Screengrab via SaturdayNightLive/YouTube

Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer tries trolling Aziz Ansari, gets trolled instead

Apparently, everyone saw Richard Spencer cry on TV.

Samantha Grasso 

Samantha Grasso

Internet Culture

Published Jan 23, 2017   Updated May 25, 2021, 3:54 am CDT

The internet is showing no remorse to a neo-Nazi who got punched in the face after President Donald Trump‘s inauguration.

On Sunday, just days after being attacked, alt-right leader Richard Spencer tweeted at Aziz Ansari, who hosted this weekend’s Saturday Night Live episode, in response to Ansari’s standup monologue. 

During his bit, Ansari mentioned the alt-right movement, one that embraces racism, white supremacy, and the preservation of the white race in the U.S., not by name but by the term, “lower-case K.K.K.“

“The problem is, there’s a new group… I’m talking about these people that, as soon as Trump won, they’re like, ‘We don’t have to pretend like we’re not racist anymore! We don’t have to pretend anymore! We can be racist again! Whoo!,'” Ansari said. “You know who I’m talking about. There’s like this new lower-case K.K.K. movement that started. This kind of casual white supremacy.”

The monologue struck a chord with Spencer, who asked Ansari if he’d been triggered by the neo-Nazi’s work.

Given that Spencer had just been filmed being punched by a man with alleged ties to the black bloc (a protesting tactic rooted in anarchism, where people dress in all black to identify each other while remaining anonymous) while giving an interview after Friday’s inauguration, the internet had a different take on who really had been “triggered” this weekend.

https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/823339198195367936

https://twitter.com/JoeBerkowitz/status/823339687288963072

https://twitter.com/MilesKlee/status/823342694571216896

Yes, everyone, absolutely everyone, saw Spencer “cry” on “TV”—that is, if by “cry” we mean hold his hand to his red face and walk away from the scene of the punch, and by “TV” we mean a video clip uploaded to Twitter. 

The “Everyone say you cry on TV” line has become a meme of sorts.

https://twitter.com/timothycsimons/status/823339573803503616

https://twitter.com/braddybb/status/823338377386655744

https://twitter.com/Yelix/status/823338646635970562

It is almost exhausting trying to think about all the people who saw Richard Spencer cry on TV.

https://twitter.com/crulge/status/823338876483805184

Almost.

https://twitter.com/zachheltzel/status/823339540509171712

https://twitter.com/travishelwig/status/823341316431966208

Ansari has yet to acknowledge to the Spencer’s comment, but we know how he’ll respond if he chooses to do so. 

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*First Published: Jan 23, 2017, 9:49 am CST

Samantha Grasso

Samantha Grasso is a former IRL staff writer for the Daily Dot with a reporting emphasis on immigration. Her work has appeared on AJ+, Vox, Splinter, Los Angeles Magazine, and Austin Monthly.

Samantha Grasso