A Conspiracy of Laughter

How Ivy League elites captured American comedy—and how they unwittingly provoked a populist backlash.

From the critically acclaimed author of That Book Is Dangerous!.

When Sarah Silverman stepped foot inside the writer’s room at Saturday Night Live, she didn’t expect it to look like the Harvard Yard. After twenty-five weeks there, she never had a single sketch aired. The college dropout reflects, “It had never occurred to me before that there was such a strong connection between elite schools and funniness.”

Unbeknownst to many, the elite schools—Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, and Cornell—have controlled American comedy since the late 1800s. From SNL to The Simpsons to The New Yorker to The Tonight Show, a small handful of comedy writers have determined what is taboo and what is not, whom can be joked about and whom cannot.

In A Conspiracy of Laughter, Adam Szetela tells the story of how our comedy institutions came to reflect the perspectives of America’s elites. But also, more unsettlingly, how this dominance provoked a populist backlash. From The Joe Rogan Experience to Donald Trump, a new establishment has emerged.

Drawing on exclusive interviews with Ivy League alumni who have worked at SNL, The Simpsons, Late Night with David Letterman, and other institutions, as well as comedians like Theo Von who have been denied entry into these institutions, A Conspiracy of Laughter is the untold story of what happens when elites capture American comedy—and what happens when they lose their grip.