Comedian Jeff Dye fired back after catching fellow performer Laura Kightlinger scrawling an insult across his Tesla, blasting her conduct as “inappropriate for a 60-year-old” woman.
Dye took to X Monday, where he posted snapshots from video he said was captured by his Tesla’s security cameras showing a fellow comedian he’d performed with writing an insult in the fog on his windshield.
“Performed on a show with a comic I’ve never met. Her name is Laura Kightlinger @KingKightlinger. She seemed nice enough. We didn’t talk and she left before I went up,” Dye wrote, adding, “I’m assuming she didn’t know it was my Tesla she wrote ‘Douche’ on my Tesla. Strange behavior for a 60-year-old adult. Look forward to working with you again.”
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The photos gained traction online, with over 440,000 views. Dye posted a follow-up noting that if he’d written something similar on her car, she would’ve spent the next 3 weeks talking about how ‘women are treated differently in Comedy,’ and how even in her own business she ‘doesn’t feel safe.’”
Kightlinger is a writer and comedian, known for serving as a consulting producer on “Will & Grace” and for having several half-hour specials on Comedy Central and HBO. She appeared to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for President in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Dye is an outspoken conservative, and told Fox News Digital in December that he’s “always been more conservative than my comedic counterparts. I’ve always been way more religious as far as like, I’m a Christian, so that’s not a huge, popular thing in stand-up comedy. I was on the front lines in that way.”
Following Dye’s post on X, Kightlinger posted her side of the story and a photo of the word she wrote on the windshield alongside screenshots of messages she’d since sent Dye.
“I was so annoyed by his taking down of a comic who had just performed I impulsively wrote douche in the fog on his car. The way you’re crying out about it should be embarrassing to tough-guy misogynists everywhere,” Kightlinger responded.
The screenshots reveal she also apologized on social media, calling the decision “impulsive” and noting she should’ve brought her concerns to Dye directly. The messages show Dye arguing the comedian he’d spoken about “can take a joke,” and calling Kightlinger’s actions “childish behavior.”
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He also directly responded to her on X again, adding, “Im not ‘Crying out’. Im simply holding you accountable for your bulls—. I’m also not a tough guy or a misogynist. I’m simply a fellow comedian that didn’t appreciate being called a name. I’d thought you’d understand that.”
When reached for comment, Dye’s management gave Fox News Digital a statement from the comedian, noting his car was not vandalized other than the writing in the fog: “My car was not vandalized and my only motivation in posting the video online was to hold Laura Kightlinger accountable for being an a——.”
“Writing insults on people’s property is a totally expected behavior for fatherless teens but inappropriate for 60 year old women,” Dye added in the statement.
Entertainment reporter and host of the “Hollywood in Toto” podcast, Christian Toto, echoed that sentiment. He told Fox News Digital that the back-and-forth highlights partisan friction in the industry.
“Comedians in recent years, it’s almost like they’re picking sides in a way,” Toto said, later adding that conservative comedians are often used to the criticism.
“When you’re a right-leaning comedian, you expect some blowback. So it’s not exactly unique territory for him,” he said of Dye.
Toto added that while sharp elbows and teasing are standard protocol among comics, in some ways this incident broke traditional boundaries.
“If you’re a comedian, you’ve got all the tools to fire back on stage, on social media or even in person,” Toto said, later comparing that kind of exchange to “trash talking on the NBA court.”
“The fact that she chose a different path, I don’t think that suits her well,” he added.
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Fox News Digital also reached out to Kightlinger’s team for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
