Grace Kuhlenschmidt’s Comedy Is The Perfect Antidote To The 2024 Election

Chicago has been electrifying since the Democratic National Convention rolled into town this week, but almost 5 miles north of the United Center, it feels like a regular Wednesday morning when I meet Grace Kuhlenschmidt for breakfast.

The Daily Show correspondent is visiting from Brooklyn to cover the festivities, observing and interviewing some of the 50,000 people who’ve rolled into town.

Little Goat Diner, chef Stephanie Izard’s hot spot in the Lakeview neighborhood, is nearly empty inside when Kuhlenschmidt warmly greets me, wearing a striped green button-up and jeans. We shuffle into a corner booth, a neon pink goat glowing above her head, ready to unpack the whirlwind week and her skyrocketing career.

Kuhlenschmidt, who’s 29, spent 2017 to 2020 in Chicago, performing at iO Theater and Second City while making comedy videos on TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, some of which put her on the radar of Comedy Central producers. She joined the show officially last October, affectionately referring to herself as its “straight lesbian correspondent,” and was promoted to a correspondent role in April.

This week, she’s part of The Daily Show team covering the DNC. On Monday, for example, she compared The Bean to a clitoris on national television, and on Tuesday, she laid out “dad-bait” on the DNC floor, attempting to lure Gov. Tim Walz into an interview.

“What’s been cracking me up is that some of the costumes from the Republican convention, people are wearing almost the exact same thing at the Democratic convention, like cowboy hats that say ‘USA’ on them,” says Kuhlenschmidt, who grew up in the Pacific Palisades enclave of Los Angeles before attending Skidmore College in upstate New York. “Those are being sold to absolutely anyone.”

While political humor is often biting and existential, Kuhlenschmidt’s absurdist sensibility is likely to complement the intense, final stretch of election season. Granted, she considers herself new to politics.

“I got a D in every government history class I’ve ever taken, so I’m learning from the best,” she jokes, referring to colleagues like Michael Kosta and Ronny Chieng. “Politics and humor go hand in hand, because our political system is so f*cking stupid. It already feels comical to me that we only have two options, and even if you don’t agree with Kamala [Harris], I know I personally just have to vote for her. That is funny in itself.”

Since President Biden’s departure from the race on July 21, she’s found her job creatively reenergized (“You can only use the ‘Biden is old’ joke so many times”). She recently aced a cognitive exam that Trump called “difficult” and asked Harris rally attendees if Walz was the “white guy” for the VP job.

“I don’t think comedy needs to be politically incorrect to be smart.”

At Little Goat Diner, as she orders an open-faced breakfast sandwich called The Little Piggy — a scallion cheddar biscuit, topped with a sunny-side-up egg and sausage — I mention that she went to the same high school as Kim Kardashian. She thinks it’s funny (and “totally” plausible) to imagine the Kardashians in politics.

“I had the same AP Calculus teacher as Kim. Obviously very different times, but that teacher was super strict, and she was like, ‘Kim Kardashian was so smart.’ If she said that, it probably was true because she wasn’t really saying niceties about anyone,” Kuhlenschmidt says. “She didn’t say the same about Kourtney.”

Kuhlenschmidt’s social media following hasn’t quite reached the heights of the Kardashian family’s, but she boasts an impressive 300,000 followers on TikTok, where she shares comedy videos on a variety of subjects, from influencer culture to sexuality and body image, all of which sometimes converge wonderfully.

I ask whether she thinks cancel culture and political correctness are ruining comedy, as some comedians have lamented. “I’ve never been at a show and thought, ‘Wow, I’m so glad that this comedian said something almost insulting.’ That just doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t think comedy needs to be politically incorrect to be smart,” she says, listing Sydnee Washington, Pat Regan, and Mary Beth Barone as her favorite comedians.

This sensibility is on display in her jokes about body image. “I pretty much have always been fat. To me, I think a better joke than making fun of someone being fat is making fun of someone who’s making fun of someone for being fat. If I were to choose to make fun of someone for being on Ozempic, or even just talk about it, I don’t know how badly they struggle with their body,” she says. “Do I think I would get more roles if I were skinnier? Yeah, I kind of do. Does that mean I’m gonna change something about myself? No, because I’m in a place where I’m totally content and accept and love my body. But a lot of people don’t have that.”

The Daily Show is a great fit for her comedy style, she says, because its writers aren’t in the business of punching down or joking about struggle.

As we finish our meals, Kuhlenschmidt runs through what the rest of her day will look like: several hours of work, followed by dinner with her Daily Show colleagues. She’s already looking forward to going home to Brooklyn on Friday. She’s moving to a new, “aesthetically cute” apartment next week, wrapping up her standup tour this fall, and brainstorming a comedic bit about her new obsession, the WNBA.

“I’m really passionate about the New York Liberty. Maybe [it’s] them training me to be a WNBA player,” she says, before telling me about the team’s mascot, a “straight-up slutty” elephant named Ellie. As we scooch out of the booth to leave, I tell her I’ve got to look more into Ellie — this is Chicago Sky country, after all — and her eyes go wide with excitement. “You must.”