Forty Percent of the Nominees for Best Comedy Album at the 2024 Grammys Are ‘Canceled’ Comics

In the first month of Donald Trump’s second term as president, an uncertain America will make a point to honor the “canceled” comedians who were brave enough to choose the exact same targets as the president’s attack ads. 

Earlier today, The Recording Academy released the full list of nominees for the 67th Grammy Awards in February. The Best Comedy Album category, specifically, is shaping up to be a slugfest, as superstars Nikki Glaser, Jim Gaffigan, Trevor Noah, Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais will all compete for one of the highest honors in stand-up. Of this worthy crop of contestants, two out of five nominees will almost certainly prove to be divisive should either of them take home the coveted trophy, as Gervais and Chappelle both used their most recent specials, Armageddon and The Dreamer respectively, to continue their campaign to denigrate and dehumanize the transgender community while flaunting the push-back they have both received as proof that the all-powerful woke brigade wants them silenced. 

Any American who watched a single commercial break on any major TV station during the last two months knows that the Trump campaign made villainizing the transgender community a core strategy in its push for the presidency. Seeing as two of the most successful and celebrated artists in comedy are in lockstep with the incoming president on the issue of trans rights, one dark truth about America has become soberingly apparent — if all three of these rich, powerful and popular men are tragic victims of a pro-trans, anti-free-speech woke mob, then this cancel culture conspiracy must run even deeper than we thought.

In Chappelle’s most recent special, the comedian who has committed so much of his stage time in the last half-decade to criticizing transgender activism and denying the trans identity went relatively light on the trans jokes for the first time seven specials. However, Chappelle couldn’t help himself from opening The Dreamer with an extended anecdote about meeting Jim Carrey on the set of Man on the Moon when the latter was in full method-acting mode portraying Andy Kaufman, and Chappelle compared a person changing their name post-transition to Carrey insisting on being called “Andy” during their time together.

Similarly, Gervais had also begun to tire of beating the dead horse on the issue of trans rights in Armageddon, instead centering the special around the criticism he received for his heinous, dehumanizing treatment of trans people in his previous special, Supernatural. In fact, the entire thesis statement of Armageddon seemed to be, “The world is trying to silence me for calling trans people rapists, which is exactly why I get paid millions to make the most-watched comedy specials on streaming.”

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign focused their entire final month of messaging around attacking Vice President Kamala Harris for supporting access to gender-confirming healthcare and allowing trans minors to participate in organized athletics in line with their gender identity.

Considering the major role that many of America’s most high-profile comedians played in pushing Trump across the finish line, through official endorsements, podcast interviews and even rally performances, it should come as no surprise that two comics who have shaped their voices as artists around a Trump talking point will reap the rewards of their rhetoric mere weeks after Trump re-takes the White House.

In the current comedy industry, the clowns don’t speak truth to power — they speak power’s “truth.”