Last week’s evening show at the Hollywood Improvised Comedy Club included poop jokes, a song about young people being too awakened, and a gross impression of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
There was no kip about President Trump’s international tariffs, even from a comedian who just posted lengthy podcast episodes about recurring executive orders that could lead to a global trade war and many fears could lead to a recession.
Recently, to get trade-related laughter, it’s more reliable if you don’t expect it. Source: Official Facebook page of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC
The site is rapidly producing ironic captions in capitalization that are not bound by any tariffs, making jokes at the expense of the US and its tariff-loving president.
One meme shows a red maga hat on the shelf of a store tagged with “Made in China.” The $50 price will be cancelled and replaced with an inflated cost at a $77 tariff.
Another cartoon, labelled “The Art of the Contract” after Trump’s 1987 book, shows the gambler’s hand. Anything with the word “customs” on the suit sleeve is pulled out of the deck of cards with a percentage. Embassy caption: “But… the card is made with #china. #tariffwar.”
In Canada, Manitoba Prime Minister Wab Kinew signed the order in an oversized folder and lifted it with his signature, Trump. “This order,” he said, “It’s a wonderful order. It’s a beautiful order. This order is pulling American liquor from the shelves of liquor marts.”
Prime Minister Manitoba Wabuki New at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on February 12th, 2025. In March, he signed an order to remove American alcohol from liquor store shelves in response to the tariffs imposed by President Trump.
(Ben Curtis/Applications)
And on Norfolk Island, a remote Pacific rock with around 2,000 residents and essentially no exports to the US, the children’s book authors have made members of the bewildered tropical wrapse fish. Caption: “When we find out that Norfolk Island exports are suffering from 29% tariffs… I think that’s one way to flutter the fish.”
There are many ways world leaders, businesses and consumers are tackling the growing threat of the world trade war, but perhaps the easiest – and for the most therapeutic one, it’s about relying on dark humor.
Joking about Trump’s tariff fanatic development has become a common response to the entirely serious issue of the economic battle that the president has begun, which overturned the market, led to boycotts of American-made goods, travelled to the US and sparked fears of a recession.
Some of the humor has the purpose of barbed wire to wars of the world’s mind and hearts – take a look at the Chinese government meme fusillade – but political scientists say for many, humor is a natural response to a stressful era.
Patrick Jamario, professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and author of Laughter as Politics: Critical Theory in a Critical Theory of a Critical Age, says humor is an important part of the modern political process, an attempt to understand events that feel overwhelming for many.
“The fact that we’re laughing so much right now is a kind of indication that it’s just how broken things are,” Jamario said. “We laugh when things stop making no sense.”
In addition to global uncertainty, taxation has arisen: references to Trump as a “domestic customs officer.” A video generated by artificial intelligence showing obese Americans suffering at clothing factories. And many memes about the over-tax penguins who are angry about Trump’s tariffs have targeted some barren, uninhabited sub-Antarctic islands.
“Poor old penguins, I don’t know what they did to Trump,” Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell told Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
On the left, Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell arrives at a meeting with China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wang Weitio in Beijing on May 12, 2023.
(Michael Godfrey/Applications)
Trump’s tariffs are spinning many of the world’s collective heads. When he announced them, he said that despite skepticism from economists on the political spectrum, it would bring “employment and factories… to our country.”
On April 2, which Trump called “liberation day,” he announced a 10% baseline tariff on all foreign imports. He also announced higher fees than he calls “mutual tariffs” for the country he said he was unfairly taxing American goods. The financial markets have plummeted.
A week later, Trump said he would change courses and suspend so-called mutual tariffs for 90 days, placing a universal 10% tariff. He wrote on his Truth Social Account: The market has skyrocketed.
Meanwhile, Trump escalated his standoff with China and hiked Chinese imports – he later exerted 145% of electronic devices such as smartphones and laptops.
Beijing retaliated by increasing its tax on US goods to 125%. The trade war has been joined by a meme war.
Many Chinese memes portray American workers as unprepared for the kind of work that brings products to their homes at cheaper prices.
During a press conference last week, White House spokesman Caroline Leavitt was asked about Chinese officials sharing an AI-generated video depicting Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and billionaire Elon Musk working in the factory.
