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Nate Bargatze is one of those male comedians that centers his comedy around being relatable. His standup jokes are about his wife, family, and other real-life anecdotes. He’s been described as “comedy Xanax” and “the most inoffensive comedian alive.” Essentially, he’s considered one of the safe, less problematic comedians out there. I became familiar with him when he hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2023 and 2024. His most well-known sketches are the “Washington’s Dream” ones, where Georgie W is talking with members of the Continental Army in an intimate setting.
Nate has also been married to his wife, Laura Bargatze, for almost 20 years. She’s a frequent topic for jokes in his standup routine. They’re generally fairly tame, though. Whenever someone’s partner makes it into their comedy routine, there are always some side-eyes and questioning if it’s all on the up-and-up. Good news for Nate’s fans: Laura is totally on board with being a part of his act. She knows that her husband is doing it from “a place of love.”
Stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze often talks about his wife Laura Bargatze during his sets — especially when he’s talking about how she manages their household and finances.
The good news? She’s fully in on the joke.
“She’s been fine with it,” Nate tells PEOPLE with a laugh. “She’s got a great sense of humor, and she likes it when we’re making fun of each other. But you have to show love.”
He admits that when he was first starting, he was less adept at the gentle mocking, and it didn’t come off very well.
“At the beginning, when I first started, this was something I didn’t know how to do very well,” he says. “You have to show that it’s coming from a place of love for the audience to go along with you. And at the beginning, I was not showing that very well, and you could feel the crowd be like, ‘Man, just be divorced,’ Which was not the point. So yeah, you have to learn how to do it.”
He adds that if he’s teasing his wife onstage — whom he met while they were both waiting tables at Applebee’s in Nashville when they were in their early 20s — he needs to make sure he’s making fun of himself twice as hard.
“The jokes are mostly on me,” he says. “I want to make fun of her, I have to make fun of me times two. But I’m very fortunate in that she’s been very good about it. And she still keeps providing me with material.”
Bargatze, who just released his first book, Big Dumb Eyes: Stories From a Simpler Mind, just two weeks after being tapped to host this year’s Emmy Awards, says his recent rise to global fame has been a wild ride. (He shot to a new level of stardom when he hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time in 2023.)
“I’ve been doing comedy for 20 years, but it does feel like it happened overnight,” he say of fame after hosting. “To reach the mainstream has just been a whole other level.”
“Life is still pretty normal,” he says, noting that he and Laura and their daughter Harper still live in the same house and neighborhood in Nashville, and mostly hang out with their neighbors and old friends.
“We live in a very normal neighborhood and not really around show business, so it’s as normal as it can be,” he says. “But yeah, I mean it’s changing‚ if anyone sees my brother or sister’s last name, now they’re like “Are you [related] to…?’ But everybody’s taking it in stride and is super supportive.”
Comedians don’t tend to have a good history when it comes to including their partners in their jokes, so I’m always a little leery with Wife Guy comics. I think that when it comes to teasing your significant other in comedy, there’s a fine line between appropriate, overshare, and misogyny. That said, I’m really glad to hear that Laura is okay with being a stable fixture in his routine. There are a lot of couples and families out there whose love language is teasing. I also appreciate Nate recognizing that it took him a little while to figure out the correct tone and balance. He could have gotten super defensive, but he didn’t. He seems like a really decent person. It’s cool to hear that he, Laura, and their daughter are still living a normal, down-to-earth life despite all of his recent success.
His standup are great. Funny aside, the only one who gets to decide if his partner jokes are appropriate/ok/pick your word… is his partner.
On one side yes. But if he wants to have an audience he has to relate to the people attending.
There have been a couple of stand up comedians who’s jokes about their partners are waaay too much. As in, so many male comedians that I cant remember which ones who do it. Just the ones who don’t.
Jim Gaffigan has always been amazing about about his family. And he’s hilarious.
A Chicago radio host was at his Peoria show (start of a new Bargatze tour), and said the couples counseling jokes didn’t quite land. He heard pain in a relationship more than humor.
Who knows? I thought Ali Wong’s Don Wong standup special was not funny and very harsh on her then-husband.
Totally agree, @lamejudi. I was in the middle of completing a divorce when I watched the first two Ali Wong specials and my thoughts were a) she said that out loud?!? And b) they won’t be married long. It was hilarious because we can all see that stuff in our relationships but I can’t imagine her husband was happy to hear it.
I do think men rip on their wives often so it’s less common for women to use it in their comedy. I do love Ali!!
I really love Ali Wong, but that special knocked me back on my heels. I was expecting maybe some insightful points about power dynamics being revealed even in the most egalitarian of partnerships. But basically she married him for safety and he doesn’t make her wet. It was something.
Rumors of him cheating and being incredibly inappropriate with fans were widely circulating as well at the time, so it felt like a set up to the next chapter, her not “needing” him and them moving on to being able to co parent well. Fingers crossed.
And the fact that we all remember Ali’s special is such a stark reminder that when men do something it’s just Thursday. But when women do it, it’s so shocking it’s remembered years later.
Although to be fair that special was brutal 😂
I love what he said about having to work at his tone.
Understanding the audience came away thinking he should get divorced, realizing he didn’t want to give that kind of impression and working on his style and delivery.
One of his Netflix specials was recommended to me several years ago.
But part of his special was about his dog dying. And my dog had just died, and I didn’t find any of it funny.
I should probably try to watch it again, with some emotional distance on that.
Thank you for the dog death trigger warning. I would not be ok with that. Like … bullying your best friend after they pass away.
He is a great story teller and has some really funny bits. I remember seeing clips of some early stand up of his, where he talked about going back to his hotel room drunk after a show, getting naked (?) and going into the hallway thinking it was the bathroom, and then being drunk, naked and locked out of the hotel room. Which is funny, but also really raised my eyebrows on his extracurriculars.
Anyway, tone is hard to get right.
I went to high school with a somewhat successful comedian (he’s got Amazon specials) and his wife. He was a few years older than me, she was a few years younger. A lot of his act is thing’s about his wife that drive him crazy. Since I know his wife (and the in laws he talks about), a lot of it’s pretty funny to me. My husband, who doesn’t know any of them, thinks it comes off as more mean. His wife runs the production of his shows and for a while was posting on social media hashtagging the slightly unflattering nickname he calls her in the shows, and they do a podcast together where she zings him good. I don’t know if I’d find it funny if I didn’t know all the background stuff.
90% of the things he just talked about in this clip are things I do to my beloved so I’m feeling kind of seen. I swear I’m going to pick up his birthday present I told him I was getting him back in February! It’s just that whenever I pass the record store they’re either closed or I have other stuff to do…
I barely know this guy exists and I have no idea how his wife jokes go. Glad they’re all ok with it, I guess.
I just remember buying my dad a Ron White album and Ron’s jokes about his wife and her family made me think, “y’all are gonna get divorced, I wouldn’t have said that in public about relatives.”
I’ve watched a lot of his specials and he never really says anything mean about her. A running theme is that she is very frugal and he gives examples. He is actually mostly self deprecating and tells humorous stories. I can’t actually picture him being mean, he seems very mellow.
I’ve loved this dude since 2017 when he first appeared in the Netflix series The Standups.
It’s STILL the funniest thing I’ve ever seen him do- but I enjoy seeing whatever he does (and this is coming from someone who saw Dave Chappelle and Bill Burr when they came to Pittsburgh a couple years ago).