Elitism in Comedy: Can Rich People Be Funny?

On August 22, the famous podcast series 2 Bears, 1 Cave published a new episode. This series is typically hosted by famous comedians Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura.

As is common, one of the titular hosts was not present. This is typical, when one of the two is performing on a comedy tour or addressing family or health issues. Typically, another comedian or celebrity will fill in.

For this episode. Segura’s seat was filled by comedian Whitney Cummings.

Overall, this is a great podcast. It’s funny and the topics of discussion vary wildly.

This episode, however, was occupied by an oddly long conversation on luxury watches. Kreischer, who was wearing a $10,000 watch while recording, spoke about the humility of his watch and the cost of the watches that are owned by some of his friends. He mentioned other comedians and their love of watches, mostly notably, Joe Rogan and Dave Chappelle.

Kreischer and Cummings continued to talk about watches, and at one point, called a friends who is a kind of watch expert. Cummings insisted on wanting to buy a new watch, prompted by the discussion. She began to look at rose pink Rolex watches while Kreischer continued his conversation with his friends on speaker phone.

The brand Rolex compared to a Mercedes, while Patek Philippe was compared to Rolls Royce. They discussed the price of watches that was purchased by friends, and many of the watches discussed ranged from $50,000 to over $100,000.

In this same episode, Kreischer also disclosed his plan to buy another property in the Los Angeles area as a work house, a house in which he could house his office and a podcast studio, in order to make room in his current mansion. The entire episode, including ads, was 1 hour and 54 minutes.

Bert Kreischer is believed to be worth around $5 million. Tom Segura has an estimated net worth of $12 million. Whitney Cummings has a net worth of around $30 million. Another comedian often associated with these individuals is Tim Dillon, who has a net worth of $4 million. The richest of them all are Dave Chappelle and Joe Rogan, who have a net worth of $50 million and $100 million, respectively.

Assuming an average American is the typical listened of these podcast, the audience has an income of $50,000 and a net worth of around $100,000. This means that these comedians spend on a watch what the average American makes in an entire year.

This is nothing new, of course. Famous comedians can make a lot of money off of a single special. Joe Rogan’s podcast was famously licensed by Spotify at the tune of $100 million, on top of the per-episode cost given to Rogan.

Rich people buy rich people things. That’s not new.

However, as I was listening to this episode of 2 Bears 1 Cave, a friend of mine insisted that I turn it off. He was not enjoying it. Admittedly, there wasn’t much comedy. There wasn’t much to laugh it. It was two rich people talking about their houses and luxury watches.

The ability to incorporate class structure into comedy is no easy feat. In my opinion, no one does it better than Ricky Gervais. A lower class resident of Reading, Gervais was no stranger to poverty and working class life. As he joked in a previous interview, his family has low prospects. The most his mum could hope for was that her son would not be stabbed to death.

However, Kreischer, Segura, and Rogan are no strangers to a working class lifestyle. Segura recovered from a history of drug abuse in his late teens. Rogan grew up working class in Boston. It’s not to say that these rich comedians have not faced difficulty.

Specific to their comedy, though, Gervais leans into his current state of privilege. Gervais is worth around $140 million. He lives in a mansion in Hampstead. He flies private, and exclusively in first class as needed for international destinations. Rather than shy away from this or present himself as a friend of the working class, he leans into his privilege and makes a mockery of himself and his fellow elites.

For example, in his comedy special Humanity, he raises a point of being unable to relate to his audience. He jokingly calls them scum when citing a journalist’s question, “You’re so rich, how do you relate to ordinary…<pauses for comedic effect, and then motions to his audience>…scum?”

He infers that if he were to have a child overdosing in his house, he’d be more worried about the vomit on his $20,000 Afghan rug. He jokes that his $10,000 first-class flight on British Airways should always include roasted peanuts, even if it means that a fellow traveler with a peanut allergy would die. He makes a remark that he would cover himself in peanuts before his flight so that he could deliberately kill the person with the peanut allergy.

In his more recent special, SuperNature, he claims that he knows what it’s like to be a minority. As a “white, heterosexual millionaire”, there is less than one percent of people like him.

At no point does Gervais discuss his watches, his travel habits, or his mansion with an ounce of certainty or seriousness. His comedy is mocking elitism and the disconnect between average people and privileged rich people.

Rather than try to relate to the working class while sharing his love of luxury, he leans into his position. This is where his comedy beats out the comedy of Kreischer, Segura, and others.

Rich people can be funny, obviously. Gervais is a comedian I admire greatly. And none of this is to say that Kreischer and Segura aren’t funny. They are. And Tim Dillon, who also jokes about his privilege and his talented ability to total cars like they’re toys, is also a favorite.

And yes, one could argue that the context of a comedy special and a podcast are totally different, too different to compare. A special is a performance and a podcast may be more of a frank conversation.

I don’t think that matters. There’s only so much for which an audience can be expected to compensate. It’s a lot easier for the audience, like my friend, to tune out the elitist comedians.

Cover photo courtesy of Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.