Chapo Trap House (also referred to as Chapo) is an American socialist political comedy podcast launched in March 2016. The show is hosted by its three co-founders: Will Menaker, Matt Christman, and Felix Biederman. Amber A'Lee Frost and Virgil Texas joined as recurring co-hosts in November 2016, though the latter left the series in May 2021. Chris Wade has produced the show since November 2017, following the departure of original producer Brendan James. Chapo Trap House is aligned with the dirtbag left, a style of contentious left-wing political discourse that eschews civility in favor of casual, blunt, often vulgar expression.
The show has an democratic-socialist perspective, and its co-hosts are affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The hosts are typically extremely critical of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, particularly its centrist wing. Chapo supported Bernie Sanders in his first presidential campaign in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries and his second campaign 2020 Democratic presidential primaries.
In 2018, an imprint of Simon and Schuster published The Chapo Guide to Revolution, co-written by five of the original hosts. The book debuted at number six on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Content
The Chapo hosts and producers identify with radical left-wing politics and frequently deride conservative, neoliberal, moderate, and liberal pundits. Writing for The New York Times, Nikil Saval called Chapo Trap House and its hosts "prime originators of the far left's liberal-bashing". The Pacific Standard wrote: Contemporary conservatism is the butt of many jokes on Chapo, but the harshest critiques are often saved for the Democratic Party (and for contemporary liberalism more generally). Chapo has managed to strip away the layers standard of political discourse to highlight the brutality behind policies such as "double-tap" airstrikes and for-profit health care. Biederman said the show's audience is seeking alternatives to liberal media, which he calls "the dominion of either upper-middle-class smugness when it's even the least bit funny and insufferable self-righteousness when it's even the least bit conscious". Similarly, Christman said that leftist perspectives in media tend toward either the "smug above-it-all snark of The Daily Show or the quaver-voiced earnestness of, like, Chris Hedges or something. Neither of those models offer the visceral thrill of listening to people who actually give a shit (as opposed to the wan liberalism of people who are mostly interested in showing how much smarter they are than Republicans)". Menaker has said that Chapo is meant to be in "marked contrast to the utterly humorless and bloodless path that leads many people with liberal or leftist proclivities into the trap of living in constant fear of offending some group that you're not a part of, up to and including the ruling class".
Chapo Trap House is dense with inside jokes and hyper-specific references to ongoing political discussion on Twitter. The hosts are associated with Twitter communities called "Left Twitter" and "Weird Twitter", a name used to describe a loose group of Twitter users known for absurdist humor.
Format and availability
An episode of Chapo Trap House usually lasts between 60 and 80 minutes. Episodes are typically structured with a prepared "cold open", an interview with a guest, and commentary on current events. In post-production, relevant audio samples are interspersed into the episode's discussion. The theme song—and inspiration for the show's title—is "SALUTE 2 EL CHAPO PART 1" by DJ Smokey. The show has a reading series which usually features texts by conservative and neoliberal writers, such as Ross Douthat, Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, and Rod Dreher.
Weekly free episodes of the show are available via SoundCloud, Spotify, and iTunes, among other services. Subscribers who contribute at least $5 per month via Patreon gain access to additional weekly premium bonus episodes. By May 2017, the show generated more than $60,000 a month from subscribers, and is as of September 2023 the third highest-grossing user on Patreon, earning over $180,000 per month, having once been the highest-grossing user on Patreon. Geek.com cited the show's premium content as an example of a viable revenue model for new podcasters.