When we last checked on Conner O’Malley, it was mid-2018. We were a year and a half into Donald Trump’s presidency, and the kinds of characters O’Malley portrayed in his cult online videos — miserable American men bursting with unrestrained rage fueled in equal parts by conspiracy theories, 3 p.m. airings of The Matrix Revolutions on AMC, unreturned OnlyFans DMs, and decades-old cases of Halo 3 Mountain Dew Game Fuel bought in bulk off Craigslist — were thriving in manic realities of their own creation. But as the calendar turned to 2020 and the gloating waned, these Americans found themselves stuck in the same depressing stasis from which those in power in Washington and in far-right online forums have long promised to free them.
While O’Malley’s earlier videos emphasize how those members of the silent majority were being suckered by Trump’s braying promises, the comedian’s oeuvre since late 2018 spotlights how these spittle-spewing Patriots with a trample fetish have been gleefully crushed under the weight of failing institutions uprooted by a proudly ignorant government. The Trump presidency may be over, but, like a rotting fish left in the walls by a disgruntled employee, it’s impossible to escape the smell of Trumpism in nearly every aspect of American life. Armed with his trusty GoPro and selfie stick, O’Malley has tackled global commerce and the stock market, tin-hat conspiracies about diseases and antifa, police brutality and the historic protests against it, late-era American capitalism and empire, and even the late-night talk-show format, all in his now-signature style of wide-eyed, foaming-at-the-mouth psychotic comedy. Here’s a guide to the best of his recent videos.
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