Comedians inherently embody the voice of the disenfranchised outsider because the role of truth spotter can only be properly performed by one who is on the outside looking in. That’s why people who were popular kids growing up rarely make decent comedians. That’s why so many Jews have been comedians in different times and places, and for the same reason why an incredibly disproportionate number of Canadians have dominated American comedy. The whole thing only works because the comedian can clearly see the absurdity of the game that he’s been excluded from (which is also why being neurodivergent coupled with high verbal IQ makes for great comedians and comedy writers.)
Unsurprisingly, once a comedian becomes an icon who can fill a stadium with people ready to laugh before they even hear the punchline, the comedian is no longer performing comedy, he’s an incumbent leading a political rally (I don’t mean that metaphorically.) I think that’s why Steve Martin just up and walked away from stand up at the peak of his unprecedented level of popularity in the early 80s. He was filling stadiums and he just stopped cold and people were shocked. When Dave Chappelle was the gawky black kid pointing out the quirks of race and culture in America at the end of 20th century, he was a comedian. 21st century Dave is an apparatus of the power structures. One has to be willfully gullible to pretend that there’s anything truly subversive about his act.