Veganism In Comedy

Vegans, who likes them? Not even vegans themselves if the way that stand-up comics, whether vegan or not, talk about them Some of the typical jabs that comics go for are the uppity attitude that they have or about the body strength that they lack Why these come up, I have no clue. Perhaps it is due to them not liking the idea of them not eating meat or dairy. But clearly this hate for them is odd and unjustified because some comedy icons that many of us love like Weird Al Yankovic and Steve-O from Jackass eat plant-based meals so clearly, no one hates every vegan With this in mind, in this piece, I want to look at some stand-up bits by vegan and non-vegan comics alike to note some of the ways that the caricature of the vegan is characterized and perhaps see why the caricature exists in the first place.

There are plenty of the go to jokes that I have noticed across a multiplicity of comedians (vegan and not) can be seen in this joke compilation Whether vegan or not, many of these jokes are about vegans not having many friends, or about vegans lacking physical strength The first joke comes up due to stereotypes about vegans and people finding these stereotypes to be obnoxious. The latter comes from the composition of a vegan diet being a diet that is not as rich in protein or amino acids as a standard diet is. I assume that these jokes are popular because everyone knows that vegan in their life who is sort of an uppity prick about it, and it is common knowledge that protein is very important in muscular development These jokes stem from a feeling of familiarity, a feeling of connection between the comic and the audience A joke can land successfully if it is something that only the comic has experienced, but a joke will land much easier if it is familiar to us, hence why an obnoxious vegan is such an easy target, even for vegan comics.

One of my favorite bits about being vegan and the treatment that results from it is awkward boy Julio Torres s The Hardest Part of Being Vegan. In this bit he recounts how he feels he is being treated differently from others due to being vegan. In the bit, he talks about a doctor’s visit, the shame he feels for being vegan, and how veganism impacted his social life A phrase he says that is relevant to the rest of the bit is “The hardest part of being vegan is all the umm… the uh… the apologizing.” From this phrase we can infer that he feels a sense of shame from his veganism, and this is all but confirmed in the following lines of the bit, in which he states that, while he does not miss meat or dairy, he misses having fun and being liked. He then follows this bit by recounting a doctor’s visit where he was told that he is seriously underweight

He takes this as a smart-ass comment and replies, “you too” to the doctor From the entirety of this bit, we can assume that he has not had the best experience being vegan and the caricature of vegans has had some impact on his life (assuming that he is not playing this all up as a joke)

Another reason why vegans may not be well liked is revealed in this Brian Simpson joke. Here, he talks about the hypocrisy of vegans, which is why he dislikes some of them. In this bit, he talks to a member of the audience who is vegan and one of her friends catches her eating pizza with cheese on it He uses this as an example of some of the hypocritical behavior that some vegans participate in. To me, this reminds me of some of the abhorrent treatment of animals that PETA participates in, killing most of the animals that they receive to take care of or give them proper homes

It is this type of hypocritical behavior that makes people dislike organizations like PETA, they cannot really put their money where their mouths are. This is the very same case for the example that Brian Simpson calls out in his audience She openly admitted she was vegan but was quickly called out on non-vegan behavior and thus was a hypocrite, and everyone is annoyed by a hypocrite. This helps build upon the caricature of the vegan in comedy.

The character of the vegan is someone who wants to be envied but is just sneered at for the way that they express this feeling

Nigel Grinstead did a fantastic bit called The Problem With Vegans in which he addresses the issue of envy within the vegan community, but not in the same way that I had discussed earlier In this bit, he addresses and asks why vegans name and compare their food to ones with meat in them He simply addresses it as something odd, something that makes you concerned about the food that you are about to eat. And this issue is not only for food but for milk alternatives too.

Jack Whitehall does a bit for his Netflix special, I’m Only Joking, about the various “milks” and why it is an absurd name for them.

In this bit, he discusses that the sheer number and variety of the “milks” is now absurd with milks like almond, cashew, oat, soy, hemp seed, coconut, and more He then goes more in depth and asks why these are called milks when you cannot really milk the seeds and nuts. They should just be called “nut juices” rather than “nut milks”. This loosely connects to something from Julio Torres’s bit from earlier and the feeling of isolation due to being vegan I do believe that there is a sense of envy within the vegan community of not wanting to feel left out just because of a lifestyle choice. This adds to the caricature of the vegan that has been built, they are people who want to be envied because they feel like outcasts

Through the examination of vegans in comedy, I think I have come up with the reason why vegans have this character built around them: it is because they want to be understood and accepted. This caricature is one even used by vegan comedians to connect with their audience and be understood It is a caricature that most people know now and can laugh at; it aids in feeling less lonely because of a lifestyle choice I am not saying this is right or wrong; I am simply stating my observations regarding vegan comedians, and the general attitude towards vegans