The Epicenter of the Comedy Civil War Is Austin, Texas

For a while, there’s been a brewing dispute about Austin, Texas as a new home for “fearless” comedians. Joe Rogan’s comedy club, Comedy Mothership, has helped more firmly root a comedy scene in the city, as has the podcaster’s own mansion in the city.

Other comedians moved to Austin, lured by low costs of living and even lower taxes. Big names were drawn in: Shane Gillis and Tim Dillon both gave the place a try, before abandoning the adventure for more familiar pastures. Dillon described Austin as “a horrible city without a soul,” while Gillis called it “hot as fuck” and complained about his house losing power. 

But it’s not the city’s infrastructure that’s made the Texas capital so controversial — it’s the style of comedy that reigns most popular, according to a new report from Chron, formerly known as The Houston Chronicle. There have been ample clips coming out in the past months of everyone from Marc Maron to Bobby Lee criticizing the dominant comedy that’s been dubbed both “edgelord” and “racist.”

Comedian Stavros Halkias went so far to confront another comedian who began spewing anti-trans rhetoric and told her she had “Austin trans brain.” The implication is that offensive, punching-down comedy is basically synonymous with Austin’s comic identity. 

The Chron report also details other comedians who have spoken out against the heinous vibe that’s been cultivated in Austin. Steph Tolev described the scene as “misogynistic and homophobic,” and Mark Pugh, who is Black, said he moved to Austin for a short time before realizing he couldn’t tolerate the prevalent racism that defined the scene. “I don’t want to hear 50 white guys come up to me and almost say the N-word,” he said in a video explaining why he was leaving Austin. 

All of these issues get deeper than the specific geographics of the city Rogan has chosen to call home. It gets to the matter of what’s actually funny? What kind of culture do comedians want to exist in, and want to help shape? People have loved performing at Comedy Mothership, but don’t want to spend an extended period of time with home-court comics. Basically, there’s a civil war brewing between the comedians who rock with “Austin trans brain” and those who don’t.

You can read the full report over on Chron.