of Klepper’s work on The Daily Show, The Opposition burned a lot of goodwill. It was smug without ever digging deep enough into the stories it covered to be interesting. More importantly, in an era of “fake news,” his character couldn’t compete. How do you make parody comedy news when the reality TV show president has ties to Alex Jones?
Klepper sidesteps this problem by dropping the fake conspiracy act in favor of letting the host be exactly what he is; a privileged, baby soft comedian used to the comforts of TV. Starting from the standpoint of privilege acts as a unifying force in each episode. Whether talking to veterans haunted by the war, environmental activists who think he’s a coward, or DREAMers fighting to stay in the only country they know, Klepper is almost an annoyance to the subjects at first.
Because he’s being Jordan Klepper and not the character of Jordan Klepper we get to see stories evolve in ways comedy news has never explored. Pro-wrestling is easy to look down on, but once you experience the community of amateur wrestling its impossible to write off. The “fake” combat may seem silly at first, but our host learns to respect it when he’s slammed into the mat.