Cancel Capital: Shane Gillis, Podcasting the Sitcom, and the Alternative Media Industries of Right-Wing Entertainment

This article examines the financial, cultural, and aesthetic characteristics of what we call “cancel capital” through the case of comedian Shane Gillis. We detail how Gillis used his cancellation from Saturday Night Live to be embraced by the alternative media industries of right-wing media. Then we consider how his hit Netflix sitcom Tires forges a new path for right-wing comedy by relying on the industrial and aesthetic practices of podcasting. We argue that Gillis represents an effective turning of the page away from the era of hyper-partisan cancellation politics. Although he still evokes and strategically deploys his pre-cancellation edge, Gillis now does so in a radically new comedy industry structured by diminished gatekeeping, algorithmic targeting, and small-scale audience building.