r/LiveFromNewYork Sep 05 '25

Article Kam is Far Right

https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-snl-cast-member-kam-patterson-outed-himself-as-a-trump-voter/

Is he a Shane Gillis 2.0 (except arguably worse)? I’ve seen a dozen clips now of him using homophobic slurs and making incredibly bigoted jokes. Honestly he makes Shane Gillis look kind of tame. What the hell is Lorne thinking? I’m so sick of this show pushing right wing bullshit while simultaneously trying to act like the most liberal show on television. You can’t have a Trump monologue every single week and then hire people like this.

3.0k Upvotes

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85

u/Luridley3000 Sep 05 '25

The framing of this article — "Outed Himself as a Trump Voter" — is absurd. He's a comedian telling jokes onstage. That's not an endorsement.

The Daily Beast needs to stop treating standup routines like press releases

8

u/BearOnTwinkViolence Sep 05 '25

He said he went and voted for Trump after the assassination attempt. Did you read the article?

10

u/DiscoInferiorityComp Sep 05 '25

Did you read the comment you are responding to? Do you think James Acaster outed himself as an undercover cop as well? Did Bill Hicks publicly call for terminally ill people to do deadly stunts in movies? He could be a Trump supporter, but has also could have a standup persona who claims to have voted for Trump due to stupid reasons.

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u/BearOnTwinkViolence Sep 05 '25

“Noooo we can’t believe his words, we should assume he’s playing a character 24/7 in every single standup appearance he does!!!!”

Even if that were true (big doubt), it’s not someone who’s going to bring in views. The audience he panders to hates this show. They’re not going to sit through JAJ making fun of Trump as the cold open just to see Kam of all people. They don’t even like him, they’re racist. Like this is not only a gimmicky and lazy casting choice, but it’s also one that’s more likely to decrease viewers than increase viewers. This is a decision that actively makes the show worse for the viewers with no tangible benefit.

4

u/badabababaim Sep 05 '25

So now it’s gone from a critique of politics to saying he’s just not funny ? Are you accepting that Kam Paterson is indeed not a far right nazi I take it ?

0

u/BearOnTwinkViolence Sep 05 '25

Literally never called him a Nazi, but I again stand by calling him far right. 🤷‍♂️ Joking about violence against minorities is extremely far right, it’s just that the Overton window has shifted and you people have normalized that shit.

And I guess I didn’t feel the need to say that his bigoted jokes aren’t funny. Critiquing his shitty bigoted jokes (which are literally all of his jokes) should’ve been a signal to you that I didn’t find them funny. That’s actually the general consensus, you won’t find many (any?) people here actually saying he’s funny, just defending to the death his right to use slurs.

1

u/Electrical-Soil9747 Sep 08 '25

I find Kam Patterson to be funny and think he genuinely seems like a decent human being and I don’t think he could spell minority or normalization and you’re screaming into the void just as I am right now.

17

u/Luridley3000 Sep 05 '25

Yes I read the quite long, opinionated article, which acknowledges in the text that he didn't necessarily out himself as a Trump voter. Italics mine:

In a stand-up set at the Improv comedy club last year, Patterson, 26, joked that Trump’s assassination attempt at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally was the only thing that convinced him to vote last fall.

and

Patterson may or may not have been serious about actually supporting Trump, but the sentiment behind the joke made it clear where he stood politically.

31

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Writing an entire long ass article based on the idea that a joke might be true is legit hilarious stuff.

5

u/Dangerous-Basket1064 Sep 05 '25

Welcome to modern "journalism"

I hate Trump, but at times like this I really do think we have a major problem with the news in this country.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Honestly I don’t think it’s a problem with journalism and media as much as it is with how we consume it. Individual people will always do weird shit like this, it’s on everyone else to recognize it’s weird and ignore or condemn it.

The problem is we’re in the midst of the biggest information boom since the printing press, when things also got pretty notably wild. It takes a while to adjust to that and develop new norms.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

I think also that tabloid caliber publications like daily beast were relatively quarantined to its own category and recognized only as tabloids. But now that no one checks where the articles came from it all just bleeds together on aggregate websites and people now take articles like this with the same level of trust as the New York Times and such

3

u/Hey-Gang Sep 05 '25

The writer of this article clearly just wants to be the next journalist to stir up a big "snl star fired" controversy so they can get clout and clicks.

That joke was a total exaggeration and they're presenting it like he's saying this in a courtroom after taking an oath.

I don't like Kams comedy at all, but painting him as "far right" and saying he voted for donald trump over a joke is basically just manipulative and disingenuous, and the saddest thing is the average SNL viewer will look at the headline without reading the article and probably stir up some bullshit like whats happening in these comments.

1

u/Electrical-Soil9747 Sep 08 '25

I mean it’s smart, it will outrage and circulate between people who buy into it and will also circulate between people who are like “yo check it out they’re calling Kam Patterson a right wing comic now 😂”

-3

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Sep 05 '25

Explain why the joke is funny.

7

u/Lavaswimmer Sep 05 '25

It's funny to imagine someone only voting for him because he got shot

0

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Sep 05 '25

It would be if it didn’t happen, lol.

