this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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Still not hearing any definitive proof. Professional comedians, especially well educated ones, can and do have quick and witty comebacks pretty often. And like I said, it's possible that he gets heckled so much because of his reputation for engaging with hecklers, so it may attract overconfident hecklers to come see him.
I'm not gonna knock the late, great Robin Williams, but it's a little weird to say that he's the only person capable of disarming a heckler this effectively. I think most accomplished comedians could do what Steve Hofstetter does, more or less; he is much more knowledgeable about economics and civics than most probably are, so he's able to wield that handily.
Idk anything about his reputation for being an asshole. He's constantly getting work and tours with a consistent group and seems like a good dude, so I have my doubts, and I'm not interested in looking that up for myself when you're not even willing to do it to prove it to me. And yes, hecklers do get tossed from his shows. He usually tries to get them to stop, and then if they don't then he usually embarrasses them to the point that they leave on their own, but some are so shameless that they do need to be removed. That generally happens after the rest of the crowd gets so pissed off that a fight seems likely.
I'm not saying that there aren't plants. I'm saying that I'm only seeing speculation and no actual proof to support that accusation. I'm not down with alleging that he's a fraud when there's no evidence to do so. Imagine destroying his livelihood just because you didn't believe he could possibly be this good at his full time job lol. Comedians are notoriously good at this sort of thing.
Just look him up. There’s plant of people that have flowered with and for him that say he’s a huge asshole.
But for some reason, the internet loves protecting him.
What? I'm really trying to understand, but you're making it pretty difficult.
It's clear that you have no evidence or you wouldn't keep telling me to do the research to find the evidence that supports your claims. I'm not sure why you think I care so much about this when you don't even care enough to cite a single source. It's not my job to prove you right here.
There's really nothing unbelievable to me about his hecklers except for maybe the sheer quantity, but I'm not a comedian so maybe this isn't actually so extreme. Maybe if I did 300 shows per year and filmed all of them, I'd have a similar trove, especially if tickets were relatively cheap and I had a reputation for being "that guy who owns hecklers". I bet the truth is that he doesn't plant hecklers, but every interaction with one is more content for the content farm, so he's not actively interested in dissuading hecklers from being a problem. I've seen a video or two where it seemed like he was provoking somebody a little because they were quietly talking or not paying attention during the show, so by initiating over a minor thing I think he was inviting a real interruption. I don't think he plants, but I think he welcomes drama. Maybe that's not cool, but idk, it's pretty much impossible to be a successful content creator without resorting to hooks or clickbait or elevating energies.
If you have proof, bring that bombshell to a journalist. If you don't have proof and you just don't like the guy, stop watching him.
The quantity of hecklers we see actually makes complete sense based on what he said in this 8-year old reddit thread.
Thanks for doing the legwork. That was a good read. It makes a lot of sense now that I see real numbers. It even makes sense that he's pretty confrontational to establish that he won't put up with it. Real teacher energy there lol, and I think I've heard him say that he was a teacher earlier in his life.
I'm glad I didn't just outright believe that claim about plants. I was trying to be open minded if there were any credible bits of evidence to prove otherwise, but I really didn't have any reason to believe he used plants until I saw that accusation. How fucking silly to say such a thing with absolutely nothing to back it up and keep saying "look it up." Well you looked it up and found a reasonable explanation from the man himself lol. Thanks :)