The Year In Comedy: Stand-Up Elbows Into The Mainstream…And To The Center Of The Discourse

The mainstreaming of stand-up comedy continued in 2024, shoving its way into the serious sides of the discourse.

A regular talking point during the Monday morning quarterbacking after Vice President Kamala Harris’s election loss to former (and now-future) president Donald Trump was that Harris should have sat down with Joe Rogan.

Rogan — though now making his fortune as the host of the world’s top podcast, he is a long-time stand-up comedian who also owns the Austin club Comedy Mothership — becoming a must-do in the way “60 Minutes” has been for decades is a testament to the reach comics now have. For what it’s worth, Trump did appear on “The Joe Rogan Experience” and eschewed “60 Minutes.”

Trump also swung by Theo Von’s podcast and Andrew Schulz’s. Tony Hinchcliffe — part of the Rogan extended universe, host of his own popular podcast “Kill Tony” and a Pollstar cover subject — made a widely-criticized joke about Puerto Rico at Trump’s climactic Madison Square Garden rally that pundits speculated might cost the Republican the election.

It’s not just that political comedy was thriving. That’s to be expected in an election year. It’s that politicians recognized the audiences comics now have. The booming return for live in general seems even more acute for comics, many of whom took advantage of their off-stage time in the pandemic to grow their audiences through social media. Instagram Reels and TikTok clips made new fans all without the rigors of the road. 

And when it was time to open the clubs, top comedians found nary an empty seat.

Consider this: in 2022, the top 25 grossing comics on Pollstar’s charts grossed a combined $387.2 million on 5.16 million tickets. In 2024, the top 25 grossed nearly $200 million more: $582.7 million on more than 7 million tickets.

And in a year where comedy’s political salience was proved, funnily enough the biggest fish was one who is famously non-political. 

Nate Bargatze — the naifish, Nashville native aw-shuckser who soared from theaters to arenas on his “Be Funny Tour” — was the year’s top draw, bringing in nearly $80 million, besting second-place Dave Chappelle by more than $35 million. 

The obscenity-free funnyman hosted “Saturday Night Live” twice, launched a production company for comics in a similar oeuvre and announced his next tour, which will continue bringing him to North American arenas while also giving him a foothold in Europe.

Oh and his beloved Vanderbilt Commodores upset then-No. 1 Alabama on the gridiron. 

Not a bad year (don’t ask him how his Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators are doing, though; even a clean comic’s limits can be tested).

The proliferation of streaming, social media and podcasting has accelerated the career velocity of a working comic and changed the calculus. It’s still hard work, of course, but an act can go from complete unknown treading the boards at his local club to record-setting sell-out at the Hollywood Bowl in relatively short order, as Matt Rife did on the back of viral crowd-work clips on Instagram. 

Though working, touring comics have always existed to varying levels of success, more and more are finding that touring is an end to itself instead of a step on the way to breaking big with a television sitcom or in film.

And because the new math gives comics the ability to reach an audience anytime, anywhere, building a fanbase as rabid and dedicated as a pop star, they no longer can be pigeonholed as the court jesters skewering the powerful and humorously noting their shortcomings (though this was and is and will continue to be a vital role for comedians to play). 

Now they are increasingly the ones who the powerful need to court themselves.