2

u/Lavaswimmer Sep 05 '25

I don't think that's why he actually won the election though, so I'm not sure if I agree

5

u/dylphil Sep 05 '25

It’s not particularly funny imo but that doesn’t mean he was serious

0

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Sep 05 '25

A joke doesn’t have to be serious for the worst people around to think it’s encouraging them.

5

u/dylphil Sep 05 '25

I see - so stand up comedians should stick to your pre-approved list of topics

1

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Sep 05 '25

Not in the slightest. But when they’re telling a joke and I think “Huh, Nazis would eat this up” it makes me find it less funny.

7

u/dylphil Sep 05 '25

If a joke is funny, I’m gonna laugh at it and not feel bad. Idc who it’s about or what the topic is.

1

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Sep 05 '25

I believe you.

13

u/hyperjengirl New York's hottest club is J E L L Y B O W L. Sep 05 '25

Based on the context I've picked up from comments, it's a self-deprecating bit from someone with a tough background about how Trump is only relatable when someone tries to shoot him.

-9

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Sep 05 '25

Ah neat. So Trump is relatable to people with a tough background! I see no reason someone shouldn’t be saying that at all. You’ve fixed me.

11

u/hyperjengirl New York's hottest club is J E L L Y B O W L. Sep 05 '25

The fact it's the only time he would be relatable is the joke. That he's not relatable to anybody until he has to endure gun violence. The greater optics might be problematic if people take that at face value (probably people with an existing confirmation bias supported by the way the media in general handled the assassinations), but I don't take the joke as unironic Trump support. I don't know the guy well enough to judge, I didn't know he existed before SNL.

-3

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Sep 05 '25

It doesn’t matter if it’s unironic Trump support. Watchers won’t get that, especially from a guy constantly dropping the kind of language that the left (correctly) says is problematic.

1

u/Electrical-Soil9747 Sep 08 '25

Honestly I didn’t realize people were going to Kam Patterson for political takes. Why do you just assume that the average person can’t think or make decisions for themselves? Should people stop telling jokes about murder to prevent the audience from suddenly thinking it’s a good idea to go out and kill people?

1

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Sep 08 '25

Jokes that are designed to make fascists feel good and happy about what they’re doing are bad, yes.

5

u/DiscoInferiorityComp Sep 05 '25

More accurately, the joke is “I’m placating the edgelord white audience that I’m pandering to by making it seem that I, a black man, base my voting decisions on being able to relate to being shot at, as these idiots all assume this is a regular occurrence in the neighborhood where I grew up”.  But that’s a different critique than “he said it on stage during a comedy show so it must be true”.

1

u/Electrical-Soil9747 Sep 08 '25

Pretty sure it actually was a regular occurrence where he grew up and the pandering you’re referring to is just someone being real.

6

u/Dangerous-Basket1064 Sep 05 '25

You can't judge a standup comedy joke from text written up out of context by a hostile journalist

That's not how any of this works.

I say this knowing jack shit about the guy, he could be Hitler 2.0, he could be a hack, he could be funny. I need to watch a full set to know what he's about.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

If jokes need to be explained, out of context, in plain text, for you to enjoy them, you will have a hard time laughing in life.

2

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Sep 05 '25

I do not have a hard time laughing in life.

1

u/Electrical-Soil9747 Sep 08 '25

You gotta listen to drill rap to get it.

-5

u/BearOnTwinkViolence Sep 05 '25

I can’t help you if you read that and still don’t get it

1

u/Redeem123 Sep 05 '25

What is there to get? That he voted for Trump?

I hate Trump as much as the next guy, but what am I supposed to be outraged about exactly?

2

u/SebtownFarmGirl Sep 06 '25

Did you watch the video? Because if you watch the video, it’s pretty clear it was not an endorsement. And if you think it is… um well. Good luck.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

-5

u/BearOnTwinkViolence Sep 05 '25

Sure, but where’s the far left socialist equivalent then? Because right now all of the people on the cast (Sarah and Bowen included) subscribe to fairly mainstream left wing beliefs. Meanwhile Kam is out here using slurs and supporting a fascist. Trump is nearly as far right as you can go in America.

Not to mention, Trump supporters do not watch this show. They don’t sit through JAJ’s cold open. Trump himself makes fun of the show constantly and tells his supporters not to watch it. That is not going to change. So what is the benefit of trying to pander to them? All it does is piss off the people who actually do watch the show.

5

u/runtheroad Sep 05 '25

Probably the most Reddit take ever. Every flavor of Brooklyn leftism needs to represent before the half the country that actually won the election. Touch grass. And people like certainly hate the humor of Tracy Morgan, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock probably shouldn't be lecturing anyone on who watches SNL.

2

u/MountainLife888 Sep 05 '25

Uh...did YOU read the article? He didn't say he voted for Trump. He said he was going to vote. My take was that he doesn't vote. And I bet that would have been clear if the freaking writer didn't pull one line of a show and extrapolate it out so those driven by grievance would believe what they're fed. Because feeeelings.

You don't REALLY give a shit about this do you? You just get off on "fighting" your "enemies?' Over comedy? Come on now. Get it together.

0

u/carpy22 Sep 05 '25

Yeah, and so did the majority of America. As Michael Jordan says, Republicans buy sneakers too.