The national mood is morose and tense in anticipation of a momentous election in two weeks — with a weight and heaviness all around us. How to best move the country to a less dispiriting place is central to many important policy debates taking place.
In the meanwhile, how do we survive the stress of this all? However else you might answer that question, you might also want to ask yourself the last time you had a good belly-laugh?
The research on humor is not ambiguous. As the Mayo Clinic summarizes, laughter “doesn’t just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body.” That includes cooling down our stress response, decreasing heart rate and blood pressure and aiding muscle relaxation, while also stimulating the heart, lungs and muscles, and increasing endorphins in the brain. And long-term, a habit of laughter can boost the immune system, relieve pain and improve our mood.
So far so good. Yet the obvious problem is our political climate today is hostile enough as to be utterly humorless most days, while dampening our jovial instincts on the rest of them. So much of political humor that does exist, for instance, is geared at razzing one side and making them look stupid or terrible — effectively putting half the country on the defensive.
But have no fear! We’ve curated below some more uplifting political-related humor — trying to weed out the crass and cruel variety — to give you a moment without any excuse not to smile a little.
Dare you not to laugh.
1. Poking fun at overly dark political rhetoric
Brian Regan pokes fun at a political culture where sinister voice-overs are normal — including a real advertisement implying a leader who “voted to allow 7-year-olds to be tasered.”
Sometimes American political hostilities can also be wrapped in veneer of niceness that’s a bit silly:
2. Why so many undecided voters ... really?
“Are you kidding me?” says Jim Gaffigan at the Al Smith charity dinner. “You don’t see a difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump?”
“No one has ever thought, ‘is that a Trump quote or a Harris quote?’”
3. “Who’s more evil?”
In the wake of Pope Francis’s comment about U.S. voters needing to choose the “lesser of two evils” in the U.S. election, Jim Gaffigan asks Cardinal Dolan whether he agrees or not. Then, he asks, “who’s more evil?”
4. Make American healthy again?
After recognizing Robert Kennedy Jr. in the audience and his effort to “Make America Healthy Again,” Jim Gaffigan also jokes “have you seen what Donald Trump eats?” — before suggesting the former president “would probably be less loyal to RFK than he would be to KFC.”
5. Candidate impersonations
The best Kamala impersonator is a landslide:
But it’s a tight vote for former President Trump’s best impersonator. You can choose, between this:
Or any of these:
6. Candidates being funny in real-life
Fair warning, watching the presidential candidates being funny — and teased — might make you like them a little more, or dislike them a little less.
Former President Trump’s left-leaning podium:
VP Harris’s state secrets she won’t be revealing:
Or Tim Walz’s wardrobe:
7. ‘If monkey pox runs amok, I don’t see how we lose?”
Jon Stewart jokes at those who see disaster as a positive indicator for victory:
8. Bad lip reading
Although taking a hiatus of late, some of the classic bad lip readings are still a hoot.
Including this one, just for kicks:
9. Vibe checks and groovy debate recaps
If you missed the debate recaps, they’re worth a listen:
And this one from the VP debate too:
10. Californians moving to Texas
For all the conservatives who feel like the brunt of too many jokes, Babylon Bee comes to the rescue — with a series too good to resist, even if you’re left-leaning.
And here’s another (and lots more where this came from):
11. Washington’s dreams
As long as we’re enjoying political humor... sometimes the language we take for granted in a country becomes so familiar we can hardly notice the contradictions. But apparently George Washington once did. Worth watching, even if you’re rightfully hesitant about Saturday Night Live humor generally:
And here is Washington’s second ‘vision’ about America’s future:
12. Political memes to poke fun at both sides
Where else would a top ten list of political humor end?
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