Comedian Suzanne Lambert calls herself a “Regina George liberal”. By that, she means that she’s not afraid to make fun of Trump supporters. “I’ve been thinking for a while now that no one is talking shit about these people,” she says. “It’s always ‘unity and love’, but you can’t have unity and love without fiercely advocating for people who need it, right?” Only she knew that when she finally did “talk shit” about Republicans, as her heart desired, they’d come back and argue that democrats are meant to be the party that leads with kindness. So, she got ahead of it: by calling herself mean, there would be no comeback. This was the theory she tested out in a TikTok video in November 2024. In it, she did her make-up like the MAGA girls in her comments: dusty foundation, blocky eyebrows and clumpy, dry mascara. The video sparked this year’s edition of the “republican make-up” trend – and a conversation on whether liberals need to “get meaner”. 

When I spoke with Lambert on the phone, she was prepping for a political roast show at The DC Improv. “I’m going to be Fauci because we needed a Fauci, and I’m short,” she laughed. “It’s not the usual character I play, but fuck it, I get to do boy make-up.” The 33-year-old is part of a new wave of “dark woke” liberals who want us to fight the Trump administration’s turbulent fires with an “equal exertion of force”. Lambert knows the republican mind because she once was one. She knows how to push their buttons, and for MAGA women, it’s with make-up.

“Y’all’s make-up has been busted for quite some time now, and clearly that’s true, or you wouldn’t be reacting,” she says. “Republican women model their appearance on what will help them specifically appeal to men, but, generally, liberal women have further freed ourselves from that burden.” That’s why – even when TikTokers were transforming themselves into their political alter egos back in 2021 – the “liberal make-up” videos have never spark as much outrage. Women on the left have been called blue-haired cat ladies for some time, so being called “ugly” simply doesn’t hold the same weight. 

As republican women exclaim that “beauty and grace are back in the White House”, Lambert is here to remind them their make-up isn’t blended and their hair is fried. But the purpose goes beyond beauty. “We make them feel stupid for not being the way we are instead of trying to make hateful people be less hateful,” she says. We spoke to Lambert about the left versus right beauty wars, bullying to stop hate (quite the oxymoron) and what it means to be a “Regina George liberal”.

Your November make-up video has really taken off! What were you thinking when filming it, and did you expect that response? 

Suzanne Lambert: Oh, I love it. Making an observation and then having it become a viral phenomenon is what every comedian dreams of. But what really made me start it was the fact that I’ve obviously made a lot of political content, and the MAGA women who get mad about it will leave demeaning comments about my own appearance. Often, it’s in capital letters because they love a caps lock moment. But then I noticed that they all kind of look the same. They look a lot like the people from my hometown in Georgia, which is also largely conservative. Once you see it, you start noticing it everywhere. 

So, what exactly are you noticing when it comes to conservative make-up?

Suzanne Lambert: The hallmark of the republican make-up look is a three-tiered look. It’s the very heavy, thick base that’s always very dry, matte and flat; there’s no dimension or definition. Then, you have eyebrows that are irregularly shaped and often in the shape of various punctuation marks. (They love an upside-down parentheses or a comma.) Finally, it’s thick black eyeliner lining top and bottom with a concealer under their eyes that’s four or five shades lighter than their base.

It’s clear you know your stuff. I saw online that you were once president of The Young Republicans. 

Suzanne Lambert: Yeah, I’m super open about that, but it’s funny because now that’s something that conservative influencers are starting to talk about as if it's some conspiracy or as if I’m actually a Republican pretending to be left-leaning. I grew up in Kennesaw, Georgia, which is a super conservative town. It’s the law to own a gun, and the football coach is the history teacher. You learn everything from a lens of white evangelical Christianity, and I totally bought into that. I campaigned for Romney in college, but once I graduated and got out of the circle I’d always known, I started watching more stand-up comedy. That’s when everything started to shift for me. 

I think it’s probably even more enraging for conservatives because you used to be one. 

Suzanne Lambert: It seems so impossible for them that it reminds me of that quote, ‘When you don’t understand how anything works, everything feels like a conspiracy’. Growing up as a girl from the South, my perception of the Democratic Party was that they were snobby New Englanders who looked down on Southerners, because a lot of them do. There are a lot of insufferable liberals, too. And I’m happy that they’re trying to win the best liberal contest, but I didn’t enter. 

Do you remember what you thought of liberal women back in your Young Republicans days? 

Suzanne Lambert:  I think liberal women are always portrayed by conservatives as just being ugly. I don’t think the blue-hair thing was a trope at that point, but it was mostly piercings, tattoos, pale, greasy, whiny, ugly. I think that’s part of what makes my content resonate: I know exactly what they think about liberal women because I thought it, too.

Is that why you’re mostly coming for white, conservative women?

Suzanne Lambert: I’ve talked shit about men, too, but white women really showed up for Trump this time, right? And I can more effectively communicate with them. The reason why republican women have responded so strongly to this is because, previously, Democrats have been told within the party that we don’t stoop to their level and we don’t talk about appearances. I think we need to get meaner because we can’t afford to be trampled in the name of political correctness anymore. Human rights are in jeopardy; the stakes are way too high.

What would you say to those saying you should be critiquing their character but not their appearance? 

Suzanne Lambert: I would ask what planet they’re on and if they’re also taking the ASMR videos of deporting people at the border to that planet. We can do both: it’s not an either-or situation. Giving valid critiques of their contour and undertones doesn’t come close to the atrocious things they are saying. If they don’t want us to make fun of them for being busted, then they should stop being so busted.

We don’t talk about appearances. I think we need to get meaner because we can’t afford to be trampled in the name of political correctness anymore. Human rights are in jeopardy; the stakes are way too high

Has anyone actually taken your make-up advice, then? 

Suzanne Lambert: I do have conservative women who follow me. Many of the people who make hate comments on my posts follow me. So, there’s a hook that accompanies political comedy. I’ll even have republican women comments to say, ‘This was really funny, and it did make me realise I can do my makeup better, so thank you’. 

Is the goal then to bring these women to the left? How hopeful are you feeling about closing the current political divide? 

Suzanne Lambert: I don’t think reaching a middle ground will happen soon. Frankly, we would need more Republicans and Democrats to have a spine for that to happen. I see Democrats needing to really step up and fight against a tyranny that President Musk and his assistant, Donald Trump, are enforcing on the federal government, and then let’s talk about how we can all get on. But I do think comedy is a way to have people open their minds, or just ears, to different perspectives. 

Your strategy for conservative name-calling seems aligned with the term Harris’s team were using to describe Republicans: ‘weird’. What other word would you propose?

Suzanne Lambert: I wish we had done more of it. I’ve been thinking, and the word I’ve come up with that I really like is ‘nosy’. I think that word is a very emasculating term for a lot of them: they associate it with gossip and femininity. Whether that’s true or not, who cares? We need to translate that to: ‘Why do you care so much what bathrooms people use? Mind your business’. I genuinely don’t think we need to be the party of peace, love and tolerance. What if we’re just the party who doesn’t really give a shit what you do at your doctor's appointment?