“I’ve seen the video before,” Leavitt said. “I don’t know who made the video or whether we can confirm its reliability. But whoever made it doesn’t see the possibility of the American workforce, which is the American workforce.”
A screenshot of Levitt himself being trolled by a Chinese diplomat who accused him of wearing a Chinese-made dress in a White House briefing room has also gone viral.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt will speak with reporters on April 15, 2025 at the James Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House.
(Alex Brandon/Applications)
“To blame China is business. To buy China is life,” wrote Zhang Zhisheng, the Chinese consul general in Denpasar, Indonesia, to X.
Ramesh Srinivasan, founder of the University of California Digital Culture Lab, said that for a typical stable Chinese government, it is clearly strategic to look at memes and internet jokes to convey a stance on the trade war.
“They present it in a much more harmless and interesting way. It’s very, very intelligent,” Srinivasan said. “That’s a sign of the times.”
Donald Trump Jr. will be taking photos with supporters after the City Hall meeting in Ocononowoc, Wisconsin on Monday, March 17, 2025.
(Jeffrey Phelps/Applications)
Of course, Trump and his Acolite are veterans of the Meme War (his son and advisor Donald Trump Jr. lists “Meme Wars General” in his Instagram profile). Filled with Presidential memes, X, Née Twitter helped to begin his political career as well as his crude but catchy nicknames for his opponents: the crooked Hillary Clinton, the sleepy Joe Biden, Little Marco [now Secretary of State] Rubio in particular.
Srinivasan said former reality television star Trump has long been skilled at using dark humor for his benefit, especially online, as a “this kind of hybrid trollmem guy.”
Traditional Russian wood dolls called Matrioshka, depicting Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, are available for sale at souvenir shops in St. Petersburg, Russia.
(Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)
On the internet, tariff jokes continue to come.
One widely shared POV – Internet terminology of “viewpoint” – Tiktok’s video shows a gross-looking toddler trotting professionally into an empty office. Caption: “On the way to POV: HR, I turn my colleague’s “customers” into Nick Dam and spend more than they’re worth it. ”
On YouTube, Penguin International, a non-political conservation nonprofit dedicated to studying and conserving penguins, could not resist the joy.
After Hard Island and the MacDonald’s Islands (a land of Australia, which is home to many penguins and humans) were listed on Trump’s tariff list, Penguin International announced an online protest march for the Penguins.
“Is it Waddle what we want? There are no customs duties!” Read one digital protest sign.
“Beak!” Read something else.
On Wednesday, the Colorado-based organization posted YouTube videos of annual bird travel trekking across the ice to its breeding grounds. The narrator said as they squat down and braved, “This year they march in protest. They are peace. They have no flight. But they are certainly not voiceless.”
“We wanted to adopt a rare, current event, reveal it, and stir up support for penguins who are threatened with extinction and threatened to become extinct,” said David Schutt, executive director of Penguins International, in an interview. Before the tariff announcement, he added, “Most people didn’t know about the islands on which these penguins were on.”
James Austin Johnson as President Trump left as Howard Rutnick on Saturday Night Live and Trump Tariff Cold Open on April 5, 2025.
(Heath/Getty Images)
Trump, played by James Austin Johnson in this month’s Easter-themed “Saturday Night Live” skit, said: “A lot of people call me the Messiah.
On her “Good for You” podcast on April 13, comedian Whitney Cummings joked about Trump’s motivation for using tariffs to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US.
“I have a nie from Z,” Cummings said. “They don’t intend to work in factories. They don’t even work in cheesecake factories.
Whitney Cummings, Hollywood improvisation.
(Troyconrad)
The American manufacturing industry moved mainly overseas, continuing because “no one in America should believe that no one should work for companies that treat workers badly. They want to be heads of companies that treat workers badly.”
Two nights later, Cummings performed a stand-up set with Hollywood improvisation and performed on stage hosting comedy legends such as Robin Williams, Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy.
Cummings made a bit of a political joke, including more conservative growth and trading electric vehicles with gas models after giving birth, as gas stations are the only place that is socially acceptable to leave small children alone in their vehicles.
But during her short set, she was away from the tariffs – perhaps, perhaps, interesting on the internet.
