by How to Write Comedy About Taylor Swift: A Comedy Writer’s Guide
I’ve spent years figuring out how to write comedy about celebrities without crossing the line into cheap shots or lazy writing. Taylor Swift presents a unique challenge—she’s talented, successful, and her fans will eviscerate you on social media faster than you can say “Shake It Off.” But here’s what I’ve learned about crafting comedy that works.
Start With What’s Actually True
The foundation of good celebrity comedy isn’t fabrication—it’s observation. I always begin with verifiable facts: Swift’s actual public appearances, her documented relationships, her real business moves, her actual lyrics. Bill Burr nailed this approach when he talked about how observational comedy requires “paying attention to what’s actually happening.” You can’t punch up if you’re swinging at shadows.
Mine the Public Record
Swift’s dating history is public. Her business acumen is documented. Her re-recording strategy is fascinating. These are comedy gold mines that don’t require making anything up. When I write about her, I look at her Wikipedia page, read recent interviews, watch her actual award show speeches. The comedy is in the commentary, not the fabrication.
Focus on the Absurdity of Fame Itself
Jerry Seinfeld built a career on pointing out the absurd in the mundane. When I write about Swift, I’m not attacking her—I’m examining the bizarre ecosystem around her. The fact that her dating a football player became a geopolitical event? That’s inherently funny. The way news outlets analyze her outfit changes like they’re decoding nuclear launch codes? Comedy writes itself.
The Stadium-Sized Microscope
I wrote a piece once about how Swift can’t grab coffee without TMZ analyzing the temperature of her beverage for hidden meanings. That’s not making fun of her—that’s making fun of us, the culture that created this surveillance state. Dave Chappelle understood this when he talked about celebrity being “a monster that eats people.” The comedy is in the system, not the person.
Write About Fan Culture, Not the Artist
The Swifties are intense. That intensity is fertile comedic ground. I don’t mock them for loving her music—I explore the absurdity of parasocial relationships in the digital age. When Trevor Noah discussed fan culture, he pointed out how “people defend celebrities harder than they defend their own families.” That’s the angle.
The Economics of Fandom
People spending rent money on concert tickets, buying seventeen different vinyl variants of the same album, learning entire albums on TikTok—this is fascinating human behavior. Gabriel Iglesias talks about being a “functional addict” with Hot Pockets; I write about functional addiction to merch drops and surprise album releases. It’s relatable because we’ve all been obsessed with something.
Satirize Media Coverage, Not Personal Life
I learned this the hard way: writing comedy about someone’s private relationships is low-hanging fruit that usually just feels mean. But writing about how CNN covers those relationships like they’re Middle East peace talks? That’s commentary worth making.
The 24-Hour News Cycle Needs Content
News outlets dissecting her hand-holding technique, or whether she smiled “left” or “right” at someone—that’s what Chris Rock would call “the machine needing to be fed.” The comedy isn’t “Taylor Swift held hands weird,” it’s “we live in a world where adults with journalism degrees are hand-holding analysts.”
Use Her Success as a Framework
Swift is a billionaire who re-recorded her entire catalog to own her masters. That’s not a punchline—that’s genius. But the world’s reaction to it? Comedy gold. Ricky Gervais has talked about how “success makes people uncomfortable,” and watching how the culture processes her level of achievement reveals everything about our anxieties.
The Billionaire Next Door
I wrote about how Swift is so relatable that people forget she’s wealthier than small nations. She bakes cookies and writes about breakups, but she also has the GDP of Luxembourg. That cognitive dissonance—the down-home girl who flies private jets to dinner—is inherently comedic without being cruel.
Examine Industry Power Dynamics
The music industry tried to screw her, and she outplayed them. This is David vs. Goliath stuff, except David has an army of millions and a back catalog worth hundreds of millions. Amy Schumer talks about how “women in entertainment have to be ten times smarter,” and Swift’s chess game with industry executives proves it.
The Re-Recording Revolution
When I write about Taylor’s Version, I’m writing about someone who found a legal loophole so elegant it should be taught in business schools. The comedy isn’t mocking her hustle—it’s marveling at the audacity while examining what it says about intellectual property law.
