Poking the Bear
Originally published on The JOLT News on October 10, 2025
Comedy is the art form that reaches the most people (especially on social media), and is unique in that it exists as its own entity, within other art forms, or as its own genre. Comedy is heavily scrutinized as tension exists between politics, comedy and free speech, both on a local and national level.
Everything I observe tells me our community is eager to laugh, critically think, and is unafraid of “poking the bear.” So, let’s poke!
Let’s discuss “The Capitol Fools” performance at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, local comedian Sam Miller’s “Political Comic-tary” from a fundraiser for Olympia City Council candidates Caleb Gieger and Robert Vanderpool, and end with an intriguing conversation with Miller and local comedian Robert Moore.
The Capitol Fools
Chatting with someone today, I said, “It’s crazy how reality is now imitating comedy.” They responded, “Yeah, but it is scary when reality stops being funny." The Capitol Fools gave us what we all needed — we needed to learn to laugh again.
It took a while to get us all to start genuinely laughing, but it did happen. The jokes were funny, but we are desensitized because of our current reality. They reminded us of who the real capitol fools are this day in age.
One comedian summarized the last 20 years of politics reversing the first letters of pairs of words. The segment ended with him telling us to keep the “soap in our holes” (or “hope in our souls”), and to look deep into our neighbor’s holes and shove soap in there if needed.
When we laugh, we win.
'Political Comic-tary'
After chatting with Miller earlier this year, I was so glad to finally see him on stage. He is hilarious, and I almost peed my pants (twice)!
There is something about Miller that makes you feel very comfortable and happy, even when he is joking about Yakima jail. Miller draws inspiration from his own life, his observations, and is very respectful (even when making a dirtier joke). Some jokes were political, others were not, and a few were seemingly “not political” but were.
I am unable to quote Miller exactly, but he made a point about how all people wanting clean water, a roof over their heads and warm clothes is “political.” These bare necessities should not be political, but they inherently are. Just look at your ballot every year and see how your vote impacts your neighbors.
I have tremendous respect for Miller and the work he is doing by getting conversations started, one laugh at a time.
A conversation with Sam Miller and Robert Moore
Chatting with Miller and Moore, I learned about a whole other dynamic to comedy I never thought of: it is all about who says what, and where. I’ll let these gentlemen explain what they mean.
“People are more afraid of the things that make them uncomfortable,” Moore said. “A black person going into an all white neighborhood talking about hood stuff is going to be weird to ... people because they were not raised like that.”
Miller responded, “I agree and (Moore’s) experience as a black comedian is going to be a lot different than my experience as a white comedian.” He added, “There’s certain things that I do on stage (like talking about crime, jail, homelessness) that if the black person were to do similar jokes, they might have to work a little harder just because of cultural stereotypes and people might shut down on that (and vice versa)."
During our conversation, Moore described seeing a video on Facebook of a white teacher and students singing happy birthday to a black student. This was one of two black students in their predominately white class. The class sang the version of the birthday song that says, “you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey, and you smell like one too.”
“I got upset,” Moore reflected, “a monkey takes on as black people have been called monkeys for years here in America.” When Moore shared this on social media, many of his white friends responded saying he should not have been upset about that. All this reminds us of what all good jokes and songs have in common — they make us laugh while respecting everyone.
“There is a difference between Robert or myself pushing back on something versus the government pushing back,” Miller said. “The government cannot tell me what I can and cannot say, but people are allowed to push back.”
The pushback can open the doors to in-depth conversations, gaining understanding, and discovering where our similarities and differences lie. It could look something like democracy.
https://www.thejoltnews.com/stories/in-the-audience-poking-the-bear,26693?