Ann Coulter may love comedy more than she hates liberals. I know, because back in the early months of 2001, she and I were friends.
We met in a private internet community called “The Stump,” launched in 2000 by Jay Kogen, who won an Emmy for writing a Frasier episode. The Stump was populated with TV comedy writers and funny actors. It was a free-wheeling conversation space and when Coulter joined, some members of the Stump did not welcome the brash conservative warmly. But I’d read her book, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton, and agreed with a lot of it. Also, to paraphrase Lou Grant, I like brash.
Coulter didn’t stick around the Stump for long so I reached out to her on my own. We became AOL Instant Messaging buddies for three reasons: (1) she liked that I’d worked on Letterman, The Simpsons, and created the ABC sitcom Sabrina, the Teenage Witch; (2) Coulter was a night owl and her East Coast 2 a.m. was my West Coast 11 p.m.; and (3) I shared a first name with Coulter’s mother.
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Coulter posted this when Tim Walz’s Gus melted hearts with his heartfelt love of his father at the Democratic National Convention, deleted it, then offered a non-apology.
Ann Coulter/XOur online chats in the spring of 2001 focused mainly on writing and boys. Coulter was single and looking to date. She even told me about a make-out session she’d recently enjoyed with a writer for The New York Times. (Oh, how times have changed!)
Still, our budding friendship never flowered. That September, al-Qaeda terrorists from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Egypt hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We were all emotional in our responses to that terrifying and deadly attack. But Coulter’s response was extreme.
“We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” she wrote in a column for the National Review Online headlined “This is War.”
That seemed to be a turning point for Coulter. I stopped our chats since I did not find her Christofascist Islamophobia endearing... although a lot of people did. In fact, making outrageous and often violent statements quickly became Coulter’s signature move.
Despite outrage being her bread-and-butter, Coulter continued to believe comedy is her jam. In her 2018 book Resistance is Futile!, Coulter thanks three comedy writers in her acknowledgments. They include Melanie Graham, who Coulter points out “was formerly addicted to drugs as she is currently addicted to all things ME (note to people on twelve-step programs: The thirteenth step is reading all my books and subscribing to the higher power of ME).” Coulter also mentions Ned Rice, noting that he wrote for Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and Joan Rivers, among others, before adding, “Despite his pedigree, I’ve never really needed his input.” HAHAHA. And finally she thanks stand-up Rodney Lee Conover. (Never heard of him.)
Coulter, seen debating Bill Maher, has wanted to be seen as a comedian but there is nothing funny about what she says.
Lucas Jackson/ReutersWanting to cozy up to funny people helps explain why Coulter agreed to participate in Rob Lowe’s 2016 Comedy Central Roast. Insults flew fast that night. “Ann Coulter has written 11 books—12 if you count Mein Kampf,” joked Nikki Glaser. Pete Davidson piled on. “Last year we had Martha Stewart, who sells sheets, and this year we have Ann Coulter, who cuts eye-holes in them.” Even the singer Jewel—soulful, kind-hearted Jewel!—expressed her delight in the hate being heaped on Coulter.
When Coulter was part of a Comedy Central Rob Lowe roast, even Jewel (right) had nothing good to say.
Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media via Getty ImagesWhen Coulter got to the podium, she had her chance to hit back. Instead, she made jokes like, “I’m hoping to persuade you all to vote for Trump, but most of all I want you [to vote], David.” She pointed at the host, David Spade. “Because it would prove the media is lying when they say that Trump won’t get the vote of a single [repeats his last name.]” To be clear, this racist slur was not given to Coulter by Comedy Central’s writing staff. Coulter proudly insisted to TMZ Live that she wrote all her own jokes with the help of “a few friends.”
At the end of the roast, Lowe summed up Coulter’s performance, saying, “Ann, after seeing your set tonight, I think we’ve all just witnessed the first bombing that you can’t blame on a Muslim.”
It’s funny ’cause it’s true.
The intention of comedy is to elicit a response which, in turn, creates an experience that is both connective and collective. That’s why we say people “share” a laugh. Coulter doesn’t understand that an insult that isn’t funny is just an insult. And saying things no one else would dare say could mean you’re rude, not funny. Coulter misses the comedic mark so often that even when she targets Donald Trump, she does it in a way that makes a liberal squirm.
Coulter started off as a Donald Trump superfan, but broke up with him when he failed to live up to her exacting anti-Muslim standards. In February 2024, when someone on X asked how Donald Trump could “help us take America back,” Coulter replied: “Maybe he could die?”
This was, of course, Coulter’s idea of a joke–outrageous and violent. It’s also tasteless and provocative. Am I saying that the FBI should investigate whether would-be Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks followed Coulter on X and saw her quip? Nope. Not for me to say.
But the most disappointment I’ve ever felt toward my former late-night AIM pal was when she became the first pundit to mock the son of the vice presidential nominee for expressing his pride for his father. Gus Walz’s reaction at last week’s Democratic National Convention warmed the heart of anyone who had one. Coulter’s negative response to an emotional teenager was so warped and crude that even she had second thoughts. She removed the post, claiming, “I took it down as soon as someone told me he’s austistc (sic).”
Gus, the son of U.S. Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, reacts on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention.
Brendan McDermid/ReutersThere’s so much wrong with this take. First, Coulter added a “but” and then tried to blame her tastelessness on others which negates the apology. Second, the Democrats calling Trump and JD Vance weird is both hilariously funny and factual. And third, Gwen and Tim Walz had previously released a statement that explained, “Gus has a non-verbal learning disorder in addition to an anxiety disorder and ADHD, conditions that millions of Americans also have.” Coulter’s description of Gus as “austistc” was not only grossly misspelled but grossly misinformed.
In short, it was neither funny nor was it true.
The best description of Coulter’s relationship with comedy is this, “No one alive will admit to having no sense of humor, but the fact is some people don’t.”
These words were written by Coulter herself with no sense of irony.
Now that’s funny.
