MAGA is Back to Using “Theatre Kid” as an Insult
by Chris Peterson
Well, apparently we’re doing this again.
Back in December, I wrote about the strange emergence of “theatre kid” as a political insult, particularly among MAGA and right-wing commentators. At the time, I couldn’t quite understand what theatre kids had done to suddenly find themselves dragged into political discourse.
Eight months later, they’re back at it.
On Monday, White House spokesman Davis Ingle went after Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff on X, writing: “Jon Ossoff is a cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama. Nobody gives a shit what this lightweight loser says.”
This came after Ossoff went after President Trump pretty aggressively during a campaign rally in Atlanta over the weekend. Among other things, Ossoff accused Trump of misleading Americans about the war with Iran and argued that the president seemed more interested in golfing than actually governing. What most likely set off Ingle and the rest of the MAGA movement was Ossoff’s comments about political aide Natalie Harp, with insinuations that there is more than a working relationship between her and Trump.
“He doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar,” Osoff told the crowd.
Ossoff is currently running for reelection against Republican U.S. Representative Mike Collins in what is expected to be one of the most closely watched Senate races of 2026.
And look, you can dislike Jon Ossoff. You can criticize what he said. That’s politics. There is certainly plenty there for Republicans to respond to.
But instead, somehow, we arrived at “feminine theatre kid.”
But what exactly is “feminine theatre kid” supposed to tell us? Because that phrase is doing a lot of work.
The insult only works if we accept that being feminine is somehow embarrassing, that being associated with theatre makes a man weak, and that a man who doesn't perform masculinity in whatever approved MAGA fashion is therefore unserious.
That seems like a pretty revealing collection of insecurities to cram into three words.
It’s also funny because, once again, the people using “theatre kid” as an insult don’t seem to understand theatre kids very well.
These are people who voluntarily stand in front of hundreds of strangers and risk humiliating themselves. They audition, knowing someone might reject them within 30 seconds. They take criticism constantly. They memorize pages of material, work until midnight during tech week, solve problems in real time, and somehow keep going when scenery breaks, microphones die, or someone forgets a line.
You don’t have to like theatre kids. But “weak” has never been the word I’d use to describe them.
And adding “feminine” makes the whole thing even more juvenile. What are we, 13?
Are we still at the point where accusing a man of having feminine qualities is supposed to end the conversation? Is this really the level of political discourse coming from someone speaking on behalf of the White House?
We're apparently back to: Ha! Theatre kid!
I said this in December, and apparently it bears repeating.
“Theatre kid” isn't the devastating insult some people seem to think it is.
If anything, watching grown adults repeatedly reach for it tells me much more about them than it ever will about the person they’re trying to mock.
And for full transparency, I donated $25 to Ossoff’s reelection campaign.