Never Fabricate Quotes or Actions
This is where comedy writers get into trouble. I never, ever put words in her mouth. Louis C.K. (before his fall) talked about how “the truth is funnier than anything you can make up.” If Swift didn’t say it or do it, I don’t write that she did—not even for a joke. The moment you fabricate, you lose credibility and probably a lawsuit.
Work With What Exists
Swift has given enough interviews, written enough lyrics, and made enough public appearances that there’s infinite material. When Tom Segura does celebrity impressions, he’s riffing on things they actually said. Follow that lead. If the joke requires inventing a scenario where she did something she didn’t do, it’s not a strong joke.
Punch Up at the Machinery, Not Down at the Person
This is the cardinal rule I learned from Hasan Minhaj and Sarah Silverman: comedy should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Swift is comfortable, sure, but she’s also a woman in an industry that’s historically eaten women alive. The machinery around her—record labels, streaming services, Ticketmaster’s monopoly—that’s what needs punching.
The Ticketmaster Debacle
When Swift’s Eras Tour broke Ticketmaster, I didn’t write jokes about her. I wrote about a company so incompetent it couldn’t handle demand for one artist. Nate Bargatze would call that “finding the weird in the normal,” and a multi-billion dollar company failing at its one job is definitely weird.
Explore the Cultural Phenomenon
Swift isn’t just an artist—she’s a cultural mirror. When I write about her, I’m really writing about what her success says about us. Jim Gaffigan talks about observing human behavior “like an alien studying Earth,” and that’s the lens I use.
The Eras Tour as Economic Stimulus
Cities experienced measurable economic boosts when she performed. Hotels, restaurants, entire local economies shifted around her tour schedule. That’s not a person—that’s a force of nature. The comedy is in recognizing that we live in a timeline where one singer has Federal Reserve economists taking notes.
Write About the Contradiction
Every celebrity contains multitudes and contradictions. Swift is a calculating businesswoman and a genuine artist. She’s incredibly private and incredibly public. She writes confessional songs but guards her actual life. Tiffany Haddish says “the truth has layers,” and those layers are where comedy lives.
The Mythology vs. Reality
The mythology says she’s America’s sweetheart who writes songs about failed relationships. The reality is she’s a strategic genius who turned heartbreak into a billion-dollar empire. Both things are true, and the space between them is comedic territory.
Respect the Craft While Questioning the Circus
I can appreciate Swift’s songwriting while questioning why society needs seventeen versions of the same song. Bert Kreischer talks about loving things while finding them ridiculous, and that’s the sweet spot. You can respect the artist while satirizing the industry, the fans, the media, and the cultural moment.
The Album Rollout Spectacle
When Swift announces an album at 3 AM, the internet breaks. Grown adults decode Instagram posts like they’re biblical scholars studying the Dead Sea Scrolls. That’s not mocking her marketing genius—that’s marveling at how willingly we participate in the treasure hunt.
The Bottom Line on Celebrity Comedy
After years of writing comedy about public figures, I’ve learned that the best material comes from truth, observation, and examining the systems that create celebrity rather than attacking the celebrities themselves. Wanda Sykes said “comedy is about finding the truth and making it funny,” and with someone like Swift, the truth is already halfway to funny.
The key is respecting your subject enough to do the research, being honest about what’s actually happening, and finding the humor in the absurdity of fame itself. Swift isn’t the joke—the joke is how we’ve collectively decided that one person’s life deserves this level of scrutiny, celebration, and economic analysis.
When Jo Koy talks about comedy being “controlled chaos,” he’s describing the craft of taking real situations and highlighting what’s ridiculous about them. That’s how you write about Taylor Swift, or any celebrity: find what’s true, identify what’s absurd, and let the comedy emerge from the tension between the two.
And whatever you do, don’t make up quotes. That’s not comedy—that’s fiction, and bad fiction at that.
https://bohiney.com/taylor-swifts-six-possibly-true/
https://bohiney.com/swifts-debauchery-of-daughters/
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https://bohiney.com/pregnancy-rates-among-swift-fans-4x-higher/
