Comedy News Roundup: July 18, 2026

This morning I gave paying subscribers exclusive access to the searchable comedy payment database I’m developing. To check out the feature before it goes public, sign up for six bucks here:

Now let’s get into the news.

Chloe Fineman announced her departure from SNL after seven seasons. According to one “industry insider” who spoke to Page Six, she decided to leave after she was offered a role on David E. Kelley’s new Netflix show. In her Instagram post saying goodbye to the show, Fineman wrote: 

I’m definitely not the first to make this observation but it really is funny looking back at it all now, because at the show you get so invested in everything you work on. You sob uncontrollably when your sketch isn’t picked. You storm into a producers office telling them they just made the biggest mistake of their lives. You call everyone you know to complain. And then you look back a few years later and it was a sketch called “lipstick for thicc dogs.”

Or as someone else put it a few years ago:

If what we’ve heard is true, many people have been hurt by this show. They’ve been tormented and harassed, abused, degraded, made to believe in their own disposability, used up, and tossed aside. And for what—comedy skits? For the Blues Brothers, for Church Lady and Stefon? For David S. Pumpkins? For a hundred or so people to live like royalty? For one man to rule an empire?

Farewell, Chloe! I’ll always remember you as one of those people in that sketch.

Shane Gillis performed for almost 74,000 fans at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field last night, apparently breaking two Guinness World Records: the largest audience for a comedian (73,946) and the most tickets sold for a comedy show by a solo comedian (77,047). Too bad for the 3,000 people who didn’t make it—they missed out on opening performances by Jay Oakerson and Matt McCusker before Gillis performed a 30-minute set, according to one fan on Reddit, and brought out Dave Chappelle for some drunken banter. In other Shane Gillis news that happened yesterday, he released a new episode of his podcast featuring his Holocaust denier friends.

In an episode of her podcast recapping the Mark Twain Prize ceremony honoring Bill Maher, where she appeared alongside Louis CK and Woody Harrelson, Whitney Cummings said she hadn’t known beforehand that Trump installed himself as the Kennedy Center’s board chairman. Apparently just learning of the many artists and productions that have refused to perform at the venue out of protest, Cummings said she respects their decisions, but she’s such a punk that she’d rather do it even if Trump doesn’t approve. In addition to being such a punk, she censored her set after staffers told her they’d get punished if she told certain jokes. Luckily for us, she went and told one of the censored jokes on her podcast, which was about the Kennedy family assassinating Marilyn Monroe—something she quickly made clear she actually believes. 

“Why are we all afraid to say it?” Cummings asked. “I guess that’s what the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is. It's using humor to call out political leaders, but just to be like, oh yeah, okay. I wouldn't want to hurt the Kennedys’ feelings. You know, God forbid one of the people that helped arrange Marilyn Monroe's puke perfectly so that it looked like an overdose, I wouldn't want them to be offended.”

SNL’s Marcello Hernández hosted the ESPY Awards, featuring rapist Mike Tyson (last seen goading Theo Von into saying the n-word) and alleged pedophile Jeff Ross:

Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky split up. If two transphobic, homophobic, Candace Owens-admiring Andrew Tate-lovers can’t make it, is there hope for any of us?

In an episode of his podcast lamenting the Supreme Court’s “devastating” decision upholding birthright citizenship, the white nationalist Dave Smith insisted (again) that it doesn’t make one a Nazi to believe America should stay majority-white. Then he observed that permissive immigration policies are much like the John Lennon song “Imagine”: appealing at a superficial level, but hellish when you actually look closely:

Okay, so here's the lyrics to “Imagine”: "Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do." Look, so far you're even almost like, okay, so there's no heaven. There's no hell. That's kind of dark, but even if you are an atheist and you're kind of a—there's something kind of nihilistic about that. But okay, whatever. Fine. There's no heaven or no hell. People aren't being punished. Now there's no nations. There's no—okay. "Imagine all the people living life in peace." All right, that part sounds nice. Doesn't seem like human nature so much, but it does sound nice. "You may say, I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one." Here's the next line. "Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man."

So anyway, my point is just that it's like, look, sometimes these things kind of sound nice, but what would actually happen in the world if you tore down all of the structures, all of everything and then said, "Now let's just hope everyone gets along?” You're like, "Oh, okay. But what you're describing here is that—what do you mean no possessions?" Well, people need possessions. What do you mean no hunger? People get hungry. You know what they do? If they have no possessions and no food, they fucking try to kill people. They try to kill whoever's got it so they can take it from them.

Take that, John Lennon! In another episode, Smith threw down the gauntlet and challenged Zohran Mamdani to come on his podcast and debate Austrian economics:

What an incredible offer. I can't wait to see if Mamdani takes him up.

A little over a month after the New York Times described JD Vance’s plans to go on Joe Rogan's podcast and run interference on the Epstein scandal, JD Vance went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and ran interference on the Epstein scandal:

The New York Comedy Festival announced its first round of headliners this fall, including Marc Maron, Ilana Glazer, Ziwe, Adam Friedland, and… Ben Bankas. Who is Ben Bankas? Ben Bankas is this guy:

Comedian Ben Bankas’ Minnesota shows canceled after he mocked Renee Good’s death

The owner of the St. Paul comedy club that canceled the shows cited “heightened threats, increasing media attention and civil disorder.”

NBC NewsAmanda Chen

Meanwhile the Nazi comedy festival Skankfest announced its own initial slate of headliners, including Nick Rochefort, Ari Matti, Chris Distefano, Tony Hinchcliffe, Eddie Pepitone, and Todd Glass. In other words, it’s a banner week for ostensibly left-leaning comedians who definitely live their politics. 

In “Oh My God He Admit It” news, here’s the part in Theo Von’s conversation with Kill Tony comic Cristina Mariani where he says, “I like to relate different things, like behaviors to different ethnicities.”

And just for fun, here’s the part where he asks Mariani, who grew up in Italy, if people in Italy are Romans:

Let's quickly check in on Chris Distefano's History Hyenas cohost Yannis Pappas, one of comedy's normalest, smartest, and least racist guys:

Did you miss this week’s episode of the Humorism Evening Podcast? Catch up here: